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What is Easter All About?

Dr. Dave M. Hartson
Bala Chitto Baptist Church
March31, 2002
Introduction
What is Easter all about? If you have gone to any type of super center, you would think Easter is all about candy. If you have gone to any department store, you would think Easter is about new clothes. If you have gone to any park or even any church grounds you would have thought that Easter is about Easter Egg hunts for the little ones.

Those are all part of Easter but not the most important part. In our two passages of Scriptures this morning three different sets of people remind us that the most important part of Easter is remembering Jesus. The angels said, “Remember how he told you.” The women who came to the tomb said that they remembered his words. And the Apostle Paul tells Timothy to remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead. All three said the most important part about Easter is remembering Jesus.

So I needed to explore the connection of Easter and remembering Jesus. And I believe as I studied these two Scriptures passages that it told me what I am to remember about the connection between Easter and Remembering Jesus.

Body
1. Because of the connection between Easter and remembering Jesus I am to see that morning as unique.
2Timothy 2:8-remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead.

A. As we get older our memories fail us a little bit, but usually we will remember the unusual. The commonplace things we might forget. For example back in the early 1980’s Anne and I took our friends Brian and Kerri on their anniversary to the Top of the Marriott in New Orleans and we ordered from the menu every flaming dessert that they made. I remember it to this day because it was unusual. Now I can’t tell you what I wore to church two weeks ago or what I had for supper two weeks ago because that is the usual day-to-day stuff we forget.

B. Paul is telling us the events of Easter are so unique that we should never forget them. This was no ordinary Sunday. No one else has been raised from the grave to live every more. How can we forget Easter it is so unique. No Sunday before it has ever been like it nor any Sunday after it has been quite like it.

2. Because of the connection between Easter and remembering Jesus it reveals to me that the person who died on the cross was the God-man.
2 Timothy 2:8-Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the death, descended from David.

A. Paul is saying that this was no usual person who died on the cross that Good Friday. He was certainly all man, He was a descendant of David but He was also the Christ, God incarnate. He was 100% God and 100% man.

B. Do I understand that? No, but the resurrection provides that to me because I knew that no man could rise of His own from the grave. He had to be God.

3. Because of the connection between Easter and remembering Jesus it makes what Jesus tells me believable.
Luke 24:7- the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.

A. If you would tell me the most far- fetched thing you could tell me and it comes to happen just exactly like you say, I would believe that everything else you say would happen like you say. For example, if you told me that tomorrow on the stock market the Dow Jones Industrial Average will rise by 32.33 points and it happens, you know what you will have my attention when you say something else.

B. Jesus said that he was going to rise from the dead on the third day and He did exactly that. You know what, He got my attention for whatever else he would say. If He can do the most unique thing I can think of, why would I not believe that He could not do anything He says.

4. Because of the connection between Easter and remembering Jesus it makes the bad times I go through in life bearable.
2 Timothy 2:8-9…this is my gospel for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal.

A. Paul is saying that I am going through some tough times in my life right now and He is saying that Easter makes them bearable.

B. Look how Paul says that in vs. 12-If we endure; we will also reign with Him.

C. Listen, every one of us in this room will go through tough times in our life. Knowing Jesus Christ can make those bad times bearable. If in the bad times, I know that there is something good on the other side it has to make the bad times bearable.

5. Because of the connection between Easter and remembering Jesus it makes telling others that much more important.
Vs 10 Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus.

A. We are told in the Bible that it is our responsibility to tell others about Jesus Christ. Jesus spent His earthly ministry of three years preparing the disciples to tell others about Him.

B. The fact that Jesus rose from the grave makes that telling of others so much more important because it tells us that death does not settle it. With death, it is not over. Since Jesus rose from the grave there is eternal life and since there is eternal life there is also eternal death.

C. Don’t give up on your praying for and sharing with family and friends because of the connection between Easter and remembering Jesus makes it so important that we share the Gospel.

Conclusion
What is Easter all about? Simply put it about remembering Jesus. The uniqueness of that day, the uniqueness of the person, the assurance of what He says, the belief that something better exist and the urgency to tell others.