Easter 2022 : The Perfect Ending
Easter 2022 : The Perfect Ending
Pastor Charlie Weir
The perfect ending redeems the pain of the past, offers hope for the present and points to a promising future.
The components of a perfect ending are equal parts Redemption, Hope, and Promise.
Q: How does redemption work?
A: Redemption leverages one death into much life.
John 12:23-25 23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
I am convinced that we would experience more redemptions if we could release more dead things from our life. It’s not until we end something old that can God begin something new. God always redeems death with life.
Easter: God’s Global Object Lesson - God Finishes What He Starts and Fulfills What He Promises.
John 3:16, 17 “16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Jesus’ death marked our redemption and Satan’s demise.
Colossians 2:13-15 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
The cross looked like an ending to everyone but it was actually Jesus running up the score in a deliberate manner to leave no doubt to the magnitude of the beat down!
Easter: God’s Global Object Lesson - God Finishes What He Starts and Fulfills What He Promises.
Present Hope
It’s Friday! But Sunday is coming!
Luke 24:1-12 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” 8 Then they remembered his words. 9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
It’s hard to believe in perfect endings until you witness or experience one on your own.
“Why do you look for the living among the dead” is one of the most poignant lines in all of scripture. It speaks to our propensity to keep searching for life in dead places and it speaks to God’s ability to produce life out of death.
Resurrections are the best thing God does! And what God did, God still does!
Thessalonians 4:13-18 13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
The Promise
The path for the life God has for you will always come through the death of the life of you are trying to hold onto. The more death you let go of the more life you can hold onto. Let God today!
The Promise
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.