The Detail in the Easter Story Nobody Talks About

Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.

We hope today's message is encouraging to you.

But as they get the Bibles out and as you get your Bibles out,

I need to ask you a question and I want you to ponder it

sincerely for yourself. And it's this how would you live

if you had no more bills to pay? How would you, how would you

feel? What would your life be like if

there was no more debt on on you?

Let's think about this for a second.

I have here the United States debt clock, which is kind of

depressing to look at. It's overwhelming to look at.

It's going to come up any second.

And there it is. This is in real time, $39

trillion U.S. National debt.

You got mortgage debt. You got credit card debt, which

is in the hundreds and hundreds of billions of the trillions of

bazillions of sextillions of dollars, so much money.

What if all of this was wiped out and went to zero?

How would you feel? No more student loans, anybody?

No more car loans. Yep, no more credit card.

You're outing yourself and no more mortgage payments.

I love these videos where a son or a daughter or a child just

pays off their parents mortgage. Have you seen these videos?

I got one for you. Watch this.

It's just precious. Hope you can see it because I'm

kind of in the way a little. More gift for you.

For. Both of you.

Only me and your daddy. It has to be a nice present

because this is special after this.

No, I love you. Yeah, Yeah, you feel it.

I could just end the message with this line.

When the sun pays off the debt, it's pretty amazing.

Amen. Do you feel it?

Can you feel the freedom that this might bring?

What would change in your life? I want you to remember this

feeling as we zero in here to a familiar Easter story that may

have some missing details for you that I want to point out

today because I think it is imperative that we see the

entire Easter picture as it should be seen.

Let's zoom in straight to the crucifixion.

Jesus has been nailed to the cross.

He's been lifted up in front of all people and by him are two

criminals, one on his right and one of those left.

We pick it up in Luke chapter 23, verse 39.

Luke 23:39

If you're ready, say I'm ready. One of the criminals who hung

there hurled insults at him. Anyone heard this story before?

Raise your hand with me. This is the participation part.

You get a trophy at the end. One of the criminals who hung

there hurled insults to him. Aren't you the Messiah?

Save yourself and us, he says. But the other criminal rebuked

him. Don't you fear God, He says,

since you're under the same sentence, we are punished

justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve.

They've earned the cross, but this man has done nothing wrong.

And then he says to Jesus, Remember Me when you come into

your Kingdom. Only kings have kingdoms.

And Jesus answered him, truly. I tell you today you will be

with me in paradise. Even as this criminal is being

put to death on a cross with his last breast.

The criminal recognizes this is the king that's right next to

him. Like, do you got it?

You got it. Have you heard this story

before? Isn't this how we know the

story? There is one criminal who is pro

Jesus and there's another criminal who's anti Jesus.

One's like, yeah, Jesus. The other one's like, Boo Jesus.

Isn't this the way the story goes?

Right. Wrong.

Unbelievable. This is why reading the entire

scriptures matters. When you see what I'm about to

show you, it'll change the way you've seen the story.

At least it did for me and I didn't.

I'm 52 y'all and I read this last year for the first time.

Like what? Right, Here we go.

Matthew chapter 27, verse 44. You don't have to turn there

Matthew 27:44

because I'm going to move quickly.

It says this in the same way the rebels, plural, who were

crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

Mark chapter 15, verse 32, those again plural, crucified with him

Mark 15:32

also heaped insults on him. And so wait a minute, you're

telling me this whole time it was both criminals who were

slandering Jesus? Because I always thought it was

one that was pro Jesus and one that was just like a hard

hearted donkey of a man. That's the story in my mind.

And it's also interesting that both Matthew and Mark use a term

here translated for us as heap or heaping, which means a lot.

I think of mashed potatoes like bunches of globs of globs of

mashed potatoes. Heaps.

Are you following me? Yeah, It would be one thing to

say a side remark to Jesus, like, hey, buddy, I guess you're

a crook too. Just one, but these guys, both

of them kept going on and on and on, as it were, to kick a man

while he's down to rub sand in the wound.

They are verbally abusing Jesus. It's completely rude.

It's an onslaught. And I kind of wish there was a

Matthew chapter 27, verse 44, Part 2.

Matthew 27:44

You know the first part, they're like Jesus, you should save

yourself. And Jesus would be like, you

know what, in three days you'll still be dead, so shut your

mouth. But that's not what he says, and

that's not what Jesus does. It's quite the contrary.

And what Jesus actually says and Jesus actually does changes the

heart of one of the criminals. But I want you to know, it could

have changed the heart of both of them, but only one went from

knowing about Jesus to caring about Jesus.

What happened? Well look up in your scriptures

and we're going to find out what changed the man because he goes

from insulting him to declaring that he's the king.

Luke 23 verse 32. Just look up a little bit.

Luke 23:32

Two other men, both criminals were also let out with him to be

executed. When they came to the place

called the skull, they crucified him there along with the

criminals, one on his right and the other on his left.

And Jesus said, drink this in with your whole soul, Father,

forgive them, for they do not know what they're doing.

This moment, if perceived correctly, should leave us

breathless. What's happening in this scene?

The entire world seems to be gnashing its teeth at Jesus.

You have the mock trial, you have the whipping, You have the

crown of thorns that they beat into his head with a Reed whap.

You have the piercing of nails, you have the onslaught of the

insults, just all of this abuse coming at Jesus, and here he is

full of mercy and resplendent in his grace.

And what does he do? He intercedes for the people.

He's praying to the Father on behalf of the very people who

were torturing him to death. I would have said something

like, Hey, why don't you strike them all dead, Dad?

Just come down and smite them all.

And Jesus says, I'm asking you Lord, to remove the punishment

that is due to them. I would have said something like

avenge me Father. And Jesus says, Father, will you

cancel the day? Will you forgive it all?

And somehow the idea of being debt free, somehow the idea of

his insults being returned with kindness, it changes the heart

of our criminal brother. The criminal thinks what I hope

that you will think today as Jesus speaks these words.

Do you think that that forgiveness is for me too?

Do you think he's praying to the Father for my forgiveness?

So this guy goes from hurling insults to Jesus to turning to

Jesus for salvation, and Jesus clearly accepts.

But here's the thing, this man wasn't just forgiven, but he was

also invited. Jesus says, truly, I tell you,

today you will be with me in paradise.

That's like having your credit card paid off and your mortgage

and your student loans and your car payments, all of that paid

off, and the same person who paid it off then handing you a

check for $100 million. It wasn't just that he was

wiping the slate clean. He was filling the slate with

all of His grace, all the beauty, all the colors of heaven

right there for that man. Here's what I'm trying to show

you today. This man, this criminal, wasn't

just in sin. We've all been there.

He wasn't just living apart from God.

Maybe you've been there, but this man was literally cursing

Jesus to his face. You might say that's kind of the

worst of the worst. I mean, all sin is equal.

All sin ends up in the same place, which is death.

But when you're cursing Jesus to his face and Jesus turns to him

and says, I forgive you and it melts the man.

I wonder if when Jesus said it, he just looked directly at the

criminal. He meant it for everybody, but

his eyes full of mercy just turns to the criminal and says,

Father, forgive him. He doesn't know what he's doing.

First Corinthians 13, a very famous scripture, if you've been

to weddings, it's the love chapter.

When you read of the love, what you're really reading about is

God because God is love. So everything you know about

love is everything you know about God.

And in the middle of First Corinthians 13, we get this

statement that should wreck you in the greatest of ways.

There is no record of wrongs. Somebody ought to say

Hallelujah. Somebody ought to say

Hallelujah. Somebody to Mezzanine ought to

say Hallelujah. Hey, Mezzanine is open at 9:00

AM Hey, that's cool. Yeah.

If you were to take your send resume and hold it in front of

you, what would you see? I mean all the times you lashed

out at somebody, your hand gestures on I-4.

Anger, lust, pride, greed, envy, jealousy, slothfulness, The

things we've said to God in a bad season in our own way,

hurling, heaping insults to God. You take that resume and look at

it. What do you see?

1st Corinthians 13 is trying to make a very clear point to you.

Jesus on the cross to the criminal is trying to make a

very clear point to you. If you could capture this in

your heart, it will change your life forever.

Your sin resume because of the blood of Jesus is 100% blank.

There's nothing there. He has canceled the debt.

Amen. So let's return to our original

question. How would you live if you had no

more debt? The good news in Jesus is that

you have no debt. The good news in Jesus is that

you do not have to pay for the sins that you have committed.

The good news of Jesus is that there's no imprisonment for you

because of the sins, because he's already gone there in your

place. This is the good news.

Jesus is covered it all on the cross in the tomb, now risen

from the dead as the reigning Savior of the world.

How would it feel? I I want to show you another

video first. I showed you somebody getting

their debt mortgage forgiven. What about your sins?

All forgiven. Please watch Jacob's story.

Thanksgiving of 2024 my my dad had been battling throat cancer

for a few years and he told me that it came back and it wasn't

looking like it was going to go away.

This time I cursed God in my mind he was allowing this cancer

to just destroy my father. And seeing him go through the

pain that he did of not being able to eat anymore, not being

able to drink anymore, having to get a feeding tube.

I thought that there is no way that there's this all loving God

that cares about his people. And so I, I just continued down

that path. You know, July 18th, my father

passed away. Then there came a point the

night where my mom had gone back to bed, my wife had gone back to

bed, and I was sitting in the room and looking at his empty

chair and looking at his empty bed.

I, I figured I didn't see the point any of this anymore in the

emptiness of that room. I went completely numb.

Like I don't want to do it anymore.

I started contemplating suicide. I grew up in the church, you

know, so that there, there were certain things I knew from

Scripture, from from the Bible, you know, like the, the

paralyzed man that you know that Christ tells him to pick up his

mat and walk. And the way that I felt

paralyzed in my depression and in that emptiness and in that

space, I, I heard Jacob pick up your mat and walk.

Those words, when they had, when they were told to me, they

resonated with something inside of me from so long ago.

That Sunday, I walked into Illuminate for the first time.

I didn't clean myself up first. I didn't have anything to offer.

I just showed up. And what I found wasn't

judgement, it was forgiveness. Already there, already waiting.

After everything I'd done, Jesus didn't abandoned me.

I don't have it all figured out, but Jesus found me anyway.

Thank you Jacob, love you man. Colossians chapter 2 says this.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

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. 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.

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a

public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the

cross, as it was for the criminal breathing his last

breaths. It's true for us too.

It's never too late. You're not too ruined.

And not only that, you're invited to live in paradise

forever. In God's family.

You can be debt free. Just imagine what that could do

in your life. And I think this is important.

This is where you go from knowing the Easter story to

caring about it. The whole world in general knows

the Easter story. Even if they're not believers,

atheists, agnostic believers in other religions, they know that

on Easter Sunday, the Christians gather in their houses of

worship to honor the one who is sacrifice.

They've heard the story of Jesus in some way, shape or form.

They know the story of Jesus. You may be here today and you

know the story. That's why you're here.

Easter Sunday, I know the story. We go to church.

But when you move to caring about Easter, it changes your

entire life because you realize that Jesus didn't just know you,

but he cares for you to the extent that he went to the cross

so that you wouldn't live with this £10,000 rock of sin and

shame and guilt dragging behind you every day of your life.

All the ways that you've messed up, all the people that you

hurt, the ways that you hurt yourself, the ways that you've

cursed God, dragging them through Jesus with this mighty

machete. Messiah went whack and he

eliminates it all. What could it be like in your

life to live without the shame of the past?

What would it be like for you to be truly forgiven and all the

guilt to be gone? For you to receive the love and

the forgiveness of Jesus could be like Jacob, buried in the

water, raised to new life in Christ, leaving everything

behind in the water, newness of life.

Jesus says not only you free, but you're free indeed, 100%

done through the blood of Jesus. So how does one enter the

Kingdom of heaven? How does one enter paradise?

This is how you enter forgiven. You enter washed in the blood of

Jesus through the forgiveness of Jesus.

Here's a test as we wrap up today.

When you sin, not if you sin, but when you sin, you feel me,

you feel me. You're allowed to talk in

church. When you sin, do you move

towards Jesus or away from Him? When we sin, we often think,

well, I've messed up. I can't go to a holy God or I've

messed up and he's not helping me.

So I'm going to live over here in my sin and my brokenness and

my shame and my guilt. And I kind of get in this spiral

that the only way I can feel better because I'm not going to

God is to continue to do the things that give me temporary

relief but just make me feel worse.

You feel me? Do you feel me?

One criminal kept turning from God in the moment that he could

have been forgiven. The other criminal turned to

God, recognizing His grace and forgiveness.

Maybe you're in here today. Feel like man.

I thought the roof was going to cave in when I walked in.

I thought the place was going to light up, spontaneously combust

because of me, because of how bad and wrong and filthy I am.

That's the mindset of this criminal over here.

Jesus says to you, Father, forgive them.

Cancel it all. So that you will turn to him

like the criminal and say, Remember Me in your Kingdom and

hear Jesus saying to you as he said to me when I was 13 years

old. He said, Tim, you're going to be

with me in paradise. That's the offer for you this

morning. If you would bow your heads,

close your eyes. We bow our heads as a sign of

humility. We close our eyes to focus.

This is not just a religious posture, it has meaning.

I want to ask you this morning, are you running from, are you

running to God? If you've never placed your

faith in Jesus Christ to say God, I receive your forgiveness.

I want to live with you forever beginning now on in the

paradise. The Bible makes it clear all you

have to do is confess with your mouth and believe in your heart

that Jesus is Lord and you will be saved free indeed.

Debt cancelled forever. The sin resume blank, forever

saved from sin, saved from death, saved to the heart of the

Father, saved to God's family. What we're going to do, church,

is every voice is going to pray this together.

And if you're praying this for the first time, then just make

it personal. Every voice repeating after me,

louder than a library, but not at a football game.

Somewhere in the middle. Here we go saying, Father, in

the name of Jesus, I recognize that I am a Sinner in need of a

Savior, in need of forgiveness, and I confess and I believe that

Jesus is Lord, my Savior. He paid the price so that I

could be free. Now Jesus, a little bit more.

Now, Jesus, come live your life in my life, all the days of my

life. Hallelujah, just with your eyes

close, your head bowed here. Just take a moment to speak to

the Lord. Let the Holy Spirit encourage

you. If you prayed that prayer for

the first time, receiving Jesus by faith, you just became a

believer, a Christian. The Bible calls you born again,

once born of the flesh, now born of the Spirit, and this is the

greatest thing you've ever done. I'm going to ask you to do one

thing if you're believing for the first time, one bold thing,

as bold as Jesus's love for you on the cross.

I'm just going to count to 3. And if you've received Jesus

today, I want you to raise your hand as high as it will go up

into the air because our ushers have something they need to give

you today. It's crucial that you receive

this. So on the count of three, raise

your hand 123 anyone believe in Jesus for the first time, nice

and high. Come on, we're celebrating with

you. We see you all the way up here,

all the way here. Any in the mezzanine, we're

moving to you. Any others Today?

All the way over here, we're coming to you.

Right over here, we're coming to you.

Come on, church. Celebrate with me.

Hallelujah. Thanks for joining us today.

We hope God is speaking to your heart through this message.

If you'd like to connect with us, you can text connect to

407-588-0115 or visit Illuminate dot church.

Have a great week.