Easter Sunday - The Divine Irony

You can turn your Bibles to the book of John while we let them

transition. That's in the in the right hand

side of your Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke and then John.

We'll take you to John Chapter 11.

John 11 · chapter mention

I'm going to take you to multiple passages this morning.

Typically for those who are are used to hearing my preaching,

you know that we typically go verse by verse.

So we've been going through the book of Matthew for a year and a

half at this point, verse by verse.

We're not in a hurry. And then we just keep walking

through it. Today we have what's kind of

what you would call more of a topical sermon.

So the title for my note takers is The Divine Irony, and I'm

going to take you to multiple passages.

The Easter story is full of irony.

Irony is when something turns out the opposite of what you

expected it to be and what you had planned for it to be.

It's when someone tries to do one thing, but they end up doing

the very thing that they were trying to avoid.

That's ironic. The people thought that they

were stopping a threat by killing Jesus, but they were

actually fulfilling A prophecy. And today we're going to see

multiple of the divine ironies that take place in the

resurrection story. So here in John Chapter 11,

John 11 · chapter mention

we're going to read from verse 45.

Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen

what He did, believed in Him. What He did, by the way, was

raising Lazarus from the dead. But some of them went to the

Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the counsel

and said, what are we to do? For this man performs many

signs. If we let him go on like this,

everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and

take away both our place and our nation.

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year,

said to them, You know nothing at all.

Nor do you understand that it is better, nor do you understand

that it is better for for you that one man should die for the

people, not that the whole nation should perish.

He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest

that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation,

and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the

children of God who are scattered abroad.

So from that day on, they made plans to put him to death.

Lord, we thank you for Your Word, and I pray that you will

bring light and revelation as we continue to look into it today.

The Bible is awesome. The Bible is exciting because it

tells your story, the greatest story, the only story, the story

that we're all a part of, whether we chose to be or not.

And Lord, you invite us into it by Your grace and by your power.

Glorify your name through the preaching of Your Word.

Deliver faith to the hearer and bring whatever is needed.

Encouragement, correction, rebuke, healing, forgiveness.

You're fit for the task. Holy Spirit, we trust you for it

all in Jesus name, Amen. So isn't it interesting what

Caiaphas says, what he points out here, he says it is better

for you that one man should die for the people and not that the

whole nation should perish. This guy prophesied.

This is so interesting. So remember, we got Pharisees

and Sadducees, both Jewish leadership types, Together.

They form what's called the Sanhedrin.

So remember, Rome is ruling over everybody.

They've kicked everybody's butts all over the place, but then

they kind of let you have your subculture underneath them and

they go, hey, y'all are Jews. You can do your Jewish stuff.

But we are the real authority here.

We are the sword. You can have your religion.

So then the Jews, they have their infighting.

Well, we're the Pharisees. We believe things like this.

They would be more conservative in their theology.

And then you got the Sadducees. These guys wouldn't believe in

the afterlife. They don't believe in the

supernatural. But a Sadducee actually is

appointed that year to be the high priest.

That's Caiaphas. So Caiaphas is the high priest.

You see him in the book of Acts as well.

He's the same high priest that they're dealing with in the book

of Acts who's persecuting the church still, even after he

knows about the resurrection of Jesus.

Just a reminder for you, people don't need more evidence.

The gospel alone is the power to persuade and to cut people to

the heart. But Caiaphas, under the

inspiration of the Holy Spirit, somehow, someway in the

sovereignty of God, prophesied earlier that year that Jesus,

well, how do they know about Jesus?

Because everybody know about Jesus for three years.

Jesus doesn't have a following of 12.

Jesus has a following of thousands and thousands and

thousands. Yes, the 12 are close, but all

of Israel knows what's going on. You know somebody who knows

somebody who Jesus healed, you know somebody who's heard Jesus

preach, you know somebody who knows somebody who saw a

miracle. If you've been around Israel for

the past three years, you know all about this.

Each year Jesus would have come into Jerusalem.

This is the, this is the tradition.

This is the Passover. But this year, of course, was

different. All week long, Jesus has been

causing a stir. He has been going nuclear on

everybody on false doctrine and glorifying himself and telling

people finally who he is in preparation for himself to go to

the cross. And Caiaphas had prophesied.

Jesus is going to die so that we all don't have to.

Caiaphas, you don't know how right you are.

But that's not how Caiaphas meant it.

Caiaphas didn't mean Jesus going to die for our sins.

Caiaphas meant Jesus is going to lead a rebellion, which many

people had done before against the Romans.

OK, it's kind of the cool Jewish thing to do.

Like, who's going to be our next leader to lead US against the

Roman armies? And they're going.

Jesus is building like we've never seen a movement like this

before. We know what he's doing.

He's preparing for his big run. Oh, no.

If he makes a big run, then the Romans are going to come and

destroy us and overthrow us, and then we're going to lose our

seats of power. That was their concern.

So Jesus can die so that all of us don't get killed and wiped

out by the Romans. One man can die.

We'll sacrifice him right now so that we don't have to deal with

the Romans later. Caiaphas prophesied accurately,

but he did not understand the meaning of his own prophecy.

That's an amazing lesson for us, for us Pentecostals who

prophecy, it's good instruction. And I've taught you this before

when we talk about the gifts of the Spirit.

This is a sidebar. This was totally free, by the

way, not in my notes. Whenever we prophecy by the

Spirit, you give only what the Holy Spirit gives you to give

and nothing more. And you do not interpret unless

the Holy Spirit gives you the interpretation.

So if the Lord tells you to say this to so and so, you say that

to so and so and nothing else. You say, hey, I feel like the

Lord wanted me to say this. And then they go, what does that

mean? You got, I got nothing else for

you, unless of course you do. But be faithful with what the

Lord has given you. Don't go beyond it.

Certainly don't go beneath it either.

So he was divinely inspired. Caiaphas was he thought Jesus

was going to lead a revolt against Rome, causing Rome to

retaliate and wipe out the Jewish people.

Caiaphas is focused on the Kingdom of man, of course,

instead of the Kingdom of God, which is what Jesus had been

preaching for three years now. But hard hearted and spiritually

blind Caiaphas cannot see the love of God right in his face.

Jesus come to save you, Caiaphas.

Jesus come to save Caesar. Jesus come to save the poor, the

wealthy, anyone who will recognize him for who he is.

So he's Caiaphas is extremely familiar with Jesus at this

point. He's heard his teaching, He's

seen his miracles. They know he raised Lazarus from

the dead and they're not going. Well, this is interesting.

Maybe we should slow down. They're going.

We got to kill him and Lazarus is what they said.

So for the hard heart, miracles aren't enough.

And tragically, Caiaphas, his own words will condemn him on

the day of judgment. Those words will be used against

him. Jesus said that multiple times

throughout our gospels, as we've been seeing.

Jesus says what you've said will be used against you and your

testimony and your life will be brought back before you.

That will be used against you. We won't use some exterior

judgment. We'll use an internal judgment,

Your own words, Caiaphas. Jesus died for the Jesus died

for the nation. Yes he did, but you missed it,

Caiaphas. Caiaphas insultingly says you

know nothing to the rest of the Sanhedrin as he proceeds to

reveal his ignorance. Yes, Caiaphas, Jesus should die

for the people, but it's not to stop the limited wrath of Rome,

who can only kill the body and then do nothing more.

There is a far greater ruler than Caesar, and there's a far

greater ruling than Roman law. Jesus will absorb the full wrath

of God and save Jews and Gentiles like you and I from

being thrown into hell and receiving the penalty we

deserve. Jesus did way better than just

preserving a nation. Jesus saved the whole world,

past, present and future by his death, his burial, and his

resurrection. Turn now to Matthew chapter 27.

Matthew 27 · chapter mention

We're looking. Our theme is the divine irony.

You're turning to your left if you were there in John Matthew

Matthew 27:15

27 verse 15. The divine irony continues now

with a man named Barabbas. Now at the feast, the governor

that's Pilate was accustomed to release for the crowd anyone

prisoner whom they wanted. So remember, Pilate is the one

ruling over this region. He's the one responsible for the

Jews. Probably not a a desired post,

right? Why?

Because you have to deal with Jerusalem and all the feasts and

all the Jews who come and your guard who beat somebody up and

all the accusations and all the rebellions.

You're in the hot spot. So this is not a coveted seat

that Pilate has. So he's always trying to please

Caesar and he's always trying to keep the Jews appease and he's

just trying to play this middleman.

Why? So he can preserve his power, of

course, so he can stay in his miserable position of power.

So he, he's made it a custom every year now at the Passover

feast just to appease the Jews. Hey, pick a prisoner.

I'll release them to you. This is like an act of goodwill.

I kind of want to be your friend.

You hate me, I hate you. But yeah, I still want to earn

some favor with you. He's accustomed to release for

the crowd anyone prisoner whom they wanted.

And they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.

Guess what Barabbas tried to do? He tried to start a rebellion

against the Romans, The very thing we're so terrified Jesus

is going to do. Barabbas is literally done.

So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, Who do you

want me to release for you, Barabbas or Jesus, who is called

Christ? For he knew that it was out of

envy that they had delivered Jesus up to him.

Besides, while he was sitting on the judgement seat, his wife

sent word to him, Have nothing to do with that righteous man,

for I have suffered much because of him.

Today in a dream. Now the chief priests and the

elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to destroy

Jesus. The governor again said to them,

Which of the two do you want me to release for you?

And they said, Barabbas, Pilate said to them, then what shall I

do with Jesus, who is called Christ?

They all said, let him be crucified.

And they said, why, what evil has he done?

But they shouted all the more, Let him be crucified.

So when Pilate saw he was gaining nothing, but rather that

a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands

before the crowd, saying, I'm innocent of this man's blood,

See to it yourselves. And all the people answered, His

blood be on us and on our children.

Then he released for them Barabbas.

Having scourged Jesus, he delivered him up to be

crucified. The divine irony continues here

with Barabbas. He is a violent rebel, guilty of

the very insurrection that they fear Jesus is going to cause.

But of course, the guilty man is set free because the innocent

man takes his place. You and I are Barabbas.

We are the prisoner in jail to be tormented by our ruler,

Satan. Not forever an attorney.

Satan's not in charge of hell. It's not what I mean to imply,

but he torments people on the earth.

And we're we're helpless as he rules over us and as we are

slaves to our sin. In the same way, though the

Father frees you from your prison, the Father frees you

from your condemnation because of the sinless substitute King

Jesus. He willingly took your place.

Keep going. Or or look again here, verses 18

and 19. For he knew that it was out of

envy that they had delivered him up.

Besides, while he was sitting on the judgement seat, his wife

sent word to him. Have nothing to do with that

righteous man. For I have suffered much because

of him today in a dream. So remember the things I'm

quoting to you right now. We're on Friday morning, we're

back on Friday morning. Thursday night, Jesus had the

Passover meal with his disciples.

The meal they've celebrated for thousands of years all the way

back to Moses, Passover. But Jesus changed it that night.

He said this isn't about Egypt anymore, everybody.

And they go, what do you mean? We've had this meal together for

a couple of years now. Jesus, he says this is the new

covenant in my blood. And they have full revelation

now. So Egypt really happened, by the

way. But it was all pointing to Jesus

because everything is about Jesus.

Jesus is the greater Moses. Jesus is the greater deliverer.

So that happened Thursday night and then front and then late

Thursday night, early Friday morning, in the middle of the

night while Jesus is praying in the garden, Judas betrayed him

and now Jesus has the sham trials all night long.

He goes back and forth. They take him to Herod, they

take him to pilot, take him back to Herod, they take him back to

pilot. Pilots.

Like I know that the Jews are mad at this guy because he's

more popular than they are. He can tell what's going on, but

also they put a lot of pressure on him.

So he's going, look, I'm not going to crucify this guy.

So he has him scourged the Roman whip.

They could whip him as many times as they wanted.

The Jews had a limit of 39. The Romans had no such limit.

So we don't know how severely he was beaten, except that we know

by the time Jesus was hanging on the cross for my sin and for

your sin, he didn't resemble the form of a human anymore.

The Scripture tells us innocent man, innocent man, that's the

man who hung on the cross. We got some sweet little baby

boys in this room this morning. Jesus Christ at 33 years old was

more innocent than those babies hanging on, than those babies

hanging on the cross. So if that seems like a graphic

image and it is, Christ hanging on the cross is more graphic

than a newborn being crucified because he's perfect and sinless

in every way. And he chose it and he did it

because of his great love. But Pilate knows all what's

going on. And the Lord even met his wife

in a dream to preach the gospel to her about Jesus.

And she's warning Pilate. She sends a note and a message

to her husband while he's sitting on the judgement seat,

the seat of authority, the seat that's elevated as he's making

all these decisions. And the Jews woke him up early.

What's going on? What's happening?

Send him to Herod. Deal with your own religious

inner fights about who your Messiah is.

And Herod's gone. I'm not having anything to do

with this. And pilot's wife goes, don't,

don't comment, don't participate, don't kill this

man. So Pilot's scared because his

wife is spooked and he knows now he's got a man standing in front

of him who for the first time in his life is not afraid of pilot

and Pilots warning him, Dude, don't you know I can kill you?

Talk to me. And Jesus goes, you don't have

the power that you think you have.

And Pilots go on. I'm not having, I'm not having

anything to do with this. Keep going.

Verse 20, Verse 20 to 23. Now the chief priests and the

elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas to destroy

Jesus. The governor again said to them,

Which of these you want me to release for you?

Barabbas? Pilate said, What shall I do

with Jesus? Who's called the Christ?

They all said, let him be crucified.

Why? What evil has he done?

But they shouted all the more, let him be crucified.

That's the mob. There's no reason.

There's just fanaticism. There's just craziness.

There's just flesh. Remember what happened to the

triumphal entry just last Sunday?

We were rejoicing. Blessed is he who comes in the

name of the Lord, because they thought they were going to get

the Jesus that they wanted, not the Jesus who Jesus actually is.

We want the one who's going to lead us in the fight against the

Romans. That's my Jesus.

You mean my Jesus? There's just Jesus.

There's not my Jesus, there's not my truth, there's just

Jesus. Well, my Jesus would never be

careful with whatever you're about to say.

My Jesus would always just just just stick with the word of God

because that's who Jesus is. He's not the God of my image.

We're actually made in his image.

So the crowd turns on Jesus because they're following the

Jewish rulership, unfortunately. But verses 24 and 25, we see

Pilots just Pilot distancing himself.

So when pilot saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that

the riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands

before the crowd, saying, I'm innocent of this man's blood,

see to it yourselves. And all the people answered.

His blood be on us and on our children.

So Pilate wants to distance himself from murdering the man

who he knows is innocent. The man who isn't afraid of him.

The man who warned Pilate's, The man God warned Pilate's wife

about in a dream. The man who told Pilate, you

have no power over me except which was given to you from

above. So what's Pilate doing?

It's symbolic to wash his hands. He's not actually guiltless, but

he has less guilt than the Jews do, according to Jesus himself.

That was the comfort that Jesus gave to Pilate.

So Jesus says, hey, it's hilarious.

Only the king of glory has to give you permission to crucify

him because pilots like I have the power to set you free.

Give me something to work with here.

And Jesus said, the ones who delivered me to you are guilty

of the greater sin. So he's like, it's OK, you can

crucify me. I give you permission to crucify

me, the one who has far more authority than you or your

Caesar or anybody else. So Pilate mysteriously,

strangely goes, I'm still not doing it.

It's a symbolic thing. It's not a true thing, but he's

doing it symbolically. He's he's essentially saying I

don't have a choice, which is what we always say when we're

being cowards, right? My hands are tied.

What was I supposed to do? I didn't have a choice.

I always, always, always have a choice.

I could choose wrongly, and many times I have.

But like Pilot, I always have a choice.

He looks at the crowd, Jewish leaders, and he says I am

innocent of this man's blood. And the divine irony reaches its

height now in the crowd's response.

His blood be on us and on our children.

They mean this as a sarcastic curse for themselves.

They're saying, fine, fine. Yeah, fine.

Pilot. It's it's our, it's our problem.

Fine, Pilot, it's nothing on you.

Let the record clearly show it's not Pilot's doing.

It was our doing. That's the way they're doing.

They're trying to comfort Pilot. They're saying it's our fault

and we're to blame. But don't you see the irony

there? For those of us who believe in

Jesus and love Jesus, we want his blood to cover us and we

want his blood to cover our children.

And thank God that it does His blood be on us and on our

children. It was a mockery to them, but to

us it's medicine. To those who reject the Lord,

it's a stain, the blood of Jesus on them.

The blood of Jesus has stained them.

They're going, I didn't want this on me.

But to us it washes us clean. God in his loving mercy offered

us redemption even as we murdered him.

Jesus is tried, He is mocked, he is beaten, and he is crucified.

Then he hung on the cross from Friday morning at 9:00 AM until

3:00 in the afternoon, the only innocent man to ever live.

He suffered for all of us guilty.

And then he gave up his spirit. He laid down his life and he

died. Pastor, I'm ready for the Easter

sermon. Here it comes.

It's time to ramp up now. And they thought that was the

end. The Sanhedrin were satisfied.

Pilot was relieved. The crowd was pleased.

But it's not over the King. This is King Jesus we're talking

about here. So welcome to the punchline.

For this reason, the Father loves him because he lays down

his life that he may take it up again.

No one takes it from him, but he lays it down on his own accord.

He has the authority to lay it down.

He has the authority to take it back up again.

This charge he has received from his Father.

And now we come to the ultimate irony.

This is the part where they buried the one who is called the

resurrection and the life. Keep going here.

We're in chapter 27. I want you to skip now to verse

62. We're in Matthew 2762.

The next day, that is, after the day of preparation, the chief

priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said,

Sir, we remember how that imposter, while he was still

alive, said, After three days I will rise.

Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the 3rd day,

lest his disciples go and steal him away until the people he was

risen from the dead, and then his last fraud will be greater

than his first. Pilate said to them You have a

guard of soldiers, go make it as secure as you can.

So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and

setting a guard. So say Pilate, we can't let this

scam like we just need 3 days worth of guards and then this

thing is dead forever and taken care of forever.

The Roman guards will certainly keep Jesus dead, no doubt about

it. Now after the Sabbath, toward

the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the

other Mary went to see the tomb, and behold, there was a great

earthquake. For an Angel of the Lord

descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone and

sat on it. His appearance was like

lightning, and his clothing white as snow.

And for fear the guards trembled and became like dead men.

But the Angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know

that you seek Jesus, who was crucified.

He is not here, He is risen, as he said.

He would come to the place where he lay.

Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from

the dead, and behold, he is going to meet you in Galilee.

There you will see him. See, I have told you.

So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great

joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

And behold, Jesus met them and said greetings.

And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him.

Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid, Go and tell my

brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me.

Hallelujah. And they most certainly did see

him. In fact, he spent 40 days with

them. And 1st Corinthians tells us

that Jesus appeared to over 500 people before he ascended into

heaven after his resurrection. The divine irony, of course,

here continues. I love a lot of things that

happened here. The Roman Roman soldiers are

intimidating guys and we don't know how many of them there

were, but it was enough to make things secure, so to speak.

But when the Angel of the Lord shows up, they pretend to be

dead men. They're terrified.

I wonder how the Angel handled the situation.

We know there's actually a couple of angels, different

accounts tell us all the details.

So they're terrified and they just are faking dead, horrifying

and afraid to move. And I love how the women walk up

and the Angel says don't be afraid.

So meanwhile the Romans are trembling on the ground,

terrified to move. And the angels probably like

flexing at them. And then the women walk, I

guess. Good morning, ladies.

How are you? Don't be afraid.

I know. I know I'm scary.

I know. I could kill you easily.

Don't worry about them. They're not going to trouble

anybody. Good news.

Jesus is alive like he told you he would be.

What are you doing with the spices?

Are we going to prepare a dead body?

Why would Jesus be dead? Right?

Remember, Jesus told the disciples over and over and

over. I am going to Jerusalem to be

crucified and I will be killed and I will be raised over and

over. But again, nobody was waiting at

the tomb with welcome back Jesus signs.

Nobody acted like he said it was true.

They're going. I guess it's all over, bro.

He told you what was going to happen and now it's happened.

But still I can't you relate to him.

I mean, I've got you know, we got hindsight and we're going.

How could you have missed it? But I can so relate.

It's too wonderful. It's just too wonderful.

Like Are you sure he's he's alive and Thomas is No, Thomas

comes back into the room. Thomas, while you went to the

store to get you a Gatorade, Jesus came and walked him and

they're all excited and thrilled and he's like, I want to believe

so bad, but I will not believe unless I put my finger into his

side and put my finger through his hand.

And Jesus comes walking through the wall.

Scripture tells us all the doors are locked and his glorified

body, you can break the rules now.

So he comes walking through and says, Hey, Thomas, how about

now? And Thomas says, My Lord and my

God, Thomas, you believe. But many are coming who won't

believe. But the ones who come and do,

there's a special blessing for them.

The divine irony is that the Jews, who are the religious

leaders, and the Romans, who are the political and military

leaders, thought all they did was bury another dead man.

Well, what they really did was plant the seed in the ground

that would come up in new life and completely swallow death.

That's the irony. We're going to put him away.

No, no, He told you he's a seed. You forgot.

You made a mistake. You can't bury a seed.

I'm going to get rid of this problem.

No, no, no, no, no. You just got a whole new problem

on your hands. The Kingdom is coming now.

The Kingdom started small with with Jesus and with 11, and it's

multiplied and multiplied until it takes over the whole earth

and the whole universe. Jesus reigns everywhere, over

everything, over everybody, and eventually every knee is going

to bow and every tongue is going to confess.

That's why you and I are here today, to happily bow, to

joyfully confess that Jesus is Lord.

The stone. Another irony.

The stone they rolled away would be rolled away to let witnesses

in. The stone they rolled in place

is rolled away to let witnesses in.

The manly guards meant to contain the Lord ended up

trembling and playing dead. The seal on the stone.

So whenever they seal, they would have, they would have

coated it with all kinds of wax, and then they would put the the

Roman seal on it. Symbol of power.

This is authority. That's real authority.

You will not break that Roman seal.

You will not break that Roman seal except under the penalty of

death. The Roman seal easily broken.

The Lord doesn't honor Rome's authority over the authority of

his Son, and the man from Nazareth, who was mocked as

powerless, rose as the first born of the new creation with

all authority in heaven and on earth.

So why does it matter? Why does it matter that Jesus

was raised from the dead? It's not just that we love him

and that we're happy that he's not dead anymore.

That's enough. That would be good.

But Jesus had to be raised from the dead.

It wouldn't be enough to just say, didn't he just didn't he

pay the price for our sins? Wasn't it technically finished

on Friday? Because the innocent suffered?

Now the guilty can go free. But that's not the whole story.

Because if that happened, like I said earlier, Jesus would just

be another dead teacher like every world religion and false

doctrine has. His resurrection proves his

identity as the Son of God. The resurrection is the receipt.

His death paid the price, but the resurrection is the Father

saying the payment is accepted. Without the resurrection,

there's no victory and death would still reign for you and I

sin would still be undefeated. If there's no resurrection,

there's no hope for us. If Christ had not been raised,

then those who have fallen asleep and death, they have

already perished. It wasn't just about

forgiveness, it was about life. And that's where we're different

from Barabbas and we're closing. You and I are different from

Barabbas, and that Barabbas was simply a criminal who got

pardoned for his crimes temporarily.

That's where the analogy between you and I, Barabbas falls apart,

because you and I don't just get pardoned for our crimes.

Hey, Joe. Michael, your sin is filthy.

Your sin is wicked. Your sin is gross, Your sin is

dark. All right?

I won't punish you for it. That's not all I got.

That's not all you got. We got new creation.

We got a new identity. It'd be one thing for God to

say, all right, I won't punish you for the crime.

It's another thing for God to say, I'm going to make you a new

creation, something you weren't before.

You were dead in your sins and your trespasses.

But I won't punish you for it. No, that's not where it stops.

That's what Barabbas got. You're free to go until you get

yourself in trouble again, or until you get executed by the

Romans, or until you die of old age.

Jesus comes in and gives new life.

And the resurrection of Jesus guarantees our resurrection, our

new creation as well. If there's no resurrection, then

we have no king. But Jesus rose in order to

reign. It proves that our resurrection

is coming. His victory guarantees our

victory. He is risen.

Amen. So what I do with all this?

We don't just admire it. You don't just admire the beauty

of the Bible. And the Bible is beautiful.

The Bible is not boring. If you think the Bible is

boring, then you're boring. The Bible is exciting.

The Bible is crazy awesome. The Bible is written by many

different men inspired by the Holy Spirit over hundreds of

years in different continents, that they tell the same story, a

united story. And the more you see it, the

more you read it, the more you go, That's crazy.

That's amazing what the Lord did.

That's beautiful what the Lord did.

But we don't just stop at admiration and go, Isn't that

neat? Isn't that ironic?

Isn't that interesting? What do you do?

You bow the knee to the Lord Jesus and you pray his blood be

on me and on my children. You die with Christ and you rise

with him. The worst irony of all would be

this. To come to church on Easter

Sunday to hear about the blood that saves, to hear about the

tomb that was emptied, to hear about the King who reigns and to

walk away unchanged by it, that would be ironic.

But that happens all over the place.

That's happening all over this country this morning,

tragically. People are coming to church

because it's Easter. People come to church because

it's Christmas. The irony and the tragedy there

is to come and hear and be unchanged by it.

So what must I do? Turn from your sin and trust the

risen Son. He welcomes you, He loves you,

He forgives you, He cares for you, but he requires everything

of you. He doesn't.

He doesn't give a small invitation.

He says, hey, I'm worthy of it all and I expect you to prove

that out with your whole life. I'm not asking for a part of

you, I'm asking for all of you. The Bible describes his church

as his bride. I'm very protective of my bride.

I love my bride a lot and I won't share my bride in any way.

How much more does Jesus look over his church and say, I'm not

sharing you with the world, I'm not sharing you with anybody,

You're mine and I own you. And the bride of Christ says you

do whatever you say and whatever you want.

My pleasure, Lord, it's my pleasure to please you.

That's our delight. So I want to invite you this

morning to do something with the risen sun.

It might be to deepen your devotion, to make that

commitment and the privacy of your own heart.

You can kneel at your seat or if you've never done that and

you've never given your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, you say,

well, I've believed, I know, but there is a big difference

between believing with my brain and actually being changed by

the living God. So if you've never experienced

that, you go, well, you're, you're talking about this in a

different way, preacher. I've heard, I've heard sermons

before. I I believe the Bible is true.

I believe that Jesus is king. That's good.

The scary thing to go along with that is to know though, that the

devil believes all that. He knows it for a fact.

He knows that Jesus is king. He knows what the future holds.

He knows that Jesus will rule and reign forever.

So to believe with my brain is a good starting point.

But the Holy Spirit is prompting you even as you've heard the

Gospel message this morning, even as you've heard the good

news about the resurrection of Christ, He's prompting you even

now to say, give me more of you. So to the Christian, I say give

more of yourself to him. Redouble your efforts and say,

Lord, help me surrender more fully.

Not that you would go and accomplish and do and prove

anything, but that you would just say, help me to find a

deeper surrender, Lord. And for those of you would say,

I don't, I don't know if that event has happened.

I don't know if I've experienced that miracle inside that you're

describing. I don't know if I've experienced

that new birth as it's been called.

Jesus says you must be born again.

The first time you were born from your Mama, flesh and blood.

The second time you must be born from the Spirit.

So we're going to close with a song and as we sing this song

together, I'm going to invite anyone who would like to.

I would love to join. I would love for you to join me.

I'd be happy to pray with you. I'll ask you, hey, what's going

on in your heart? Tell me what it is you want and

I can pray with you. I can lead you in prayer.

I'm going to be gracious. The Lord is loving and He wants

to welcome you home. So would you stand to your feet?