What if There Were No Easter ?

What is Easter? Most of us know that Easter is MORE than just EGG-HUNTING, BUNNY RABBITS and putting on the spring dress with its matching hat, but the real question is how much more is it? Easter is also MORE than just the OTHER day other than Christmas where proclaiming Christians feel like they are obligated to attend church. So, how much more is Easter? Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ from the dead. Many people that claim to be Christians celebrate Easter and know the story of Easter, but some of them may not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Many people feel that the story of Easter on Christ' resurrection is only a sweet story about hope, almost like the story of Snow White, where finally good wins over evil. Most people ACCEPTED the story of Easter, but when it comes into BELIEVING that "Jesus is alive!" and the promise of the resurrection of the dead, then the doubt begins. How can anybody that has died be risen again? When I die, will I be risen again? What kind of a body will I have? Sure, the Bible said that the dead will be risen again, but should I believe that LITERALLY? Do you believe that those Christians that have died (e.g., our father, our mother, our friends that have died) will TRULY be resurrected (i.e., bangkit kembali) with new bodies? They were dead, buried and they will be risen from the dead. Do you know that you can not be a Christian WITHOUT believing in the resurrection from the dead? In fact, there is no Christianity without the resurrection from the dead. The whole Christian faith is founded on the fact that Jesus is resurrected and we will be resurrected too.

DAY 2 - JESUS IS LORD, LIAR or LUNATIC Yesterday we see that we celebrated Easter because Christ has risen from the dead. Who is this Christ that He can conquer death? Jesus claims to be God. Over and over again in the Bible, Jesus claims that He is God. C.S. Lewis, who was a professor at Cambridge University wrote, "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus, "I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." Yes, many people accept the fact (or can not deny the fact) that Jesus is a great, compassionate, and kind person, a great moral teacher, but many people can not accept that He is Lord. If He is not the Lord Himself, then he can not be risen from the dead. Now, we are going to look at the analysis that is summarized from the book "Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell." There are two benefits for going over the following exercise. It will strengthen your Christian faith, and in addition, this analysis may equip us in "always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have (I Pet 3:15).", for sharing our faith to other people. Jesus himself claims that He is God (Mark 14:61-64 among many other verses). We have two alternatives: either His claim of being God is true or false. Let us assume that Jesus' claim to be God is false. Then, one possibility is that Jesus lied. Jesus lied to his disciples, to his parents, to his church, to his government and to his people. If Jesus lied, then he is not a good person, he is not a moral teacher. Another alternative suggests that Jesus is a lunatic. He actually believed that He is the Son of God, even though He is not. He deceives himself into believing that He is the Son of God. If this is the case, then again, Jesus can not be a good moral teacher, he is simply a crazy and mad man. Since Jesus himself made the claim that He is God, then either He is a LIAR (i.e. a bad man), He is a LUNATIC ( i.e., a mad man) or He is LORD (i.e., a God man). A man who was merely/only a man and said the sortof things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. On the other hand, if His claim is true, then Jesus is more than just a good moral teacher, but He is most of all is LORD. Now, if He is Lord, we have two choice: (I) we can either ACCEPT Him (II) or we can REJECT Him. Which one will our choice be? If we can ACCEPT that He is Lord, then it is not hard for us to believe thatsince He is Lord, He can be risen from the dead.

DAY 3 - WHAT IF Now, we are going to play the "What if" game. "What if" there were no Easter. That means "What if" there were no resurrection, Jesus Christ was not resurrected from the dead. Now, if there were no Easter, what does that mean? Actually, Paul plays this "What if "game a long time ago. In I Cor 15, he recorded "What if there were no resurrection from the dead." What if there were no resurrection from the dead? I. If there were no RESURRECTION, then the Christian message is USELESS. I Cor 15: 14 "If Christ has not been resurrected from the dead, then our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead." Christian preaches that there is HOPE after death. That is the center of the Christian hope. This life on earth is only a temporary life. We will die, but then we will be risen into eternity. That is the hope that Christians preaches. If there is no resurrection, then there is no hope. That means that after we die, then we die. Death is the FINAL destination and there is no hope beyond death. II. If there were no RESURRECTION, then the Christian faith is FOOLISH. I Cor 15:17 "If Christ has not been resurrected from the dead, then your faith is futile (foolish); you are still in your sins." The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). If Christ can not conquer death, then the forgiveness of sins that He promised is foolish. Because Christ can conquer death, then His promise that our sins will be washed white as snow is valid. Moreover, death has lost its sting. If there is no resurrection, then Christians do not have a story about DEATH. We won't have an answer to "Where will we go after we die? Does life end when we die?". Thank God, that Christians do have an answer to death. We'll discuss this some more tomorrow.

DAY 4 - WHAT IF (continuation) Let us continue the "What if" discussion from I Cor 15. What if there were no resurrection from the dead? I. Our message is USELESS II. Our faith is FOOLISH III. If there were no RESURRECTION, then our FUTURE is FINAL. I Cor 15:20 "Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." There is nothing that is for SURE or for CERTAIN in this life. Do we know for sure (100%) that we will live tomorrow? We can say most likely we will live tomorrow, but still we can not know for sure. Do we know that we will not loose our job tomorrow? Well, there is nothing in this world that we can know for certain. But there is one thing that is for SURE will happen. It happens 100% of the time. It happens 1 out of 1. That means that every person for sure will experience it. The thing that is for SURE will happen in death. Every person will die. We may survive one surgery, one stroke, one accident, but eventually every person will experience death. It is foolish for us to not find the answer to this question about life. Where will we go after we die? In day 2 of this week, we have discuss that Jesus can not be a mere man, and be a good moral teacher. Since Christians do believe that Jesus is Lord (instead of a liar or lunatic), then Christians also believe that our Lord is risen from the dead. With His resurrection comes an assurance that He can conquer His own death and He can conquer our death. He can deliver us from death and give us an eternal life. This promise is only there for those that believe in Christ. Therefore, if you have not accepted Him as your Savior, maybe today is the day.

DAY 5 - There was one young man in Spain that said he wanted to explore the ocean to see if there is "MORE BEYOND". Spain believes that "no plus ultra", that means there is nothing beyond. Christopher Columbus, the young man, took his ship and sailed to search if there is more beyond. He found what we now call America. He came back to Spain and tell them that there is "MORE BEYOND". Because of him, now Spain changed the "no plus ultra" to "plus ultra", there is MORE BEYOND. There was another young man too. His name is Jesus. He went to the place of the dead and he came back to life. He came with a message that there is "MORE BEYOND" this life. Yes, there is more beyond this life. Our life here is only temporary. Jesus, who is Lord, has proven to us that He can conquer death and He will deliver us from death. This is why we can rejoice on Easter Sunday. This is why there is Easter. This is the real meaning of Easter. An old pastor suffers from some muscle disease and in his old age he lost his voice. He could not use the muscle that he needed to make sound (speech). On Easter Sunday, he wrote on his notebook, "It is tragic to wake up on Easter Sunday and not able to shout "Jesus is Alive!"". But his note did not end there, he continued, "It is more tragic to wake up on Easter Sunday and have a voice, yet do not shout "Jesus is Alive!"" Friends, we (Christians) have hope because Christ is risen. Therefore, rejoice for the fact that we have the hope of eternal life and death has been conquered!

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Disclaimer
This material is a summary of the message that was preached by Pastor
Jack Graham at Prestonwood Baptist Church.  The writer of this EBS
(Electronic Bible Study) made some changes and added some personal notes
that is necessary to customize this material into an electronic media, a
daily reading material and to better fit the audience.
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