Turn with me, if you would, back
to Acts chapter 12. Acts chapter 12. I didn't ask
our brother to read it, but I love this story right here. Some of you may be familiar with
it. The heading at the top of my page says Peter's Imprisonment. and miraculous deliverance. Don't
you love that story? Herod put Peter in prison for
preaching the gospel. But it says in this story that
prayer was made of the church without ceasing. They kept praying
for him and praying for him. And God sent an angel into his
prison cell. And that angel came in and shook
him. Woke him up. And the chains fell off his hands.
And that angel said, follow me. Peter thought he was dreaming,
but he followed him. And they went past the first
ward, past the second ward. They came to a big iron gate.
It opened on its own. They ran out. The angel disappeared. And there's Peter standing in
the street. And he looked around and he said, I think God just
delivered me. I love that story. I love that, but that's not our
message. I had our brother read this chapter,
read from this chapter, because verse 4 is the only time the
word Easter is mentioned in the scripture. One time. And that's what today is. Today's
Easter. This event, Easter, is being
celebrated right now all over this city. It's being celebrated
all over this country. Many parts of the world are celebrating
this today, and for the most part, Men and women have missed it. They've missed it for the most
part. Religion, you know, the world of religion has missed
it. This thing of Easter has become
nothing but a fleshly show. Pageants. Plays, candy, games,
that's all it's become. And the scripture says, things
of that nature in regard to worship. There's nothing wrong with pageants,
and there's nothing wrong with plays, and there's nothing wrong
with candy, and there's nothing wrong with games. But when it
comes to religion, the scripture says that's an abomination. That's what the word says. The
scripture calls it idolatry. And for the most part, men and
women have no idea. I thought about it driving over
here, just reading all the signs. I feel sorry for men and women
that they don't realize from God Almighty that they are entering
into idolatry. Sad, isn't it? The somebody in
the world, somebody made up Ash Wednesday. I'm not sure who.
But somebody made up Ash Wednesday. It's not in the word of God.
That's that's not something that's in the word of God. Somebody
made that up. But they did that so they could
start Lent. Lent is 40 days long. And it is supposed to represent
the suffering and temptation of the Son of God while he was
in the wilderness for those 40 days being tempted of the devil.
He suffered without, he didn't even eat food. You know, and
Satan was tempting him saying, well, why don't you make those
stones bread? And he said, man does not live
by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the
mouth of God. And all those things that he
was tempted with and all those things he suffered. And I wanted
to make it clear. I thought a lot about this intro.
The last thing that I'm trying to be is insensitive or mean. All I want to be this morning
is honest. I believe it's time to be honest, and the reason
is because God's coming back. He's coming back. So I just want
to be honest. But during this thing of Lent,
men and women will give up, you know, supposed to represent this
temptation, and they'll give up things like chocolate or carbohydrates. Want to give up carbs for Lent.
And they do that in the name of worship. It's not worship. That's actually
called a diet. And that's trying to use religion
for self-gain. I'm going to give up carbs for
Lent and come the end of this thing, that's my motivation.
I'll come out the winner. I'll lose 10 pounds. And again,
I'm not trying to be insensitive. Most people don't know. They
don't know. Bless their hearts. They don't
know. Nobody told them. That is not in the Bible. Nowhere in the word of God has
he told us to give up anything like that for 40 days. And why on this earth would we
want to compare anything that we could suffer in this flesh
or be tempted by? Why would we want to compare
anything to the suffering and temptation of the Son of God
Almighty while He was dealing with Satan in that wilderness
for those 40 days? Oh, why? Why? Well, Lent leads us up to Holy
Thursday. That's where it ends. It leads us up to Holy Thursday,
the night of the Lord's Supper, the night in which he was betrayed,
Thursday night. And then the next day is Good
Friday, the day that he was crucified. And then the next day is Holy
Saturday, the Sabbath. Saturday was the Sabbath. That
was a holy day. You know, don't do anything on
the Sabbath. And then after that comes Easter Sunday. Although
Easter is recognized and observed by many, most have missed it. Most have missed it. So I felt
led for us to look at and I titled this message the true meaning
of Easter. The true meaning of Easter. I'm not going to build up to
it. I'm going to tell you what it is right now. I am not. an educated scholar in the Greek
and Hebrew language, but I own a concordance. They have them
at the bookstore. It's wonderful to own. It's a
dictionary that has the definition, the meaning of every word in
this Bible. The New Testament is Greek, the
Old Testament's Hebrew. And you can go into each one
of these words and see the original word in the Greek and what it
meant, okay? The translation for the English
word Easter in Greek is Pascha, P-A-S-C-H-A, Pascha, which means
Passover. Easter means Passover. That's what the word means, Passover. Now, what is the Passover? What is the Passover? Do you
see at the end of verse 3 right here in Acts 12, it's in the
parentheses there, it says, then were the days of unleavened bread. If you have a center margin,
mine next to the days of unleavened bread says Exodus 12. Go with
me over there to Exodus chapter 12. We're going to actually begin
by looking at chapter 11. Exodus chapter 12, or I'm sorry, we're going to
actually start with 11. All through this word, our God is so clear about the
fact that he hates man's sin. That's not a shocker, is it?
It's not a shocker that a holy God would hate sin. He has been
very clear about the fact that He will not let sin go unpunished. He will not sweep it under the
rug. It will not fall between the
cracks. And He said there's only one
punishment for sin. Only one. He said, I'm going
to kill it. That's what He said. I'm going
to kill it. These three words, I want to
kind of slowly emphasize. God kills sinners. Okay? God, this right here is the core
of Easter. You'll see why in just a minute.
This is the heart of Easter. God kills sinners. Now, who are sinners? Every soul in this room, starting with me, all have sinned. I have sinned. I have. I'm very
sorry to disappoint, but I have sinned against God. I've sinned
against the holy God. All have sinned and God God kills
sinners. Okay? God kills sinners. Let's remember that. He said
the wages of sin is death. Because of man's sin and because
of man's hardness of heart, He said in Exodus 11 verse 4, Moses
said, Thus saith the Lord. God told Moses, you tell them
this is what I've said. Thus saith the Lord. About midnight,
will I go out into the midst of Egypt? He didn't say, I'm
just going to send some angels down there and do this. He said,
I'm going to come into the midst of Egypt myself. Verse five,
and he said, all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die. He said, I'm going to kill them. from the firstborn of Pharaoh
that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the
maidservant that is behind the mill, all the firstborn of beast,
and there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt,
such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more."
Dear God Almighty, what is this? What is this? That's the Passover. That is Easter. We are right
now reading Easter. We're reading the Passover. God said, I am coming into Egypt
and Egypt represents a whole world. And this really happened
to represent something to come for every soul. He said, I'm
coming into Egypt and I'm coming to kill man because of his sin. But God made a covenant. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit made a covenant concerning some people that God
decided in His own heart to save. God is good. If a judge, if a bunch of people
went before a judge and one man murdered somebody And he said,
how do you plead? And the man had to say he was
caught. He had to say guilty. And he said, sentence him to
life in prison. They don't do death anymore.
And then somebody else came up and he'd stolen a car. How do
you plead? Well, he's caught. He has to plead guilty. Put him
in jail. Such on and so forth. Would he
step down from the bench and everybody who witnessed that
say, oh, what a mean, hard judge? No. Holy, right, just, good. That's a good judge. What if
a guy came and committed murder and he said, how do you plead?
He said, guilty. He said, we'll let it go this time. Don't do
it again. What a terrible judge. What a terrible judge. He's good. He's holy. He's right. I'm the
sinner. I'm the one who did it. And He
purposed in His heart to save some sinners and have mercy on
some sinners. And this right here was the covenant.
Look at Exodus chapter 12 where the reference took us. Exodus
12 verse 3. He said, Speak ye unto all the
congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month
shall they take to them every man a lamb. You know, it's interesting,
he didn't say a lion, a fighter, strong, you get you a strong
fighter. Or he didn't say every man must
take a snake, representing sin. Or every man must take some kind
of rodent that nobody wants anyway. He said every man must take a
lamb. Listen to this. He didn't even
say a sheep. He said a lamb. A lamb. In order for it to be
a lamb, it had to be less than 12 months old. After that, they're
called yearling sheep. And God said take a lamb. Verse
five, he said, your lamb shall be without blemish. This little lamb must be spotless. He must be perfect. He must be
prized, a prized lamb. He said, you take a newborn,
firstborn, sweet, harmless, innocent lamb. Verse six. And you shall
keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the
whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening." What? What? It was completely harmless. It didn't do anything to anybody. It was so undeserving of that. Why would God allow that to happen
or command that to happen? The answer is that covenant. God instituted the Passover to
show us that covenant. Do we know why Jesus Christ came
into the world? Do we know who He is and why
He came? He is the firstborn, only begotten
of the Father. He is holy. He is harmless. He is undefiled and separate
from sinners. Isn't that what His holy word
says? He is completely innocent. He is completely perfect. He is God's prized pearl of great
price and he came to this world for one reason. God sent a messenger
to prepare his way and that messenger cried, Behold the Lamb of God
which taketh away the sin of the world. Jesus Christ, our Lamb, our sacrifice,
our substitute, cried, for this cause came I into the world.
Can you imagine the children of Israel, the whole congregation?
Moses stood up and he said, thus saith the Lord, God is coming
through here tonight, and the firstborn in every single house
will die. What? He hadn't got to the second
half yet. That was their first reaction. What? Every house? Every house. All have sinned. And then he said, God also said,
that he has provided a substitute for our houses. His people that
look to him and believe on him. You take this innocent lamb And
you kill this innocent lamb. God has provided this substitute
to die in our place. You see, it's all bad news. We're
all in a bad way and God's going to deal with it. But God has
provided a substitute for us. And Christ said, I came into
this world, the Lamb of God, to die for the sin of my people. That's what I came to do. God
said the only way my sinful people can live is if a lamb dies in
their place. That's the only way. If a lamb
does not die in their place, they will die in their own sin.
Christ came and accomplished that death. The Lord said in verse 7, right
here, Exodus 12 verse 7, They shall take of the blood and strike
it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the
house. Everybody needs to see this.
Put it on the door of your house. Verse 12, He said, For I will
pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and
against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am
the Lord, and the blood, the blood of that lamb, the blood
of the substitute shall be to you for a token upon the houses
where you are. And when I see the blood, I'll Easter you. I'll Passover you. And the plague shall not be upon
you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. That's what
Christ accomplished as God's lamb given to us when God killed
him on the cross instead of us. Do you know why Christ died on
the cross of Calvary? It was instead of us. That's what the whole thing was
about. Oh, he died because they hated him for his goodness. They
died because he showed us you got to stand up for what you
believe in. He died instead of us. He died in, you see, well,
I'll get to that in a minute. He said, if you want to rejoice
in and celebrate the Passover, you must have blood. And the
fact of the matter is, today, you know, we're going to gather
together here and we've got a real nice play we'd like to put on
for you. And after that, we're going to be passing out candy
and it's going to be happy. The truth of the matter is, when
God returns, if we all want to rejoice in Easter and celebrate
Easter and thank God for Easter, we must have the blood of Jesus
Christ. That's all there is to it. It
can only be celebrated in the blood of our lamb. And we do rejoice in and through
and because of that blood. I'm rejoicing just as much as
everybody. You know, you come to know the truth of this and
it can kind of make you a little hard and make you a little cynical
and Easter. Oh, thank God for Easter. Oh,
I rejoice because of the blood of Jesus Christ. People say,
well, this is about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it is. It is. But you cannot celebrate the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ without celebrating his
death and burial. And you can't celebrate his death
and burial. I mean, celebrate. without knowing
why he died and why he was buried and what it means for us. You
just can't do it. Now, if God chose to not kill
us because of our sins, if he chose to not kill us, but instead
give us his lamb to be a bloodshed substitute
for us. What does that mean for us? What
does that mean for us? Go with me if you would to Galatians
chapter 2. This is probably the most glorious
thing a sinner could ever say. Galatians 2 verse 20 says, I am crucified with Christ. Do you love that? I died with my lamb. God came through Egypt. He said
blood must be shed in every house. Every house has sinned and God
kills sinners. And that night And more specifically,
what that means, on the cross of Calvary, God killed sinners. I died on a cross in Jerusalem
2,000 years ago. I am crucified with Christ. God laid my sin on his lamb. And when he looked at his lamb,
he saw Gabe Stoniker. He saw the sin and wrongdoing
of Gabe Stoniker. And he hated that sin and he
punished that sin. And he said, the only way to
do it is death. Kill him. Kill Gabe Stoniker. And Christ
died my lamb, my substitute. And now he says, when I see his
blood, because he died as that substitute, when I see his blood
on your door, what's our door? It's not a what our door is a
who Christ said, I'm the door. And when God looks at our door
and he sees blood all over our door, he said, I'm going to pass
over you. If you're in the house of that
door. I'm going to pass over you. You're going to have a Passover.
Every soul in the house that had blood could say death has
already come here. It's already been here. It has
already come to this house. Blood has already been shed in
this house, in our land. God's people died in Christ their
Lamb. God's people were buried in Christ
their Lamb, but it says right here in verse 20, I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. God's people arose in Christ
their Lamb. Now those lambs back in Exodus,
they were just animals. When they died, that was it.
They couldn't actually put away sin. They couldn't actually pay
anybody's debt, but they were all pictures of God's lamb. And God's lamb died, he was buried,
and he arose again. And we do celebrate his resurrection. We do. The reason is because
in his resurrection, we have a resurrection. And it's a reality. It's a reality for God's people.
All of the people that are in Christ will live forevermore. As he lives, so do we. That's a reality for every soul
he passed over. Resurrection and eternal life.
I want to show you this in Matthew 27. Look with me over at Matthew
27. I've always loved this. This
chapter right here, Matthew 27, this is about Easter. God passing over us by slaughtering
His own Son, our Lamb. Verse 50 says, Jesus on the cross,
when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the
ghost. He died. God killed him. And
behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top
to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent,
now watch this, and the graves were opened, and many bodies
of the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after
his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared unto
many." When you first read that, it sounds like they arose right
when he died. That's not the case. It was three
days later, it says, after his resurrection. When life entered
back into him. Life entered into the saints
that were in graves around him. And when he arose, they arose. It was a reality. And I can read
that and I can say, that's so wonderful. I'm so happy for them.
But what about me? That's a wonderful story, and
I believe that happened, but what about us? What about us? If he died for us and if he was
buried for us, what does his resurrection truly mean for us?
I'm going to close with this. Go to 1 Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13 says, But I would not
have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,
that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. Now why does he say that you
sorrow not as others who have no hope? Because he goes on to
say in verse 14, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
those who sleep in Christ, those who sleep in faith, if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so, them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you
by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall not present them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. That's
the reality. That's the actual reality for
every sinner that God made a covenant for. That God provided a lamb
for. And do you know what Revelation
5 says every single one of those saints are doing right now in
glory? You know what they're doing right
now in glory? They are all singing at the top
of their lungs, thou art worthy for thou was slain. and hast redeemed us to God by
thy blood, worthy is the Lamb." Through all eternity, all eternity,
we're going to be crying, thank God there was a Passover. All eternity, thank God Christ
provided an Easter. Thank God. May God put every
single soul in this room in Christ and pass over us. All right,
let's all stand together.