The Hope of Easter: Graves with Doors and Pits with Ladders

Friday, April 3, 2015

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"We own the finish line!" That's exactly what Vice President Joe Biden said at the memorial service for the Boston Marathon bombing victims. I heard those words and I just said, "That's Easter!" Death - life's finish line - has never been the same since Jesus blew it away that first Easter morning.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Hope of Easter: Graves with Doors and Pits with Ladders."

Not long ago, I stood with some Native American friends at the graveside service of their dad who was suddenly gone. And I could say with absolute confidence as the casket was lowered into the grave, "Your Dad's not here" because ever since Jesus walked out of His tomb, graves have doors; a door that opens right into heaven. So all death can do to all those who belong to this death-beating Savior is to take them Home.

Because the Easter miracle is not isolated to one event in one ancient cemetery a long time ago. This conquering Jesus said, "Because I live, you will also live" (John 14:19). And Scripture pulls back the dark curtain of death to reveal that "when we are away from the body," we are "present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8).

So "Dark King Death," you have been dethroned! My grave will only be my doorway to an unimaginable forever. Oh, not because that's what I deserve. Quite the contrary. I deserve to be forever away from the God whose right to run my life I have totally usurped.

But then came those six words when Jesus hung on that cross, paying for my sin. First, He said, "Father, forgive them." With a self-sacrificing love that's beyond words, Jesus was forgiving me; sinful, prideful, selfish me.

Then three more words, "It is finished!" That's a strangely triumphant cry with His life-blood draining away. He didn't say, "I am finished." He said, "It is finished!" The work for which He had come, the bill for human sin, the bill for my sin, for your sin, for everyone of us has been paid and was paid in full as Jesus died there.

But I don't have to wait for my expiration date to experience the power of the Easter miracle. Oh, no! He's alive right now! God's great ambassador, Paul, was literally at the end of his rope. Listen to our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9. He said, "We were under great pressure...beyond our ability to endure...we despaired even of life...in our hearts we felt the sentence of death" That's a pretty dark place to be wouldn't you say? A pretty deep pit. But do you know what he found in this pit? A ladder. A ladder out. The Jesus who crushed death.

Paul said, "But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead." When I feel hopeless, when I feel desperate, when I feel dead inside, I lunge for Jesus. He is my death-reversing Savior! And when there's no me and when it's got to be all Him, I get a spiritual and emotional resurrection!

There's a door in the grave. There's a ladder out of the pit because of Easter. The question is, "Have you ever invited this living Jesus to become the leader, the driver, the Savior of your life? He's waiting to do that, and what better time of year to do it. Because He walked out of His grave so He could walk into your life today. It's no accident we got together today. He's come looking for you.

I'd love to show you how to get that relationship started or to make sure you belong to Him if you'll just meet in at our website ANewStory.com. Because of Jesus, we own the finish line.