All right, this morning we're just going to look at one verse of Scripture, Matthew chapter number 28, and we're just going to read verse number 6. But we're going to mention several Scriptures because we're going to paint a picture for you. Matthew 28, 6 says, He is not here, for He is risen. As he said, come see the place where the Lord lay. And I'm sure that's a very familiar passage of scripture to you, but I'm just going to use that as the foundation for what I'm going to talk about today. And the message is, why is Easter so important? Why is it that we celebrate Easter and why do we have this special day? So it is a special day for churches. It is a special day because it's the foundation of all that we believe. So I hope you will see at the end of the sermon today why Easter is so important. Also, I hope you'll see why your friends and family may invite you to come and worship with them on Easter. And it is because of what it means to them. and what it means to churches. So, as we think about this, what we're going to look at today, first of all, is we want to understand that God has painted a picture for us. God is telling a story to us in His Word. And we find out that the resurrection there, Jesus being crucified for sin and buried and then being raised again the third day, that's the climax of the story of the history of man. God has created this world, and He's created a future world where a new heaven and a new earth is going to come down from God out of heaven. But in between creation in Genesis 1 and Revelation 22 is an entire story that God is writing for us. And what you find out is that the resurrection is the climax to the story. And the thing we want to remember that is when we think about a climax of the story, it's not the end. It's not the end of the story. And we'll talk about that in just a second. But what we want to think about today is that the death of Jesus on the cross is not the end of the story. Jesus being buried and then raised again for three days. That's not the end of the story. That's the climax of the story. The end of the story is going to come later on, which we will talk about. But when we think about the climax of a story, what is the climax of the story? The climax, as defined, is the turning point where everything comes to a head. It's when tensions reach their peak, conflicts hit their breaking point, and the protagonist faces their biggest challenge or revelation. This moment often determines the ultimate outcome of the story, making it the most emotionally charged and gripping part. And so today, we see that the resurrection is the climax of the story that God is writing. But you might say, why is it the climax of the story that God is writing? And that's what we're going to talk about. So the climax to what? And it is, like we said, this story. We read, and we know, and if you've been around Christian people very much, you know the words of Genesis 1-1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and so we know that God created this world in which we live. And we know that He created this world so it would display His glory. All of creation is to display the glory of God. The heavens declare His glory, the book of Psalms tell us. We see love and mercy and peace and compassion in this world. All of that comes from God. Every good thing that you see in this world comes from God, and it's pointing us to God and showing us that there is one out there who is full of love, and full of compassion, and full of mercy, and full of peace. And so this world, on display in this world, is the glory of God. Revelation chapter before in verse number 11 says thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power for thou has created all things and for thy pleasure They are and were created and so since the beginning When God created the heavens and the earth the glory of God has been on display in this world Except something happened to this world and You're not very far in, Genesis chapter number three, and you find the serpent beguiled Eve and tempted her to eat of this fruit that God said, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but not to eat of the tree that's in the midst of the garden, because the day that you eat thereof thou shalt surely die. Eve ate of the fruit and gave to her husband Adam. And they rebelled against God and they sinned. And sin came into the world. And God's glorious creation was marred because of sin. And the end result of that we see every day in our lives. The end result of sin is greed, bitterness, envy, hatred, wickedness of every kind. Not very long after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden because they wanted to be like God, one of their sons murdered their other son. Wickedness came into this world. The glory of God's creation was marred because of sin. And so we recognize that this earth is not what it should be. It's not what it was created to be. The glory of God's creation has been tarnished by sin. And we know that at begin, after creation, even before Adam and Eve sinned, there was an anointed cherub by the name of Lucifer who rebelled against God. And he said, I want to be, I will be like the Most High. And God's judgment came upon Satan, and Satan was removed from God's presence. He was cast out of heaven. So very early, created beings wanted to be like God, wanted to be the rulers of their own life. And God's creation was marred. Then, of course, we've already mentioned how that sin came to earth as Satan attempted to destroy God's creation. His desire is to be like the Most High, and Satan hates God and wants to destroy God, and so he attacked God's creation. And he attacked that which was made in God's image. Let's not forget this. Every one of you today, you're created in God's image. created on purpose by God for a purpose. You're not an accident. You are alive because God chose for you to be alive, and you were created in the image of God. So never let anyone tell you that your life doesn't matter, that you're just a blob of energy, that there's nothing after life, that your life doesn't matter. Your life does matter. God created you to bring Him glory. You are important. You are created in the image of God. And so Satan, desiring to attack God, attacked the image of God. He attacked man, and Satan caused and tempted man to sin. And what's the end result? God had told Adam, in the day that you eat of that fruit, you're going to die. And the end result of that is death. And we all experience it, don't we? Death comes in many forms. Death comes to some who are of an old age. And sometimes death comes before one is even born. And every time in between, we all experience it. Death. Death came because of sin. And we hate death. But death is a part of the creation of God. And ever since Adam's sin in the garden, Satan has been attempting to overthrow God's throne. The battleground where Satan is attempting to overthrow God's throne has been God's creation. And Satan's greatest ally is death. We all fear death. None of us want to die. But Satan uses death to try to accomplish his purposes, to overthrow God's throne. And every one of us are in this battleground every day of our lives. Satan attempting to overthrow God. God displaying His glory, but Satan trying to steal God's glory. Every one of us are in that battleground every day of our lives as we battle with the temptations to be like God ourselves, and as we struggle with the flesh, and even as we struggle with death. We're all in this battleground. Death being Satan's greatest ally. But on the cross, Jesus dies. In the empty tomb, he is not here, for he is risen, as he said. That is the ultimate victory. It is the climax of all of God's creation as God has defeated creation's greatest antagonist. The antagonists in the story are Satan and death and rebellion. And so Satan is defeated at the empty tomb. Satan was cast out of heaven. Satan was removed from the presence of God. And one day in the future, Satan is going to be sent and banished to his eternal punishment. He will be cast into the lake of fire, where he will spend eternity in torment because he rebelled against God, because he wanted to be like the Most High. He was removed from God's presence. And one day, God will ultimately cast Satan into the lake of fire. But until that time, Satan continues to attack. He attacks God, and he attacks God's creation, and Satan attacks men. Every day, we come underneath the temptations of Satan, as Satan kind of gives us the same temptation he gave Adam and Eve in the garden. Now, as God said, thou shalt surely die. He tempts men to rebel against God's authority in their lives. And he attempts to get men to curse God. If you even read in Romans chapter number one, one of Satan's greatest ploys is to convince men that there is no God. And when men fall so far away from God that they say there is no God, Satan has gained a great victory. You know, we need to be careful about that, that we don't, that we're not blinded by Satan so much that we begin to doubt the existence of God. Because the moment that we do, we're the ally of Satan. He has us manipulated. He has us, as the old saying goes, hook, line, and sinker. We are his. And we don't want to fall into that state. But if you look out into our world today, how many people are in that state where they doubt the existence of God? It's a dangerous position to be in. Satan is getting the victory so many times in our world. And so Satan continues to attack God, and he attacks God's creation. If we go back to The garden, when Satan tempted Adam and Eve, God put a curse upon man, and He put a curse upon the serpent. The curse for the serpent was that he was going to crawl on his belly for the rest of his days, and that he would bruise the seat of the woman's heel, but that the seat of the woman would crush the serpent's head. What do we see happening on the cross? On the cross, we see Satan attacking God. We see Satan attacking the Son of God. We see him thinking he's gaining the victory because Christ is going to die. The Son of God is going to die. And Satan, since death is his greatest ally, and Jesus dies on the cross, Satan thinks that he has won the greatest victory. but when Jesus is raised again from the dead and he overcomes death. we see actually God winning his greatest victory because Satan's greatest ally is death and Jesus has overcome Satan's greatest ally. He has overcome death. And so the empty tomb is the climax to the story because Satan's attempt to convince Jesus to rebel against God, against his father's will, is unsuccessful. Because think about the first Adam in the Garden of Eden. God does know that in the day you eat, this is Satan talking to Adam, God does know that in the day that you eat, you'll be like God. And Adam said, I want to be like God. I want my will. And so Adam took of the fruit and he did eat. Satan tempted Jesus. Jesus refused to go against the word of God. Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane before his death and he says, Father, if there be any other way, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. What do we see? Jesus refusing to rebel against His Father. He refuses to rebel against God. And so He gains the greatest victory. Satan wanted Jesus to rebel against His Father. And Jesus said, no, I'll not rebel against My Father. I'll not do things My own way. I'll do things only My Father's way. And He submitted. He became obedient unto death. even the death of the cross, and Jesus went to the cross, and because He was willing to die, He was raised again the third day, and He got victory over death. It's the climax. because that's where victory is seen. It was in the resurrection. When Jesus was raised again the third day, He gained victory over death, and because of that, Satan's greatest ally, which is death, has been defeated. Hebrews 2.15 says, and deliver them who through bondage, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. You see, Jesus delivers those who are afraid of death. The wages of sin that Adam committed in the garden was death. And God told Adam, in the day that you eat of that fruit, you're going to die. So Adam ate of that fruit, and death passed upon all men. And so we know what has been the history of man Adam, you look into the scripture it says, and Adam lived 930 years and he died. Seth lived 912 years and he died. Enos lived 905 years and he died. What do we know about every person that was born into the world since the days of Adam? And he died. Now, there are two people in the Bible which we'll not get into that did not die, the prophets of God, but we'll not get into that right now. But other than that, every person that's born into the world, what's the end result? And he died. What's gonna be the end result for all of us? And he died. We're all gonna die one day. We're man. We're going to die. It's just part of life. But for some, death holds a different perspective. There's something, there's hope for some. For some, they know death is not the end. For some, they know there's life after death. Why do they know that and why do they have hope that there's life after death? Because they believe that Jesus died for them and that it was rose again the third day for their justification and so what they believe is because I believed in Jesus when I died this physical did this physical body dies my Spiritual body is going to go on to be with the Lord and I'm gonna have eternal life with Jesus Christ Forever. It's all because of the resurrection. Death has no sting for the one who has believed in Jesus Christ. When Jesus rose from the grave, death was defeated. Death is not the end for everyone who will believe in Jesus. The empty tomb is the climax because the penalty passed upon sin was defeated. Jesus overcome death. Now there's so much to this story. Think about Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22. There's a lot there. And I have by no means covered it all. I've not answered every question that you might have about Christianity and about life and all of that. But I'm just trying to show you this story that God is writing. And I'm trying to get you to see that of all of human history, from God speaking and saying, let there be light and there was light until the end when you see a new heaven and a new earth coming down from God out of heaven. In between that, all of that, the fall of man, what I'm trying to get you to see is the empty tomb is the climax because it's what gives us hope. And it is when the antagonists are defeated and the protagonist being Jesus gets his greatest victory. And so the climax of the story is the resurrection. But as I said earlier, the climax is not the end. A lot of people think that the resurrection is the end of it all. It's not the end of it all, it's the highest point of it all, but the story continues to unfold. And so the story unfolds as we read in Acts chapter 1. So when Jesus rose from the grave, he defeated death. Eternal life was secured and the story unfolds. The climax, the resurrection is the most pivotal point but it leads to the rest of the story. What's the rest of the story? Acts chapter number one tells us that Jesus spends time with his apostles after the resurrection, teaching them, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And so after Jesus was resurrected, he spent time with his apostles, teaching them about the kingdom of God that is to come. Later in Acts 1, in Acts 1 and verse 9, it tells us that Jesus ascends to His Father. And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, behold, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And so Jesus was resurrected. He spent 40 or 50 days with His apostles, teaching them, and then He ascended up to His Father. But that's still not the end of the story. because His apostles were there with Him whenever He ascended up. And they stood and they were looking into heaven when He left them. And the angels appeared to them, which also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven. And so, what were they saying? That Jesus ascended But Jesus is coming again. He's coming again to get his people and to take them to be where he is. And that's where we're at today. You see where you're living today is after the resurrection, after the ascension, waiting on the Lord to return to call his people unto himself. We're still living in this conflict. Satan has been defeated because death has been defeated, but his ultimate defeat has not happened yet. That's still yet in the future, which we'll look at in just a second. But we're living in this time when we're awaiting the return of Jesus. And again, there's lots of things that's going to happen between now and the return of Jesus. Now and the end. of it all, and I'm going to tell you the end of the story. What's going to happen between now and the end of the story? Sin is going to be judged. Satan's ultimate defeat is going to happen. There's lots of things. You go into the book of Revelation, and you find all of this battle that's going to take place, and God is going to defeat Satan and his armies, and then Satan is going to ultimately be cast into the lake of fire. The Bible tells us that Jesus is going to come and get his people, and it's described as the lamb is going to marry his bride. Something else we know, this earth that we live in. I dug a splinter out of my finger a while ago. There's gonna be a time when there's gonna be no thorns and no thistles. If you was outside yesterday, Kimberly told me that she got bit by a honeybee, got stung by a honeybee. You know, there's flies swarming around and skeeters and all that kind of stuff. You know, there's gonna be a time when all of that stuff, all of the wickedness that's in this world is gonna be purged away. The brokenness that our state, from its farthest west to its farthest east, has been ravaged by floods this year, haven't it? One day that's all gonna be gone. All of the negative stuff that you can think about that comes into our world because of sin. One day that's all going to be pushed away and sin is going to be removed from this earth. The Bible tells us that this earth is going to melt with fervent heat. And there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth come down from God out of heaven. And the beginning of creation as God created it is going to be restored. And all things are going to be made new. And God will wipe every tear from every eye. And the glory of God will be on display once again as sin and the curse of sin has been removed. Revelation 21 10 says, and he carried me away into the spirit into a great and high mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of God, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. One day things are going to be made new. No sickness, no sorrow, no pain, no death, no earning your bread by the sweat of your brow. The curse is going to be gone forever. That's what we're looking forward to. That's all in the future. And again, by no means have I told you all that's there. I'm just giving you a synopsis of the hope that we have. But can you see why the resurrection is the climax of human history? Because all of us are living in God's plan. All of us are living. God created us to show His glory. And all of us are living in the presence of sin. Sin in our hearts. Sin in our community. Sin in our lives. But that sin was defeated on the cross. That sin was defeated when Jesus was resurrected again. And hope comes into our life. Because of the resurrection, we see God's glory through His redeeming of His creation. from the curse of sin and His people from the debt of their sin. And we see the believer's hope is secured by the resurrection. What hope do we have if this world is just going on following a course that's not charted out by anything? It's just all happening by chance. How can we have hope? We can't have hope. If there is no God, there is no hope. If there is no resurrection, there is no hope. But we have hope because there is a God. We have hope because there is a resurrection. And one day, we're going to be done with this sin-cursed earth. And we're going to be done with our troubles and trials. And one day, we're going to live with Jesus. But it's all because of the resurrection. Without the resurrection, there is no hope. So I've kind of told you the story, but now I want to kind of tell you why it's important to us. That's the story. But why is it important? Why is it important because, and why is it important that you are here today? Do you know that the moment you walked in that door, you made someone smile? Oh, I don't know who it was. It might have been somebody in your family. I can tell you one person it was. It was me. Every time you guys walk through that door, it makes me smile. It kind of scares me too. I was sitting there praying earlier and I was like, Lord, I can't believe this. I got to tell them the truth. I got to preach your word. And that's your eternal Word. It kind of scares me. But it makes me smile when I see you walk through the door. It makes me smile because you're here and you're going to have the opportunity to hear the Word of God. The glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. The way to have eternal life and hope is important to us because of the hope that we enjoy. There's some things we want you to know. If you have not repented of your sins, you are in rebellion against God. Just like Adam chose to rebel against God in the Garden of Eden and eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and death passed upon him, every man born into the world sins against God and is in rebellion against God. And here's what you need to remember. In the time of this ignorance, God winked at, but now God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. God commands every man that comes into the world to repent of their sins. And if you have not repented of your sins, you're in rebellion to God because God commanded you to do so. So just like Satan was kicked out of heaven, Just like Adam was removed from the garden, every man is separated from the presence of God because of sin. You are separated from God. If you have not repented, you are separated from God. And here's what we want you to know. We don't want your separation from God to last for eternity. All of us have been separated from God for a period of time. But some of us have repented and because of that we're admitted back into the presence of God and we don't want your separation from God to last for eternity. You're still dead in your trespasses and sins. We want you to believe in Jesus so that your sin debt will be paid and you will receive the gift of eternal life. We also want you to know Easter Sunday is celebrated as a powerful testament to Jesus' obedience to His Father's will. We want you to understand why Easter holds such deep significance for us. Because rejecting what Jesus accomplished on this day reflects a continued rebellion against God. Our hope is that you will not remain in that rebellion, but instead choose to believe in Jesus. We want you. You see, all of us who have believed, we live in anticipation of the Lord's return. We live waiting for the day that the trumpet is going to sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with Him in the clouds, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Jesus said in John 14 let not your hearts be troubled you believe in God believe also in me in my father's man House are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you behold I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you I'll come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also you see we live in the hope of the Lord's Return and we want you to live in the same hope We don't want you to live in despair We don't want you to live in brokenness. We don't want you to live in defeat. We want you to live in joy and hope and peace. And it's the joy and hope and peace that only comes by believing that Jesus was raised again for my justification, because I have sinned, because I have been guilty before God, and I believe that Jesus died for me, and I trust Jesus, and so therefore I have hope. We want you to know that Jesus is coming again. We want you to know that there's one day when all things are going to be made new. Yes, we struggle with sin. Yes, we struggle with wickedness that's in this world and some things. It's too much for us to understand sometimes how people can be so wicked. And sometimes this world doesn't always act justly. Sometimes injustice prevails. But one day, when all things are made new, God, who is a just God, is going to right the wrongs. Justice will be served. And those who deserve justice will receive justice. And sometimes when injustice happens in our world, we have to trust the justice of God, that one day God will act in justice. But we live in anticipation when all things will be made new. And the empty tomb, here's what we want you to know. The empty tomb gives us hope. Hope that things will be made new. Hope for eternal life. And we could go on and explain so many things that the empty tomb gives to us. This is why Easter is so important to us, and this is what we want you to know. So Easter is a time when we celebrate. We celebrate the victory of God over the rebellion of creation. We celebrate the victory of God over death. We celebrate that we can be justified before God. We celebrate God and His glory. We celebrate the hope which we have because of the resurrection. So today, won't you celebrate with us by confessing your sins, believing that Jesus died for your sins, Putting your faith in Jesus so that you can have eternal life and live the rest of your life with the hope of eternal glory with Christ Jesus today Celebrate by being obedient to the command of God where he commands all men everywhere to repent and repent today So that you can celebrate with us yes, Easter Sunday is a day when we celebrate the resurrection, but I It's not only Easter Sunday when we celebrate, we celebrate every Sunday. That's the whole point of Sunday. We get to come together, we get to sing, we get to pray, we get to preach, we get to worship the risen Lord, and we celebrate His resurrection. And that's why Sunday, every Sunday, we wish you were with us. But we're thankful that you're here with us today. And we want you to celebrate with us and understand why Easter is so important. is because of the hope that it gives us. And we want you to enjoy the same hope. Let's stand for prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day, and we thank you for the hope that we have in Christ Jesus. I pray, Lord, that someone today would recognize their need to repent, and they would come and confess their sins so that they could rejoice in the hope that we have in Christ. Thank you, Lord, today that you have not left us hopeless, but you have given us hope. Thank you for Jesus. In his name we pray, amen.