Each year at Easter, on Good Friday and Easter Sunday the world’s evening news services beam images of the Churches Easter celebrations from around the globe right onto our television screens and invariably those images look something like this: they’re filmed in big lofty imposing cathedrals packed full of the faithful, there are processions of crimson clad clergy following a cross down the aisle. There are choirs covered in red and in white singing hymns and songs. There are Church leaders preaching a message to their flock.

Of course not all of us celebrate Easter like that but that’s the image we seem to project out into the world. But Easter is a time for both solemnity and celebration and that somehow what goes along with that is some considerable pomp and ceremony.

Now the abundant use of the colour red in the clothing of many clergy, harkens back to the shedding of Jesus blood, that’s what it’s meant to symbolise. But as I look at those images on my television screen year after year I wonder whether the impressions I get aren’t more about the apparent regal nature of the Church than the sacrifice of Jesus.

And frankly, I despair at many of the messages I hear preached by the religious elite. They talk about world peace or poverty or they apologise for the abuses of the Church which it seems, in recent years, are many. And I wonder sometimes whether as a whole as the body of Christ we somehow aren’t missing the point and the point of that first Easter during that fateful Passover celebration two thousand odd years ago had little, in fact no, it had nothing to do with the trappings of Easter that somehow we seemed to have heaped on the commemoration and the celebration.

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking the different traditions and the way they choose to commemorate and to celebrate, traditions are in many a respect are good things that is unless and until they displace the central meaning of the thing it is they represent.

That first Easter didn’t have any sense of pomp or ceremony about, in fact Jesus, well for Him it was a lonely time, an intensely painful time, a time when He suffered alone for you and for me. After He celebrated the Passover meal with His disciples and washed their feet and predicted that His betrayer was in their midst.

Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane and he said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray’. He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be grieved and agitated. Then he said to them, ‘I am so deeply grieved even to death, stay here and stay awake with me’ and going a little further he threw himself onto the ground and prayed, ‘My Father if it’s possible let this cup pass from me yet not what I want but what you want’.

Then he came to the disciples and he found them sleeping and he said to Peter, ‘Could you not stay awake with me for one hour? Stay awake and pray that you may not come into a time of trial.’ The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak. Again Jesus went away for a second time and he prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink of it, your will be done’.

Again he came and he found them sleeping for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again he went away and prayed for the third time saying the same words. Then he came to the disciples and he said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and taking a rest? Look, the hour’s at hand, the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners, get up, let’s be going, my betrayer is at hand.’ (Matthew 26: 36 – 46)

See, Jesus wanted His friends to be praying with Him in His hour of anguish and yet instead He wrestled with His fate alone in the dark. During His trials, there were several of them, none of His friends came and supported Him. No one stood up for Him or gave a good report about Him, NONE of them and at His arrest.

While He was still speaking, Judas one of the twelve arrived and with him was a crowd with swords and clubs from the chief priests and scribes and the elders. Now the betrayer had given them a sign saying, ‘The one whom I kiss is the man, arrest him and lead him away under guard.’

So when he came he came up to him at once and said, ‘Rabbi’ and kissed him. Then they laid hands on Jesus and arrested him but one of those who stood near draw his sword and struck the slave of the high priest cutting off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Have you come out with your swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I was with you in the Temple teaching and you didn’t arrest me but let the Scriptures be fulfilled.’

All of them deserted him and fled. A certain young man was following him wearing nothing but a linen cloth, they caught hold of him, they let the linen cloth go and he ran off naked. (Mark 14: 43 – 52)

Jesus was alone and on the cross He hung alone, suffered alone, He died alone. Where was the pomp, where was the ceremony? There was none. Why am I sharing this with you? Because this Jesus understands suffering, He understands loneliness, He understands you and what you have to travel through because He’s been there and He’s been through much worse.

Formal Easter celebrations? Great, fantastic, awesome but if sometimes you’re left with that hollow feeling at Easter, as though what’s going on around you doesn’t really resonate with where you’re at then come with me and meet this lonely Jesus, this suffering Jesus, the Jesus who was rejected and spat upon, the nailed Jesus, the gasping Jesus and remember He did this for you, for you He did this to set you free from your bondage of sin.

And as you’ll see over the next couple of days, He did this to bring you a certain hope through His resurrection. Romans chapter 6, verse 23.

For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So if the pomp and the ceremony perhaps haven’t been connecting with you forget about them and rest for a while with Jesus. In the midst of the suffering, in the midst of the deepest inkiest blackness imaginable you can claim this Scripture for your very own.

God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. (1 Corinthians 6: 14)

Isn’t that just so awesome? When none of the Easter pomp and ceremony connects with the deepest longings of your heart, Jesus does, the one who suffered and died for you and the one whose dead body received life again in that lonely empty tomb.

You see even the resurrection bit, even the bit where hope entered this world because death could no longer hold Him down, the death of my sins and yours that you and I so richly deserved, even in that most amazing moment in all of history where Jesus came back to life, it took place alone in the darkened tomb, away from the glare of the spotlights, away from the adulations of the crowds, away from the sight of any human eye.

The dead body of Jesus came to life, colour returned to His cheeks, His heart started to beat again, He started to breathe again and the resurrection body of Jesus was ready to show the world that He came to bring us hope.

I compare the two, the pomp and the ceremony of the traditional Easter celebrations of today and that amazing transaction of grace and hope that took place in the midst of extreme loneliness for Jesus. And I know which one I prefer, I know which one connects with me deep in my heart, I know which one brings hope into me – it’s Jesus.

Easter is a time for hope, not a wishy washy uncertain hope like, well I hope I lose some weight on this diet or I hope the weather fines up tomorrow. No, not that. When the Bible talks about hope it means a certain hope, the sort of hope that throws a ray of sunshine into your day because you’re realise that you have something amazing to look forward to – the hope of the resurrection of the dead. That when you and I die we will go to be with Jesus in paradise based only on our faith in Him not on what we do or don’t do.

That’s exactly what Jesus said to the criminal that was strung up on that cross next to Him on that very first Easter although of course it wasn’t called Easter back then, it was the Passover celebration. Have a listen:

Two others also who were criminals were led away to be put to death with Jesus. When they came to the place which is called the ‘skull’ they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.’

And they cast lots to divide his clothing and the people stood by watching but the leaders scoffed at him saying, ‘He saved others, let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one’. The soldiers also mocked him coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, ‘If you’re the King of the Jews then save yourself.’ There was also an inscription over him that read ‘this is the King of the Jews’.

One of the criminals who was hanging there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us’ but the other one rebuked him saying, ‘Do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation and we indeed have been condemned justly for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds but this man has done nothing wrong.’

Then he said to Jesus, ‘Jesus remember me when you come into your Kingdom’ and Jesus replied, ‘Truly I tell you that today you will be with me in paradise’. (Luke chapter 23, verses 32 to 43)

Now although obviously it was a terrible, terrible circumstance in which to receive the promise of eternal life with Jesus, I think you’ll agree there’s a sense of immediacy to that promise. That criminal knew that he was about to die, he could feel it, the agonising, the excruciating, long-suffering death by suffocation which is how you die when you’re nailed to a cross.

By the way this was the very first man recorded in Scripture to receive the gift of eternal life based on faith in Jesus. And it happened on the same day, within just a few hours, of the promise that Jesus made to him.

Most of us don’t know how long we have left on this earth. Some who maybe have had a bad medical prognosis might have some idea but most of us don’t. I could live another fifty years or I could be gone tomorrow. I don’t know and I don’t want to know but what we do know, what we do see is the long path ahead, the trials that we’re going through and the trials which are so much part of life that lie ahead.

But this resurrection, this new life doesn’t just begin when we die and go to heaven, it’s meant to begin the very moment we believe in Jesus. In fact it has begun the very moment you believed in Jesus. It’s as though we’ve died and risen again here and now.

Have a listen to this amazing Scripture that says exactly that, Romans 6: 1 to 4.

What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means, how can we who died to sin go on living to it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death. Therefore we’ve been buried with him by baptism into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Did you get that? The point that Paul’s making, the point that God is making through the Apostle Paul who wrote that letter to the Roman Church, is that the moment we put our faith in Jesus we are dead to sin and alive to Christ. We are freed of the sin that’s held us back and held us down and ruined things for us thus far and just as Jesus was raised from the dead so have we been that we may walk in the newness of life, a new life, born again, a here and now resurrection.

Why does so many people who believe in Jesus do not get this? Why does so many people who believe in Jesus struggle with who they are and what they’ve done and the mistakes they’ve made, hello? Those things are dead and gone and buried and now through the resurrection of Jesus anyone who believes in Him can walk in newness of life by His power.

Here’s Paul saying it again in a different way to the Ephesian Church, Ephesians 1: 17 – 23, He said:

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened you may know what is the hope to which he’s called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe according to the working of his great power.

God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and all authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and made him the head of all things for the Church which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1: 17–23)

Paul wanted us to know the hope and the riches and the incredible power of God that we now already have, the same power that brought Jesus back to life, resurrection power, new life power available to you so that you may walk in newness of life – hallelujah!

And it’s that power, seeing that power at work in your life day by day, setting you free from the shackles of sin, one shackle at a time, that gives us the hope to know that one day that resurrection will be consummated before God. It’s like a down payment this resurrection power – evidence of God’s intention, this here and now resurrection power speaks of the resurrection that we will experience on that day when our lives here on earth come to an end.

In fact that’s again what Paul says just a few verses earlier about the Holy Spirit, verses 13 and 14 of Ephesians chapter 1.

In him (in Christ) you also when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation and had believed in him, were marked with a seal of the promised Holy Spirit. This is a pledge of our inheritance towards redemption as God’s own people to the praise of his glory.

The Holy Spirit power, the resurrection power is a pledge, a down payment, a deposit to demonstrate to you the reality of your inheritance that is to come. When you buy a house you put down a ten percent deposit which is evidence to the vendor of your intention to pay the rest and complete the sale at the agreed time. That’s what this passage of Scripture means – the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit that you see at work in your life is God’s deposit and pledge of the resurrection you will experience on that day.

That’s why we can have hope in the coming of Jesus. That’s why we know there are riches coming beyond anything that we can imagine because the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit in our lives is clear, unmistakeable evidence of that.

Anyone who is listening today whose had this sad sack, nothing’s changed in my life, thing going on for you this is great news. Grab a hold of it with both hands, live every minute of every day in the certain knowledge that the Holy Spirit is at work in you and as a consequence you can have a real hope in your eternity with Jesus.

And since I’m made in the image of God surely God can be like that too. I mean you or I haven’t murdered anyone or raped anyone or assaulted anyone, we’re not guilty of grand larceny, we haven’t stolen anything from the local store even. Okay we’ve made some mistakes, we’ve hurt people through our actions or our attitudes but that’s all part of life and hopefully most of those people will just forgive us and we can get on with it, right?

As we think about Easter, as we think about that brutal bloody cross and what Jesus did, unless we really understand the ‘why’ of it all then we’re completely missing the point of Christianity, the whole point of believing in Jesus. And I strongly suspect that there are a good many people around today who say they believe in Jesus but they don’t have answers to these difficult questions.

Why did God bother with this whole Jesus dying on a cross thing? Why didn’t He just forgive us? The bottom line is this, God is a God of absolute love and absolute justice.

Have a listen, 1 John 4:16

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us, God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him.

So God is love, now listen to this, Romans 2: 9 to 11.

There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek but glory and honour and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek for God shows no partiality.

See, God is more loving than the most loving father who has ever lived, God is love but He’s also more just than the most just judge who has ever lived. So how do you reconcile love and justice? I mean love demands forgiveness, justice demands punishment. If a man was convicted of rape or murder, if he was tried and found guilty yet the judge in his sentencing chose to show mercy and let him walk free we’d be totally outraged, wouldn’t we? We would demand justice.

And so God is faced with this dilemma, huge dilemma. He is all love and He is all justice. What does He do? It’s the same as though that judge I just talked about was the father of the man convicted of rape or murder, can you imagine the terrible position this judge and father would find himself in, in determining a sentence for his own child?

So God does the only thing open to Him, He sends Jesus to fulfil the requirements of absolute justice by dying on that cross for you and me so that the price of our sin is paid in full. The requirements of justice is met in full. The wrath of God that you and I deserve falls on Jesus, He takes the rap, He dies the death.

For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6: 23)

But the huge spin-off benefit of Jesus death on the cross is the fact that just three days later He was raised from the dead and that’s exactly what happens to you and me when we believe in Him and we die to our sin, we receive a new life, a resurrected life, a born again life, a fresh start with the slate wiped completely clean through the death and the resurrection of Jesus.

That empty tomb is as important in God’s plan for you and me as was that bloody cross. Jesus had to die to be resurrected and you and I have to die to our old self, to our sinful self in order to be resurrected into a newness of life, this new life that Jesus purchased on the cross for you and me.

The transaction of grace is a transaction both of death and resurrection. Romans 6 verse 4:

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

That means that you and I believe in Jesus and we turn away from our sin so that we can rise again to this new life that Jesus has for us. Come on this is good news. The alternative is death, the alternative is a living death today as we live in sin and an eternal separation from God when this life is over.

Jesus made this point, He said, ‘You actually have to die before you can live’.

Truly I tell you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains just a single grain. But if it dies it bears much fruit. Those who love life will lose it and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me and where I am there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me the Father will honour. (John 12: 24 to 26)

And see this bit of dying to self so that we can live and bear fruit is the bit that so many people miss. We think it’s about just believing in Jesus and everything will be okay, well yes and no. Unless you and I repent, unless you and I believe in Jesus and turn away from our evil ways then there is no life because sin will continue to rob you of life.

It’s an unpopular idea I know, repentance sounds like something terribly old-fashioned. Jesus died and was then resurrected. You can’t be resurrected to a new life until you’ve died to the old one. It’s obvious, isn’t it? At least it should be. Death and resurrection are what Easter is all about. Death and resurrection are what your new life is all about.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8: 11)

The great news this Easter is that Jesus came to give you a new life, a life worth living, a life that instead of being torn apart by arrogance or selfishness or whatever your particular Achilles heel is, a life that instead is being healed and restored by the power of God and the goodness of God, a life that will look completely different to your old life because Jesus changed it for you, because Jesus died so that the just requirements of the law, the punishment that you so richly deserve could be removed from you. That’s mercy because Jesus died and rose again.

Maybe you’ve just heard about Jesus for the first time today and you want to accept Him as your Lord and Saviour. Well, if that’s you please pray this prayer with me.

Father God, today I’ve heard about Jesus and what He did for me on that cross and through that empty tomb and I realise that I need His mercy and His grace and it’s exactly what I need. Please forgive me through Jesus and what He did for me. I’m so sorry for my sins and what I’ve done wrong and give me this new life today, this resurrection life.

I turn away from all my sin but I know how weak I am. I know I don’t have the power to live the life you want me to live so please put your Holy Spirit in me so that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead will raise me in this new life that you’ve promised me in Jesus name. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer my friend you have just received the grace and the mercy and the power of God through what Jesus did for you.