2014 Easter Sunday: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 And uh this morning we want to know what happened, what it means to us, why it’s important, and uh we want to hear from God’s word this morning. It’s very important, so we thank you for joining us this morning. It starts in Matthew 27. Bible says that there were a whole band of soldiers, not just a few, not just four or five, a whole band. And when I looked up the word in the Greek, the band, it could possibly be hundreds of soldiers, maybe not, I don’t know, I didn’t do enough study, but if there were hundreds beating Jesus, that’s a horrible thing. There were. Now this is what they did to him. The Bible says that they scourged him. They took the whip of the cat-o’-nine-tails, the tails, the the whip had at the end of it gl— pieces of glass, pieces of bone, pieces of things that just would rip the flesh right off of Jesus Christ, rip the flesh right off of anybody that they whipped. And they began to do that to Jesus over and over.

▶ 1:11 The Bible says, I’ll show you at the end of this slide, that they drove a crown of thorns under his head. They mocked him. You know, the the thing was he was, he was called the King of the Jews, so of course the Romans, they didn’t want another king. they That was a threat to them, so they really beat up on this King of the Jews. They made a crown of thorns, put it in his head, they spat on him, they bowed the knee before him mocking him. They beat his head in with the staff. They gave him a staff, they gave him a robe to wear in the crown of thorns, and they bowed before him. Then they took that staff and they started beating him in the head. Jesus Christ, he had bumps all over his head. The Bible says they plucked his beard. And this is all just, this is the Easter story, you guys all know about it, and they delivered him up to be crucified.

▶ 2:11 And the Bible says in Isaiah 52:14 that his face and his whole appearance was marred, disfigured more than any man, it says, and his form beyond that of the sons of men. Jesus Christ went through the most horrific, horrible beating in all the world. Isaiah tells us that it was more disfigurement and scarring that any man suffered. When that whip went off on his back, you know, they just didn’t stop. There wasn’t a number they stopped it. They just kept going, and he bore that pain and that punishment for us, of course, as you know. And the blood of Jesus started to flow as they began to whip him, as they put put the crown of thorns on him. The blood started to flow from his face, all down his body, and we know that that blood is the key. It’s most p— it’s very powerful. It’s the blood that allows us to be forgiven from sin. It covers our sin, and we need that blood. His blood is so powerful.

▶ 3:25 And before they put him on the cross, they took his garments and they cast lots for him. You guys all know the story. That was a prophecy that was supposed to be fulfilled. But you guys got to understand here, they took his garments, they stripped him. He didn’t have any clothes on. It’s embarrassing. He bore this embarrassment for us. He was naked on the cross. They put him up and everybody saw him, all of the people that were following him, the disciples that were there, John, Mary the mother. He was naked. That’s embarrassing. And they crucified Jesus. In Matthew 27:45 it starts, it says, from the 6th hour to the 9th hour, or from 12:00, that’s noon, like noontime is normally when the sun’s at its highest point, from noon to 3:00 p.m. there was darkness over the whole land.

▶ 4:21 Now that’s, of course, a miracle, because there’s the sun’s supposed to be out, but God was doing something. So there was darkness over the whole land. They could see each other, but there was darkness, and it wasn’t smoke, it wasn’t an eclipse. God brought darkness. And at 3:00 p.m. Jesus gave up his spirit. The Bible says that no man could kill him. He had to give up his spirit. He had to let go. That’s important to understand. You see, nobody could come up and kill Jesus. If somebody cut off his arm, he could just put it right back on, healed it, and went on his way, cuz he’s God. Nobody could kill him. And as soon as he gave up his spirit, the earth quaked. The veil of the temple, you got to understand, the veil separated the holy of holies from the holy place. The holy of holies was the place where you could come and meet with God, and you could all you had to be a certain person. You had to be a priest to go into that holy of holies. And God, not a man, he ripped it from the bottom, the top to the bottom, he ripped it in two.

▶ 5:36 Fulfilling the new covenant. The new covenant that says that all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. I don’t have to go through the pastor, I don’t have to go through the priest. I can come to Jesus Christ myself. I can talk to God. If I follow the pattern of the temple, if I come before him with thanksgiving and praise and go to the holy place, and through the holy place to the holy [unclear], I can meet with Christ myself. The Bible says in Second Peter, or 1 Peter 2:9, that we are a special people, a holy priesthood. See, when we accept accept Christ, we become a priest. we We can go in and we can meet with him ourselves. That’s very powerful. God’s fulfilling his covenant that he set in Ezekiel and Hebrews. Bible says that the rocks split. They’re standing there as Jesus, when he gave up his spirit, the rocks all around just split open. A lot of you guys know this rock right here, this huge rock, it would split when Jesus died. A miracle, of course. The graves, the Bible [unclear], were open, and the people in those graves did not rise until Jesus first rose, because he was the first one to rise. Now this is important.

▶ 7:01 Because God wasn’t sitting there alone on the cross. There were people watching and seeing these things, and you guys need to know that the Bible isn’t full of baloney. These are witnesses. These are people writing these records down. And in Matthew 27:54 it says, now, in “the centurion, and they that were with him.” You see, these men were quite possibly the men that were whipping him, the men that were beating him. When they saw all these things, when they saw the earthquake, he says that they were watching Jesus. They weren’t going around on doing their own thing. They were watching Jesus, and it says they saw the earthquake, they saw these things that were done, they saw the rocks split, they saw the darkness covered the land, and they began to fear in their hearts, saying, “What have I done? I just I just whipped Jesus. I just I just beat him over the head.” What if they feared greatly, saying, “This was the Son of God.” And here you have it. These people were not people that were writing the scriptures. They were just there seeing all this happen, and they were convinced in their heart this is the Son of God. Amazing.

▶ 8:28 And God wanted wanted to reach them. God wanted to reach those guys who whipped him, who took him out, who beat him over the head, who put the crown of thorns on him. You see, they were trying to suppress a king of the Jews. They didn’t know he was God until now. And fear fell upon them, and we know that many soldiers turned to Jesus. So let’s bow our heads this morning, and we just want to pray and thank Jesus this morning for his blood. Lord Jesus, we come before you this morning and we thank you for the blood that you shed on the cross. Lord Jesus, your blood covers all sin. God, your blood has no boundaries. God, there’s nothing that you cannot do with your blood. It is so powerful, God. Lord Jesus, we thank you for the cross, and Lord Jesus, we ask that you touch us with your blood and touch us with your spirit this morning. Amen.

▶ 9:31 Amen. Now that was just a review. We want to know what happened, and this morning we have a special message, and this message is titled “God Bless You.” I was going to sneeze and have somebody say “God bless.” Now I want to ask the question, what blessing, what blessing of God is for all people, all nations, all ages, all stages of life, no matter where you’re at? The Bible says that there’s a blessing. Is it prosperity? Now we know that, a lot you know, God cares about the whole world, and a lot of the world lives in poverty. Are Are we more blessed than them because because we’re, you know, we have more money in America? No. Is it miracles? Is it healings? We find this blessing in Acts 3:26. When God raised up his servant, it says his servant is Jesus, is talking about, he sent him first to you to bless you, and it says, by turning turning each of you from sin, from wicked ways.

▶ 10:55 And we want to learn this morning, you know, some of us might look at that, or some people look at that and they say, “That’s not a blessing. I don’t understand. What do you mean?” But we want to learn this morning why turning from sin is a blessing. And he does this blessing. He uses this. He said to Martha in John 11:25, he said to her, “I am the resurrection, I am the life, and he that believeth in me, though he were dead, dead shall live.” And this is an important, me I’m going to read it one more time: “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, shall live.” And this is important to remember. I’m going to show you in this next story, and I’m sure you guys have heard the story of Lazarus. If you haven’t, you’re going to hear it now.

▶ 11:50 And there was a man, Mary and Martha’s brother, whom Jesus knew, and he died, and Jesus purposely waited till he died before he came and visited. He waited till Lazarus got sick. He knew that Lazarus was sick, but he stayed where he was at. He didn’t come to where Lazarus was. He waited till he died, and Lazarus had been in the tomb and he was dead for 4 days. And Martha says to Jesus, “By now his body stinks. Why didn’t you come and heal my brother?” And of course Jesus says, “I am the resurrection, I am the life.” Now Jesus goes to the tomb. He asks him to open the door and he says, “Lazarus.” He cried out, he shouted, “Lazarus, come forth,” and Lazarus came forth. The Bible says he was bound hand and foot. He was bound in grave clothes. His face was bound. He couldn’t see. But Jesus Christ brought him, raised him to life, and this is not just a miracle.

▶ 13:00 He also said, “Loose him and let him go.” And this story is not just a miracle. It’s not just a healing. It’s not just an event, uh, some miraculous work. It’s a message this morning. We’ve got to understand that when Jesus called to Lazarus and said, “Come forth,” he’s talking about sin, coming out of sin. In Romans 3:23, the Bible says, or 6:23, it says that the wages of of sin is death. And you see, sin will kill our spiritual man. When when when sin is in control of our life, it kills our spiritual man. And you see, Jesus wants to call, he’s crying out to you, he’s saying, “Come forth. I can bring you out of sin. I can raise you up. I can raise your spiritual man up from the dead. I can do that for you. I can change you. I can loose you from the bondage that is holding you together.” You see, Lazarus was bound. He was in the tomb. There is no way for him to get out. But there was one way: Jesus Christ. And that is a powerful, the powerful message of his resurrection, that though we were dead in trespasses and sins, though we are, you know, were bound by sin, Jesus Christ can come and he can loose us and set us free from that.

▶ 14:30 A man named Zacchaeus. He was a rich man. He was the chief tax collector. He was, he had everything, so he thought. The Bible says he was a thief, he was a liar, and of course we know he was a bad example to his kids. He’ come home, and he’s a thief, he’s a liar, and he’s home. You know, if I knew my dad was doing that, sorry, Dad, I wouldn’t have much respect for you, but he was rich. And Zacchaeus went and climbed up the tree when Jesus was coming into town. He climbed up a tree because he was short. He climbed up a tree because there was a crowd and he wanted to see Jesus. He was searching for something. And when Jesus came to his spot where the tree was, he said to Zacchaeus, “I must abide at your house.” Thank you. And as soon as Jesus said that, the people all around the community, they knew that Zacchaeus was a jerk, they knew he was a sinner, and they said, “He’s going to go to this guy’s house? He’s a sinner, he’s an idiot. Why is Jesus going to go? The Son of God’s going to go to his house? Why does it come to my house?”

▶ 16:04 And Zacchaeus, when Jesus arrived and came into his house, he responded and he said, “I give half.” You, I mean, I don’t even know if they had a conversation. Jesus just comes in his house and Zacchaeus is just, “I got to get, I need, I need Jesus.” He just says, “I give half of my goods to the poor, and whoever I stole from, I restore four times as as much as what I stole.” You see, and Jesus Christ, he said, “Salvation has come to this house.” You see, Zacchaeus, he didn’t just meet the blood, he met Jesus, the resurrection, like it says in John 11, it says, “I am the re resurrection.” Zacchaeus met the resurrection. He was changed inside. His heart was convicted, and he said, “I need to change.” And he didn’t give up everything. Don’t read this wrong, okay? It doesn’t mean you got to become poor, all right? People think that they got to be poor to live for Jesus. He, you know, if he had $5 million, he gave up half, he had 2.5 million. If he had to pay four times back, probably $500,000, he still had $2 million. Okay? And he still get he can still live for Jesus. Of course, if you only had 2 million, I’m sure you’d only have $500,000, you know, but that’s all right. He’s still got some money. He can still provide for his family. He can still live honestly. Right? Amen.

▶ 17:39 And one more, of course, Mary Magdalene. The Bible says that she was set free from seven demons. Doesn’t tell you the whole story about it. It just says that Jesus came to her and set her free from seven demons. And I know a lot a lot of us in America, not a lot of people are possessed with demons, you know, we don’t hear about that a lot. Other countries it’s so, you know, but we don’t need to be possessed by demons. We’re we’re full of ourselves. Okay. Mary, in Matthew 27:55 it says that she was there at his crucifixion. She was there when Jesus died. She was there looking at him with at at the cross with Mother Mary, Mary the mother of Jesus. She was there at his burial when Joseph of Arimathea went and got the body. He said, “I want to bury the body.” She went with him and she was there at the burial, seeking Jesus. She wanted to be with Jesus. You know, it just, it, she was there at his resurrection, the first person to see Jesus Christ, because she believed, she cared about Jesus. She was there in the morning, early in the morning. She ran down with Mary the mother of Jesus, and they were and she saw the angel descend, she heard the earthquake. The Bible says an angel descended, the earth shook, and the people that were guarding the tomb became like dead men because the angel was just really awesome.

▶ 19:29 And Mary was there, and she she went up to the gardener and said, “Sir, do you know where Jesus went? Do you know where Christ is?” And the gardener turned to her and said, “Mary.” And it was Jesus Christ, and she said, “Master.” You know, she was seeking Jesus. She was looking for him. She accepted the blood. She let God bury her sin, and she was there at the resurrection saying, “Jesus, I need your res resurrection. I want you to pull me out.” Now I want to look back at this scripture in Acts 3:26. “He sent him to bless you by turning each of you from your sins.” I am so thirsty. I’ve been singing. I haven’t had anything to drink this morning. It’s killing me, killing me. Nice jug of water. Here. How many know water is the most important thing we have on this planet? How many know we need it to survive? Amen. Oh man, that’s good. Oh, that’s good. Wow.

▶ 21:00 Now I’m going to take some Windex here. Not really sure what this will do to you, but uh, you know, we got sin here. We take a little sin. Going to start small. Oh, there we go, turning a little blue. You guys want me to now? Do you think I want to drink this? No. You know, to do. Sh— how about that? Now we start out pure, especially when we come to Jesus and we accept Jesus Christ, his cross, his blood. His blood covers us, it changes us, it purifies us, and we start out like this, but then we put all the sin back into our lives. I read the labels. They say you’re not supposed to mix the chemicals, so for sake of not wanting to get sick, so here we are again. We’re pure again. Of course, there’s a little Windex residue, and this, sexual immorality, or other name for it, is drain opener. Oh, I don’t even know what’s going to happen. I didn’t test this out. Now does anybody want to drink this? No. This stuff from right here will kill you.

▶ 22:35 Now let’s say I mixed all of these things together. I’ve got Lime-A-Way, I’ve got something else over there. Oh, toilet bowl cleaner, lying, or other otherwise known as lying. And you mix that all in, and from what I’m read from what I read, when you mix all these things together together, the fumes become toxic. And, oh well. I think we get the picture. We start out clear, we start out clean, we start out pure, but then we let the sin come back into our lives, and the people that are closest that partake of our lives, like our family or the our spouse, they’re the ones that have to partake of us, H and it affects them. You see, we’re hurting ourselves and we’re hurting the people close to us. And when we mix everything in, just imagine, I’m putting Windex, the drain opener, Lime-A-Way, lying, otherwise known as lying, cheating, stealing, natural science tells us that you it becomes toxic, a toxic fume, so anybody come in, cont you’re just, you’re hurting people. So how many know you’re not a blessing? And the scripture is true in Acts 3:26: “He sent him to bless you by turning each of you from your sin.” And Jesus Christ, I was going to get the hose connected to our 10,000 gallon sorry 10,000 gallon well, our well that keeps filling up, but it’s going to leak and all that, so just use your imagination here.

▶ 24:44 I got the sin in my life there, yucky, so Jesus comes and we need the resurrected Savior to keep pouring inside of us, to keep cleaning us out. We need the resurrected Savior to keep purifying us, and pretty soon there’s so much of Jesus in us it flushes everything else out. See, G that’s what Jesus Christ wants to do. He wants to flush out the junk so that we can be a blessing to our family and a blessing to our community. In Corinthians 6, verse 9, uh, you got you know, I’m sure you’ve read the list of sins. The Bible says the unrighteous shall not her inherit the kingdom of God. This is Paul writing to the church, but the powerful thing of this scripture is that it says at the bottom, of “such were some of you.” And you see, he’s talking to the church and he’s telling them, some of you used to be alcoholics, some of you used to be liars, you know, some of you used to be sexually immoral, but I brought you out of that. I, by the power of my resurrection, brought you out of those things. And this morning, that’s the message we need to remember. He died on the cross, as you guys as as we went through, and that blood covers. We need that blood. That blood is so powerful. But we need his resurrection too. you can’t we We want Jesus on the cross, we want him in the grave, and we got to have Jesus the resurrected Savior, the one who can pull us out of our sin.

▶ 26:33 Like Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” If you understand what it says in Romans 6:23, that the wages of that sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Bible says in 1 John 1:9 that if you confess with your mouth and admit that you’re a sinner, he is faithful and just to forgive you of your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. And pray this prayer with me: Lord Jesus, I accept you into my heart. I admit I am a sinner. I commit myself to doing the things that are right and leaving the man of sin. Thank you, Jesus, for cleansing me and forgiving me. Amen.