“Holy-Day Holidays (Leviticus 23)” | 3/31/24
Leviticus 23 | 3/31/24 | Will DuVal
If you’re visiting with us this morning, I want to THANK you for being here - it is truly a blessing to have you with us… for what is SURE to be the most… UNIQUE Easter sermon you’ve ever heard.
We’ve been studying the book of LEVITICUS this year - which, if you’re not familiar, is sometimes nicknamed the “graveyard of good intentions” in the church world, because so many folks who attempt to read through the whole Bible in a year make it through Genesis and Exodus, but then GIVE UP when they hit Leviticus! But as we’ve SEEN together, Leviticus is actually a rich, wonderful book when we begin to understand it, and particularly, how ALL of it points us to JESUS. Leviticus is kinda like those “Magic Eye” pictures back in the day - remember those? With the colorful swirls and dots that your friends would look at and say, “Oh, look - a UNICORN!” - I am STILL convinced it was one big conspiracy to make me feel CRAZY. (“Look THROUGH the picture, Will” / “Sorry - I don’t have X-ray vision!”... “Just RELAX your eyes…” / “I AM RELAXED!!!”)
Well, listen: I may not be able to see the UNICORN, but friends, I can see something eternally BETTER - I see JESUS on EVERY SINGLE PAGE of Leviticus.
And I want to show him to YOU this morning too. Specifically, in Leviticus ch23 with the “Holy-Day HOLIDAYS” that God prescribes here.
In God’s providence, we hit ch23 on EASTER - the HOLIEST of ALL holidays in the church calendar. Sometimes I think we forget the original meaning of the word “holiday”; it’s a portmanteau of the words “HOLY” and “DAY”.
“Holy” means “special, or set apart” for a particular purpose.
So a HOLIDAY is a special day that we “set apart” in our calendars to CELEBRATE some particular THING in some particular WAY:
*We celebrate America’s WORKFORCE - on LABOR Day - by… not working. (always thought that one was kinda strange…)
*We celebrate America’s INDEPENDENCE by BLOWING STUFF UP.
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Some of our NATIONAL holiday celebrations are a bit ODD. But when it came to Israel’s holidays, that God lays out for them here in Leviticus 23, there was NO haphazardness; every detail of every holy day was PURPOSEFUL, and they pointed God’s people not only to HIM - as they celebrated God’s work in their collective HISTORY as a people - but these holidays point us AHEAD as well, to JESUS. Colossians 2 says ALL these festivals were just “a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” (v17)
That’s what I want to show you this morning: how each of these SEVEN holidays we’re gonna look at - the number SEVEN, by the way, occurs 18x here in ch23; seven is the biblical number of completion, wholeness; God wants us to celebrate him COMPLETELY, WHOLELY - and even though we no longer observe these OT holidays (Jesus has fulfilled the Law for us - praise God!) - but we’re gonna see how the PRINCIPLES here reveal God’s HEART behind WHY and HOW he wants us to CELEBRATE him, even TODAY… AND ALSO how they prefigure for us, how they foreshadow JESUS, and specifically, this greatest of ALL holidays” - EASTER! Every ONE of these 7 holidays finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ and in what he did for us on that glorious Easter morning almost 2,000 years ago, when he rose from the dead and conquered sin and death FOREVER. So I promise we’re gonna END this morning with Easter and Jesus’ resurrection and the ETERNAL, spiritual implications of these holidays, after first considering their 1) historical and 2) prophetic and 3) practical implications.
Historical: “What did this holiday mean to ISRAEL?”
Prophetic: “What did it anticipate for the CHURCH?”
Practical: “What does this holiday mean for ME, personally?” And finally in CLOSING:
“How does it point us to EASTER?!”
But first, let’s read the chapter together. Would you STAND… Leviticus 23… The words will be on the screen in front, but if you’re following along in your own Bible, and I HOPE you are - if you don’t HAVE a Bible, we’d love to GIVE you one after the service at the Info Bar - but please do note: we’re gonna skip a few verses for the sake of time and clarity - MOST of them have to do with HOW Israel was to celebrate these festivals, like, how many ANIMALS to bring, as a sacrifice. But I want to focus less this morning on the “how” of the celebrations and more on the “WHY”: the deeper meaning and significance of each holiday, for 1) Israel, for 2) the Church, for 3) YOU, and for 4) EASTER.
Hear the word of the Lord:
“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts:
3 “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places...
v5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the Lord's Passover. 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread…
v10 “...When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted… 14 And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God…
v15 “You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering… Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the Lord. 17 You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved…
v24 In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation…
…27 “Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord. 28 And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God…
34 “...On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths to the Lord… You shall dwell in booths for seven days… 43 that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
44 Thus Moses declared to the people of Israel the appointed feasts of the Lord.”
[This is the word of the Lord…]
These are the 7 annual “feasts” - the 7 PARTIES, that God prescribes for his people. Here’s a CHART if you want to take a picture to reference as we talk through them.
But did you know that GOD LOVES to PARTY? That may sound surprising to some of you. Perhaps you’re not too familiar with the BIBLE - with GOD as he REALLY is, as He has revealed himself TO us, in His WORD… NOT the way he often gets portrayed and MIS-represented. God is NOT the “fun police”; the “grumpy old man” up in the sky, who’s looking down to make sure no one’s having too good a time down here.
Jesus - God incarnate - the very first MIRACLE he ever performed was turning water into wine at a wedding reception to keep the PARTY going! (Jn 2:1-12)
Jesus’ enemies (THEY were the “fun police”!) - they accused him of being a “glutton and a drunkard” (Matt 11:19); you just don’t get labeled that way if you don’t like to PARTY!
God LOVES to party. And even more, he loves to BE partied - to be CELEBRATED. And in Leviticus 23, he invites us - he actually COMMANDS us - to celebrate him in SEVEN ways:
#1- The SABBATH teaches us to celebrate God’s PROVIDENCE by RESTING. (3) Remember: FOURFOLD FULFILLMENT.
So for ISRAEL, the Sabbath was a weekly reminder, every 7th day (ever Saturday), of God’s providence - his omnipotent oversight, God’s good governance - over all of CREATION. God instituted the Sabbath ON the 7th day of CREATION, all the way back in Genesis ch2, as an EXAMPLE for Israel to follow. And His lesson in it was simple: “I am God; you are NOT; the world will NOT stop spinning if you take one day off, to devote to WORSHIPING ME instead. Not only is it good for YOU to rest, but it will serve as a REMINDER to you that I - God - am WORTHY of your worship because I NEVER rest!”
Friends: when our lives feel totally out of control, we can REST and know that God is in PERFECT control. He is Sovereign. The Bible says, “Not even a BIRD falls out of a TREE, outside of God’s providential supervision. And he cares about you and me WAY more than the birds!” (Matt 10:29-31)
Now, how does the Sabbath get fulfilled in the NEW Testament? Jesus declared, “I am LORD of the Sabbath” (Mk 2:28). The book of Hebrews goes even further and calls Jesus our “Sabbath rest” (4:9).
What does that mean for US, practically, today? Hebrews goes ON to say, “whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works” (4:10). It’s not just talking about taking a day off to worship anymore. Sure, that’s great - come join us again NEXT Sunday, and rest and worship. But the “works” that Hebrews 4 is talking about “resting” from are actually the “GOOD works” that you and I perform to try and EARN God’s favor. That’s what the Pharisees in JESUS’ day had turned the Sabbath into; they added law after law - 29 CHAPTERS worth of restrictions, in their oral tradition, the Talmud - to “clarify” what constituted “work” (Skip Heitzig, “Leviticus 23”). But Jesus saw through to their hearts - that they were trying to EARN God’s love by proving they were good people. And in the process, they made keeping the Sabbath, this day of rest, they made it HARD WORK!
Listen: we ALL want to “enter God’s rest”, don’t we? Everyone here WANTS to believe that HEAVEN is real and eternally RESTFUL, and that YOU are gonna go ENJOY that rest, when your time here is up.
But according to GOD, the only way you GET to, is by RESTING from YOUR works, and RELYING on CHRIST’S finished work, on your behalf. Which brings us to party #2…
#2- PASSOVER: Where we’re instructed to celebrate God’s PARDON by RELISHING. (4-8)
Now, you may be familiar with Passover; we often think of it as the MEAL that commemorates God’s deliverance of Israel from their slavery in Egypt, which is partially true. But if you remember the FULL story from Exodus 12, the TITLE actually refers to God’s sending an “angel of DEATH” to JUDGE the land of Egypt, but the angel “passed over” the Israelite homes because they had obeyed God and painted the blood of a LAMB over their doorposts, and then they ROASTED and ATE the lamb.
Now that teaches us THREE THINGS about Passover:
First, that God wasn’t just saving Israel from the Egyptians; he was saving them from THEIR OWN sins! He actually told them: “Listen and obey carefully, or you TOO will be judged, and PERISH!”
Second, the only way they could BE saved, PARDONED of their sins, was through a SACRIFICIAL LAMB. The Bible says, “The wages of sin is DEATH” - all sin against a HOLY God deserves to be PUNISHED, with DEATH; either OUR OWN, or something else’s death, in our place: a sacrifice.
And THIRD, this sacrifice is to be RELISHED - eaten and enjoyed - to be savored, cherished, treasured.
That’s Passover in the OLD Testament; how about in the NEW?
When John the Baptist “saw Jesus… he [declared], “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29). The apostle Paul calls Jesus “our Passover Lamb, who has been sacrificed” for us (1 Cor 5:7). To PARDON us, to FORGIVE us, of our SINS. The Bible says, “All we like sheep have gone astray, and turned—every one—to his own way” (Isa 53:6). See, sin isn’t just “the REALLY bad stuff, that a small MINORITY of really bad PEOPLE do”; according to God, sin is following your OWN heart, your OWN way, instead of following HIM, the Good SHEPHERD. And it’s something we ALL - “every one of us”, the Bible says, are guilty of.
And YET, SPEAKING of sheep, that very same passage in Isaiah prophesied 700 years before Jesus was even born, of a Savior - the “lamb of God”, who would be “led to the slaughter… cut off from the land of the living” as a perfect sacrifice in order to “bear the sin of many”; “by his wounds” the Bible says, “we are healed.” (Isa 53:5-12)
So the question for you and ME, friends, the personal implications of Passover, for US, are TWO-fold:
Have you painted the blood of the Lamb over the doorpost of YOUR heart? And
Do you RELISH, do you cherish and TREASURE him?
Some of you may have grown up going to church every Sunday, but this morning may be the first time in your LIFE that you’re actually hearing the GOSPEL - the good news that there really is a GOD - a good and loving but HOLY God, who will not simply turn a blind eye to SIN, which is a problem for you and me and every other person on the PLANET because WE HAVE ALL SINNED! But while we were yet sinners, Christ Jesus - the sinless Lamb of God - DIED for US; he took the punishment we deserved, and paid the penalty for our sins on the cross. And all YOU AND I have to do - all we CAN do now! - to receive his PARDON for sin, his FORGIVENESS, is simply BELIEVE! BELIEVE the good news - that Jesus is who he SAYS he is and he DID what he SAID he did for you on that cross. John 3:16 - you know it even if this is your FIRST time at church; you’ve seen the signs at sporting events and Googled it: “God so LOVED the world that he gave his ONLY SON, that whoever BELIEVES in him will not PERISH but have everlasting LIFE.”
Have you received JESUS as your Passover Lamb, for YOUR pardon?
Listen: if you don’t RELISH him - if you don’t SAVOR and TREASURE Jesus - then you haven’t really received him.
You might think you’re “good with God”, because your parents got you baptized 40 or 50 years ago.
You might think you’re a “pretty good person” and you “pay God his due respect”; after all, you’re here on EASTER, and Christmas too! Maybe you even PRAY every once in a while, when life gets tough enough that God FORCES you to your knees. And you think, “I’m good with God.”
But according to GOD, until Jesus Christ is your SAVIOR, you are NOT good. And if you don’t SAVOR him - if you don’t TREASURE Jesus above EVERYTHING ELSE in this world - then he is NOT your Savior. Jesus said, “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matt 10:38-39) He WILL be #1 in your life, or he will NOT be in your life AT ALL; Jesus isn’t interested in a silver medal, in second place.
Is he your SAVIOR and your LORD, your EVERYTHING?
#3 (gotta speed up!)- The festivals of both Firstfruits & Weeks (#4): invite us to celebrate God’s PROVISION by RENDERING. (9-22)
For Israel, the feast of “Firstfruits” was an annual recognition and celebration of God as “Lord of the HARVEST” - the BARLEY harvest, at the beginning of spring - and then seven weeks LATER, they honored him AGAIN at the festival of “WEEKS” with the first of their WHEAT harvest, late-spring.
And the WAY that God instructed Israel to celebrate was by RENDERING - by offering - a portion of the first and the best of their harvest back TO him, to remind themselves that EVERYTHING they had was a GIFT from GOD, HIS provision.
But BOTH these holidays take on a whole NEW meaning and significance in the NEW Testament.
“Firstfruits” is celebrated on the THIRD day, after Passover.
Wanna guess when Jesus, our Passover Lamb, died? Good Friday, April 3rd, the year 33 AD, was PASSOVER that year. Which meant that SUNDAY, the third day, was the feast of FIRSTFRUITS. Now listen to how the apostle Paul describes what Jesus did on Easter Sunday; he writes: “Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of… the resurrection” (1 Cor 15:20). He goes on, “For as by ONE man (ADAM) came death, by [ANOTHER] man [JESUS] has come also the resurrection of the dead” (v21). In other words, we ALL must die… but if we belong to JESUS, then we will be RAISED from the dead just like HIM! JESUS is the “firstfruits”, but we too can be included in the great “harvest” of SOULS that God is reaping for himself!
And God PROVED it seven weeks LATER at PENTECOST, when He sent his Holy SPIRIT as the SEAL - the PROMISE - of our salvation, and the CHURCH was born.
So now we celebrate God’s provision of “NEW LIFE” for us, in Christ: the HOPE of our future resurrection, as well as the ASSURANCE of that hope, as God’s Spirit gives us for victory over sin and newness of life even in the here and now.
And how do we RESPOND? How do we CELEBRATE this new life that Jesus “provides” for us? By RENDERING - offering - our lives back TO him, in holy surrender. The Bible exhorts us to “present your [selves] as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1). In other words: God not only gave us LIFE - caused you to be BORN; but if you’ve been SAVED, if you are now “in CHRIST”, then he caused you to be BORN AGAIN; He’s given you “NEW life”, ETERNAL life as WELL! The LEAST you and I can do is OFFER those lives that HE gave us in the first place (and the SECOND place: spiritual REBIRTH) - offer them BACK to God, to be used for HIS glory and purpose.
And do you know what his glorious purpose IS? How God WANTS to use us, once we’re his? To harvest MORE souls. God’s Spirit empowers us to make MORE followers of Jesus. Jesus told his disciples “The harvest is plentiful… therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matt 9:37-38)
That’s US, Church! We pray to be SENT; to be USED by God, to reach and SAVE the LOST.
#5- In the Feast of Trumpets, we celebrate God’s PRESENCE by READYING ourselves. (23-25)
The festival of Trumpets was all about PREPARING for the holiest of holidays in the Israelite calendar: the Day of Atonement, when God would MEET with his people. But you don’t just casually waltz on in to the presence of Almighty GOD. The Bible says, “God is a CONSUMING FIRE” (Heb 12:29); when MOSES asked to see God, to behold the fullness of God’s GLORY, God said, “Sorry, Moses, but man cannot SEE me and LIVE!” I’m just TOO glorious!”
So in the OT, only ONE man - the high priest - was allowed into God’s presence, only one day of the YEAR: the Day of Atonement (holiday #6, in just a moment). We studied it back in Leviticus ch16. But chapters 1-15 outlined the elaborate preparations that had to be made - not just by the high priest but by ALL of Israel - in order for that meeting with God to even be POSSIBLE.
The feast of Trumpets kicked off a 10-day period of preparation.
Imagine if King Charles was coming over for dinner. You’d probably clean up the HOUSE a bit, READY yourself for his PRESENCE. Not me; I couldn’t care LESS about the British monarchy. But let me tell you: if GOD was coming over for dinner…!?
But here’s the thing, Church - let’s go to the NEW Testament now - where we read that: God IS planning to stop by! Again, that is; he already CAME once, to deal with SIN; but Jesus is coming BACK, to reign as KING for the rest of ETERNITY. He said, “No one knows the day or the hour”, but I “will descend from heaven… with the sound of… [???] the trumpet of God”! (1 Ths 4:16)
THEREFORE, Jesus warned, “BE ON GUARD! STAY ALERT! WATCH OUT! ACT ACCORDINGLY” (Mk 13:32-37).
You want PRACTICAL APPLICATION for your own daily life? Imagine asking yourself, with every single THOUGHT, every WORD, every DECISION, every ACTION in your life - “If Jesus returned RIGHT NOW, this very MOMENT, would I be EXCITED… or would I be EMBARRASSED, to have him find me thinking this, saying this, doing this?”
NOW consider THIS: in a very real sense, he’s ALREADY here! In addressing those who have received Christ, the Bible asks: “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells WITHIN you?” (1 Cor 3:16)
God’s along for the RIDE - every thought, every deed.
So how do we CELEBRATE God’s presence? We READY ourselves. That passage goes ON to say, “For you are God’s temple, and his temple is HOLY” (v17).
We ready ourselves by living lives of HOLINESS, righteousness, PURITY.
Which brings us to holiday #6 - The Day of Atonement: when we celebrate God’s PURIFICATION by REPENTING. (26-32)
How do we RECEIVE God’s purification - his CLEANSING from sin, such that we POSSESS a holiness, WITHOUT which, the Bible says, “NO ONE will see the Lord”, cuz you gotta be HOLY, to enter the presence of a HOLY God (Heb 12:14)?
Well, in the OLD Testament, God’s answer was the Day of Atonement. When the high priest would sacrifice and make purification for any and all lingering, “outstanding” sins that may have gone unconfessed and therefore unatoned for throughout the year, for the entire NATION of Israel.
And what was ISRAEL’s role? They were called to “afflict themselves” (Lev 23:27) - to fast and confess and REPENT - that means to TURN from sin. The OT book of Proverbs says, “Whoever conceals his sins will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them [TURNS from them] will obtain mercy.” (28:13)
And that is REITERATED in the NEW Testament as well. If you want to get to GOD, you’ve gotta be HOLY. And in order to be MADE holy, we must be PURIFIED, CLEANSED, FORGIVEN. And in order to be forgiven, we must REPENT.
Acts 3:19 “Repent and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out”.
Acts 2:38 “Repent… every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins”.
And 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
So I ask you this morning, friends: have you CONFESSED and TURNED from your sins? The Bible says “No one who makes a PRACTICE of sinning truly KNOWS CHRIST” (1 Jn 3:6). To be stuck in SIN is to be stuck WITHOUT JESUS… without SALVATION.
But you can get UNSTUCK this morning: REPENT and BELIEVE. Turn from your sin and turn TO JESUS as Savior. And today can be YOUR Day of Atonement!
The LAST holiday, #7- is the Feast of BOOTHS: when we celebrate God’s PRESERVATION by RELYING on him. (33-43)
For Israel, this meant once a year, for 7 days, they would construct and live in BOOTHS, these little makeshift tents, to remind themselves of those 40 years out in the wilderness, in between their slavery in Egypt and the “good life” they would eventually enjoy in the Promised Land - when they were forced to DEPEND on God to sustain them every step of the way.
They had to collect MANNA, daily- they couldn’t FEED themselves; God had to rain down “BREAD FROM HEAVEN” for them.
He brought forth WATER from ROCKS, to quench their thirst.
He guided them, as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night…
God was there EVERYTHING! Israel was TOTALLY reliant and dependent on him, for survival.
But just before they entered the Promised Land, God warned them: “If you’re not CAREFUL, once you settle in this land of “milk and honey”, you’re gonna get FAT & comfortable, and then you’re gonna get COMPLACENT, and you’re gonna forget that the ONLY reason you’re here, in this nice homeland, is because I BROUGHT YOU. Not because YOU’RE so great; but because I AM,” God says.
And maybe THAT’S some of us this morning. We started off strong - well, started off WEAK, actually. Cuz that’s what God DESIRES: he LOVES weakness, because God’s strength is made PERFECT in our weakness, when he can prove that HIS grace is sufficient to SUSTAIN us. But maybe somewhere along the way, you FORGOT your weakness and your dependency on the Lord, and started relying on YOURSELF, on YOUR strength instead. And God is calling you back to the BOOTH this morning.
Listen: life is HARD out here in the wilderness, isn’t it? This period of time between our salvation and our eventual homecoming to Heaven, the Promised Land that awaits us - life can get TOUGH!
Who are you RELYING on, to get you THROUGH?
Only GOD has the power to PRESERVE you, to SUSTAIN you, to KEEP you to the end. Trust in Him.
CONCLUSION: Now, all of that is true and GOOD. But it’s still INCOMPLETE. Because as I told you, not only do these holidays all find their fulfillment in CHRIST, as we’ve seen, but they ALSO all find their ULTIMATE fulfillment in the holiest and best of ALL holidays: THIS ONE! EASTER! And I’ve got 3 minutes to show you HOW. What exactly did Jesus ACCOMPLISH on that Easter Sunday, in AD 33, when he walked out of the grave?
I’m glad you asked. He accomplished SIX things:
Jesus proved that he is SOVEREIGN - he has providence - over life and death, over Heaven and Hell; He is “Lord of the Sabbath” and Lord of all CREATION. Jesus could sleep in the boat in the middle of the storm in Matthew 8 because He is Lord over the wind & the waves, and if Jesus is the captain of OUR ship, WE can now rest easy not just through the storms of THIS life, but even in the greatest storm of ALL: DEATH.
“No fear in death / This is the power of Christ in me / From life’s first cry to final breath / Jesus commands my destiny.”
Jesus’ resurrection is the PROOF that he purchased our PARDON for sin. If His cross was the CHECK that Jesus wrote, to PAY the debt we owed, ALL our sin; then His empty tomb was the RECEIPT, the proof that the check CLEARED.
Jesus’ resurrection provides us with newness of life, ETERNAL life. Romans 6:4 promises “just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too [now] walk in newness of life.” In John 11:25, Jesus declared, ““I am the resurrection and the life.[d] Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he LIVE”!
Jesus’ resurrection gives us ACCESS to God’s PRESENCE. Just before he died, Jesus told his disciples “It’s actually BETTER for you that I GO AWAY” (Jn 16:7). And for 50 days, they were all thinking, “Jesus, HOW is this BETTER?! We MISS you! What could be BETTER than having you here WITH us?” But then at Pentecost they found out: the only thing better than having Jesus WITH you is having Jesus WITHIN you! You and I now have access to God - his very presence - that even his CLOSEST followers never DREAMED off for the 3 ½ years they followed him around this earth… through the HOLY SPIRIT.
Jesus’ resurrection PURIFIES us. What ELSE does the Holy Spirit do for us? According to Titus 3:5, “Jesus saved us… by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us… so that… we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” 1 Peter 3:21 says this “Baptism [this receiving and being WASHED by the Spirit] now saves [us], not as a removal of dirt from the body but [it’s a SPIRITUAL cleansing], through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”. We needed not just the cross, but Christ’s RESURRECTION for our purification as well.
Lastly, Jesus’ resurrection PRESERVES us. Just listen to 1 Peter 1:3-5; this may be the greatest Easter promise in all of God’s word: “According to God’s great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation.”
Friends: if you have been SAVED - been born again, through Christ’s RESURRECTION - then God is KEEPING your inheritance - eternal life - he is GUARDING it for you, in HEAVEN, through WHAT??
Through FAITH. “Whosoever BELIEVES in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Will you BELIEVE? There is better historical evidence for the life, death, and RESURRECTION of Jesus Christ than there is for just about any other event in antiquity. And it’s GOOD news. Jesus’ resurrection is such good NEWS for us. The Bible says, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Will you confess and believe this morning?