Sermons

What Does Easter Mean to Me?

Mark 16:2-6

It’s Easter Sunday morning on the 20th day of April 2025, but I want you to imagine it’s very early on the first Easter Sunday Morning, some 2000 years ago.

Imagine you are one of the disciples of Jesus and you wake up in a cold sweat remembering the horror of what had happened on Friday.

Your friend, your teacher, the one you gave up everything to follow is dead.

Crucified like a common criminal.

If only you could have done something.

If only the crowd had let Him go instead of that murderer Barabas.

Your shouts of “let Jesus go, He has done nothing wrong!” Had been drowned out by the screams of the crowd yelling Crucify Him, crucify Him! We will take responsibility for His death—we and our children! His blood be on us and on our children!”

You watched as He was beaten, you watched as a crown of thorns was pushed into His brow.

You watched as He was forced to carry His cross to Golgotha, the place of the skull.

You watched as the soldiers nailed His hands and feet to the cross and raised it up into its stand.

You cried as you watched His last hours of pain and suffering till He shouted, “It is finished” and breathed His last breath.

As He died, it felt like something inside you had died as well.

Your dreams shattered, your hope turned into fear, your purpose now purposeless, everything gone.

For three years you had been His disciple.

How the days had flown by, it seems like only yesterday when He had asked you to follow Him and become a fisher of men.

You had listened to His every word as He spoke to you and as He spoke to crowds of people throughout the region.

Though if you are honest, there were times when you really didn’t understand what He was saying, and you were always pleased He took the time to explain His words to you and the other disciples.

All He had wanted from you was everything, and you gave it.

All he had asked was that you believe and oh how you had believed.

You had seen the impossible,

you had seen blind men see,

you had seen lame men walk,

and you had even seen Lazarus, a dead man, live again.

You had believed with all your heart, but not anymore, your belief was as dead as your master.

As you lay on your bed, you begin to cry again, seems like that is all you have done since Thursday night.

You think about your past, your present, even your future.

There is nothing left now all you can do is go home, to leave Jerusalem, to leave your hopes, to leave your dreams and just go home.

You might as well try and recover your yesterdays, try and go back to the life you had before.

Your dreams are as dead as Jesus in His borrowed tomb.

Captured, beaten, crucified, dead and buried.

But then you hear a shout from outside, “He’s alive, the tomb is empty. Jesus is alive. He has risen from the grave.”

What? Can it be?

Suddenly your heart is filled with fresh hope. You jump from your bed and rush out to discover the two Mary’s had seen an empty tomb.

Mary had seen empty grave clothes and then Mary had even seen Jesus.

Jesus wasn’t dead, Jesus was alive.

Imagine you were His disciple that morning, instead of mourning His death, you are celebrating His resurrection, you are celebrating Him being alive.

The sadness of Jesus’ death on the cross and crushed dreams are shattered.

Instead, there is joy, exhilaration and peace.

Your focus, our focus has changed, it is not on death it’s on life.

Jesus is alive and the tomb is empty.

There is purpose, there is a future, there is hope.

If Jesus’ story had ended at the cross, hope would have died with him, but it didn’t.

Without the Resurrection, following Jesus would be pointless. Belief in the Resurrection is central to the Christian faith.

We believe as did the early church that Christ has risen from the dead, there was a physical resurrection.

The miracle of the Resurrection really happened.

When we look back on the events of that first Easter, we’re looking at more than events in history, the events of Easter changed history, the events of Easter changed our destiny.

In Romans 4:25 The Bible says Jesus was handed over to die because of our sins, and He was raised to life to make us right with God.

Listen to Romans 6:3-11, Have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in His death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

5 Since we have been united with Him in His death, we will also be raised to life as He was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with Him.

9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and He will never die again. Death 
no longer has any power over Him.

10 When He died, He died once to break the power of sin. But now that He lives, He lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

The focus of Easter is Jesus coming to earth, being nailed to a cross on our behalf and rising from the dead three days later.

We believe in a risen savior, Jesus defeated death, death could not contain Him.

Sin and its effects are defeated.

Sin no longer has a grip on us.

This is our certain hope, just as Jesus was raised and restored, we will be raised and restored too.

Billy Graham once said, “The cross shows the seriousness of our sin – but it also shows us the immeasurable love of God.”

Jesus came to seek and save the lost, Jesus came to set the captives free,

Jesus came to break the power of sin in our lives,

Jesus came to bear the punishment of our sin,

Jesus came to die on the cross in our place.

Then on that first Easter Sunday,

Jesus was raised from the dead, so that you and I could be forgiven,                                              

so that we could believe,                                    

so that we could repent and be born again,          

so that we could be assured of eternal life and a place in Heaven with God the Father for eternity.

And all you must do is reach out and accept it.

Jesus overcame the grave, He’s still alive and available for you to personally encounter.

“He’s alive, the tomb is empty. Jesus is alive.

He has risen from the grave”

The first people to see Jesus alive after His resurrection were the women who went to the tomb early that Sunday morning.

Actually, the writer of the Gospel of Mark starts the story the night before, Mark 16:1 tells us that on Saturday evening, when the Sabbath ended, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went out and purchased burial spices so they could anoint Jesus’ body.

Then the Bible tells us very early on Easter Sunday morning the women were returned to the tomb where the lifeless body of Jesus had been placed after being taken down from the cross before the Jewish Sabbath.

They wondered about moving the great stone door of the tomb but when they arrived they found it had already been rolled away, and the tomb was open.

Listen to John 20:1-2 Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put Him!”

Mark 16:5-7 tells us, The women were shocked, but the angel said, “Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid His body.

Some say that Easter is a pagan holiday and should not be celebrated by Christians. The truth is, I never have celebrated the day. I celebrate that because Jesus got up from the dead, I can live also.

Now, What does Easter mean to me?                

First of all, to the world Easter means money. Because the world turns everything into a selling point. To the world Easter is about commercial gain. When you walk into the store around Easter, the whole stock changes.

Everything in the store has the look of spring. Beautiful spring colors. Rabbits, and Easter eggs, baskets, and beautiful flowers, and candy. And beautiful spring time clothes.

Then, Easter is a time for family, a time for get togethers and picknicks. It's a time to go somewhere and just enjoy the beautiful outdoors, and look at the new life, that is springing up everywhere.

But what does Easter mean to the believer? Well, to the believer Easter doesn't have anything to do with Rabbits, or Easter eggs, or picknicks.

To the Christians Easter symbolizes our spiritual birthday.

Let me explain that, because most Believers would say... I thought it was about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

 And to that I would say... You're exactly right, but one of the greatest themes of the Bible is, substitution.

Paul was the one who really unveiled this revelation of substitution in the New Testament. What does the word substitution mean? It means the act, the process, or the result of substituting one thing for another.

Example: A substitute teacher. A teacher who stands in and acts in the place of another. So a substitute is one that takes the place of another.

This spiritual principle was foreshadowed in the Old Testament. It is in the story of the sacrificed goat, and the scapegoat.

The first goat was killed, as a sin offering.

Leviticus 4:24 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the goat and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the LORD: it is a sin offering.

So, we have two goats, and these two goats together complete this picture of substitution.

First is the sacrificed goat, dying for the sins of the people. So, you have the picture of one dying in the place of another.

Second, the priests would lay their hands on the head of the second goat, then send him off into the wilderness.

This was symbolic of the goat becoming the guilty person, and the ones who were guilty of the sins, were released from the penalty of their sins.

The picture was that the goat took the place of the guilty people with their sins. And because the goat carried away their sins, the children of Israel were free from their sins.

So here you have the full picture of substitution. One dying in the place of another, for their sins. And one taking the sins, of another and giving them freedom.

 That's exactly what Jesus did. The innocent one took our sins upon Himself, and the innocent one died in our place, as the guilty one. And He took our sins away. And gave us His innocence, or His righteousness.

The Bible says it like this... 2 Corintians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteous-ness of God in him.

The Bible says... *There is none righteous, no not one.

*For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

*We all like sheep have gone astray and turned everyone to his own way.

*And the wages of sin is death.

*The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

But here is the wonder of it all. There was one human being born out of all the billions of people, of every nationality and every race, who was perfect, and He was sinless, and His name is Jesus.

1 Peter 2:22 Says... He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.

Praise God, this perfect, innocent, sinless one, knowing the penalty for our sins. Willingly took our sins upon Himself, and suffered as the guilty one, in order to give us His innocence, His righteousness.

That's substitution. That's the gospel in a nutshell....

*We were sinners, we had broken God's laws, our sins separated us from God.

*We were guilty and worthy of death, and eternal separation, from God.

*But Jesus offered Himself in our place as the sacrificial lamb.

*To redeem us from our sin and restore us back to fellowship with God.

Remember I said Easter is to me the celebration of my spiritual birthday, and here's why... Because substitution has two parts...

First... Jesus the innocent one dying as the guilty one.

Second... Is our identification with Him. In our identification with Him, everything He has becomes mine. So, because He was willing to take my place as the substitute, now through identification, everything He paid for with His sacrifice, becomes mine, and yours.

Tthrough identification I am resurrected with Him.

Through my identification with Him, the old man of sin was crucified with Jesus.

Then through identification with Him, when Jesus was resurrected from the dead, I was resurrected with Him, as a new creature.

That's what we call born again. That's why I say, Easter is not just the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. It is my spiritual birthday too. By faith the old sin nature in me, was crucified with Jesus.

And by faith that old sinner man was buried with Him.

And by faith, when Jesus arose, so did I. Romans 6:4 says it this way... Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

*Crucified with Him.

*Buried with Him.

*Raised to new life with Him.

That's message of the gospel...

*Man is a sinner first by birth, then by choice.

*Man is guilty before God.

God sent His son as the substitute sacrificial lamb.

Jesus paid our sin debt in our place, and gave us His righteousness.

Then through identification with Him, we become heirs to everything Jesus has.

Not only to eternal life. But also to the abundant life.

Joy

Peace

Authority

Health

Prosperity

Anointing

Power

All of this is contained in the salvation verse of the Bible John 3:16... For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish but have everlasting life.

God so loved the world... that means you, and me. And that means, it doesn't matter what sins you have committed, how wicked, or perverse you are

or have been, He still loves you.

You may reject His love and turn your back on Him, and walk away, but He will never stop loving you.

You may criticize Him, and mock Him and ridicule His name, and spit in His face as the crowd did on crucifixion day, but He will say... father forgive them, for they know not what they do, and He will still love you.

Because Jesus lives, I live. Because Jesus was raised from the dead by the mighty Spirit of God, I too have been raised from the death of sin, by the mighty Holy Spirit.

The Bible says that in Adam all died. That means that because of the first Adam's sin, the entire human race was born into sin.

But Jesus the second Adam, paid the price for our sins, with His own blood, and brought us back into fellowship with God.

I am so glad, that Jesus died for me. But I am doubly thankful that He rose from the dead.

Because His death took away my sins. But it was His resurrection, that gave me new life.

I was lost but now I'm found.

I was blind but now I see.

I was dead but now I live, and I not only have eternal life, I have abundant life today.

I not only have heaven to go to. I have heaven today to go to heaven in. Jesus brought heaven to my heart.

The old Hymn said it this way...

Heaven came down, and glory filled my soul. When at the cross the savior made me whole. My sins were washed away, and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.

Church, do you have that glory in your soul?

Do you have that joy of knowing that your sins are forgiven?

Do you know right now that old things have passed away and all things have become new?

The Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. As we are gathered together today to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, today can be your resurrection too. You can be raised from the death of sin into a new life in Christ.

In one moment’s time, you can go from...

...Darkness to light.

...Lost to found.

...Sinking deep in sin, to standing on the rock.

...Death to life.

...The bondage of guilt and shame, to the freedom of knowing that your sins are forgiven, and your name is written down in the Lambs book of life.

What does Easter mean to me? It means, that Jesus is alive... It means that He got up.

Satan the prince of darkness, with all his demons and every ounce of hellish power at his disposal, could not hold Jesus in the grave.

The moment God the Father said, the demands of justice have been satisfied; the mighty Holy Spirit began to pulse through Jesus body, and He threw off every demon, and kicked the gates of hell off their hinges, and He walked up to the devil and said... give me those keys. And the Bible says, Colossians 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

And then the Bible says... Ephesians 4:8 he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men.

 I've got to say this... Jesus is awesome. I mean that the God we serve, is absolutely, totally, undeniably, amazing... And that same resurrection power is at work in you and me today.

Romans 8:11 says... But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Hallelujah! because He lives, I live also. It means...

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know, yes I know, He holds my future, and life is worth the living, just because He lives.

Because He lives, I live also... that's what Easter means to me.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen!