THE REAL MEANING OF THIS EASTER HOLIDAY
BY HIS DEATH AND BLOODSHED OUR SINS ARE COVERED AND DEATH STAYS AWAY FROM US (EXODUS 12:13).
JESUS CHRIST HAS RISEN AS SCRIPTURE HAS SAID...GO CHECK HIS TOMB BECAUSE HE IS NO LONGER IN THERE (LUKE 24:39-43).
First and foremost I would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter Weekend. Now I am gonna cover the real meaning of Easter Weekend in this blog and I am gonna speak the truth in our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray everyone has a super Easter Weekend, yes spend it with family and fellowship. Just to break it to you Easter is not about a Bunny hopping from yard to yard and setting candy and goodies in your house. It seems all cute and that when you are a kid and getting those Easter baskets yes yes, and Easter egg hunts are fun too. However, that's not why we celebrate Easter. The true meaning of this holiday is that God gave us the passover meal and lamb that cleans our hearts from sin and death forever. Let just break this down: God is God and we are humans and as humans we are not God, thanks to what Adam and Eve did we are sinful and hateful towards God and the human flesh always will be. God has no room in Heaven for hate and sin so yes it is scary but sin goes punished. So God in the Old Testament offered a remedy for those sins and that is a blood sacrifice. However, we are so sinful by nature that we can't even cover all those sins of ours and even have the heart to cover them as well. So that is where Jesus comes in and we are gonna explore this throughout this blog.
God Created the world....I'm hoping our human blindness won't deny that. He made EVERYTHING...and started out the human race with a man named Adam, and then took a rib out of Adam and turned it into a woman named Eve (see how cool God is, making woman from Rib). God gave them free will and dominion over the earth. However Satan roamed the earth in the form of the serpent. God gave Adam and Eve a command which was stay away from that Tree of Life. Satan lied and deceived Adam and Eve and they disobeyed God and ate from that tree of life. So you see Humans couldn't even know to do right and recognize good (God) from evil (Satan in the serpent). From that moment humans have been full of sin. The flesh is dirty and can never please God. God saw this and yes even though he is a loving God he can not allow evil into Heaven. So the right and just thing to do is punish that evil. We see the wrath of God many times: The flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and many other instances in the Old testament. However, as a mentioned God loved us so much that he wanted to save us from his wrath against evil. That is why God said the sacrifice and blood of an animal would cover sins. Right when Adam and Eve sinned God slew an animal and took it's skin and covered Adam and Eve....God requires a blood sacrifice so that's why he did this. So as you can see God will erase a sin with the sacrifice and blood of an animal. Abraham nearly sacrificed his own son for atonement but God saw how good is faith was so he spared his son and had Abraham offer a ram to the altar instead.
So its simple...God has given us a way out of sin and a ticket into Heaven. PROBLEM: We are so sinful in nature that our flesh is so full of sin that not enough living creatures of earth being sacrificed would come close to covering ALL OF OUR SINS. Also, those living creatures are sinful as well and do not have the love to give themselves for EVERY SIN EVER COMMITTED. Yes by Passover laws stated in the Old Testament We are to do some cleaning of our sacrifice before offering it at the altar. But too many sins exist that all that cleansing will only cover one sin at best. We got a real problem here...our sinful nature is so big that not all the sacrifices in the world will get us to live with God in Heaven. That's why none of those sacrifices back in Old Testament times ever rose from the dead, yes their sacrifice killed one sin but the other sins overtook it and hence they never rose up. So lets come to this: God saw this and keeps his law, we must be CLEAN and have a SACRIFICE for every doing we ever committed. Now our sinful nature is so big that it just isn't working. God saw this so he stayed faithful to us, and kept with the sacrifices in the Old Testament as by his law and as a foreshadowing of his one and only son making to ultimate sacrifice to come.
Here enters Jesus Christ. Read first Chapter of Gospel of John...."In the beginning was the Word, The word was with God, the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning."(John 1:1-2). So as you can see Jesus Christ is God as he was with God when the world was created and is at the Father's right hand in Heaven. God knew WE could not ATONE for EVERY SIN EVER. So he loved us so much he sent Jesus Christ to be born into flesh (Christmas celebration) and to walk the earth and show us true love. He was the true teacher since he is teaching us ways of God and true Love (which is God). However no one can ever accept this love and teaching Jesus did. I am not just talking about the pharisees and people who killed him on the cross, but even his disciples didn't understand since Christ had not yet been glorified for us yet (I'm talking in terms of the time and place in the Bible now). Peter disowned Jesus THREE TIMES, the others ran away scared. Yes some fought for him and cut off the ear of a chief priest but they thought they were fighting for a political kingdom, not the kingdom of our hearts which is why God sent Jesus in the place of ALL OF OUR SINS. Jesus Christ is God and the only one to ever be perfect in human flesh. He would be the only one to have enough love to die for ALL OF OUR SINS. There should be no need for the cleansing before the passover and altar since Jesus Christ is PERFECT. However he still went through the rituals such as the Last Supper and all that because that's how much love he has in his heart, to follow all of his Father's commands. It then happened, Jesus Christ was crucified to death and when that happened Satan was sent to Hell by a fireball forever as he and sin/death was defeated forever (Watch THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST and see that visual). Satan has no control here anymore...yes many do not get the Grace of God in their hearts but as Jesus has said in John 3:18 "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in him stand condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." So when Jesus Christ breathed his last breathe on the cross and gave up his Spirit the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. This signified that it has been done...he has defeated and erased every sin EVER as his blood covers them forever. Its like that credit card that covers your purchases forever. And that my friends is the true celebration of Good Friday. Passover Saturday is the day Jesus laid dead in the tomb signifying the burial of Sin and Death in that tomb forever.
Now one may ask "If Jesus died to kill sin and death forever then why would he be dead?" Here is where Easter Sunday comes into play. As mentioned in that Exodus verse referenced at the start of this blog that the blood will be the token over the door aka our hearts that when God comes to our hearts and sees it covered in blood that he will pass over it and not judge it since no sin remains in it as the blood of the lamb (Jesus Christ) has covered it. Jesus's loving sacrificial death has defeated Death forever. Jesus Christ has always been Lord, Clean, Loving, everything holy, everything accounted for, and by him dieing for the forgiveness of our sins he has defeated Sin/Death forever and when Sin and Death are killed forever, Life is enabled. John 10:17-18 says Jesus dies on his own accord...he is becoming death out of love to kill Sin/Death forever. The Lord will never be buried forever in death. His temporary death was to give clean hearts. And when the heart is clean the Lord will enter it and fill it with the Power of Jesus Christ Resurrection. JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN...therefore we live forever. When you are free from sin forever as the blood covers it, death will pass over it (hence the Passover) and the Lord will enter it and you will live in him and he in you on earth by the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ breathes in you (as I myself have witnessed the resurrected Christ breathing it into my heart) and then with God and his Son in Heaven when our physical bodies expire here on Earth. If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead then his death was not the sacrificial lamb of God. Instead he would've been a fraud and death would've swallowed him up and still reign over the human race. But thank God that's not true for I myself have witnessed the Risen Jesus Christ when the Holy Spirit baptized my heart the morning of FEB 17, 2001. For any other haters out there that are gonna deny Christ, maybe that's because you have not opened your hearts for him to be poured into your hearts. When he is poured into your hearts you receive his sacrificial death and blood and will be risen to a new holy life in the Lord. His Death destroys Sin/Death, his resurrection opens the gates of Heaven. If you have not opened your hearts and received this into your hearts then you are still under judgement and Sin/Death covers your body. But if you open your heart then Satan is defeated in your life and has no control over you, as mentioned, he is destroyed through Christ sacrificial death and you live with God in your heart forever as Jesus Christ risen also rises you up to that new life in the Lord. I just pray that you all open your hearts to this and just like in John 20:22 when the Risen Jesus Christ breathed the Holy Spirit unto his disciples (and has breathes it unto many others who opened their hearts to him as he poured his spirit into them) you will receive the most peaceful and powerful thing in your life ever (the Peace of the Crucified and Risen Christ Jesus).
Also, for any more hate saying "How do you know Jesus actually rose from the dead?" Well, go check his tomb (Archaeology confirms where is tomb is), its empty, and also the burial clothes DNA confirms it is the Son of God's clothes and tomb. Find me his body? I'll tell you where it is as I have been revealed it by my Heavenly Father and that it is in Heaven at the right hand of the Heavenly Father. Also, please look at some of the links provided below and they will be testimonies, many testimonies of people who only knew other religions and either never bothered with Christianity or where like Saul, persecuting Christians, only to have the Risen Lord revealed to their hearts and for them to become born again (John 3:3 talks more about Born Again). I wish you all a Happy Easter Weekend and may the Grace, Peace, and Love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ cover you and be with you. God Bless!
...
I agree that it's a crying shame that Easter has been commercialized to Cadbury eggs and the price Christ paid on the cross is swept under the rug. I didn't even understand that until I attended services at St. Luke's in 2006, when I was already 23 years old. Great write up. Keep up the great work.
ReplyDelete