3 Days That Changed Forever!

3 Days That Changed Forever!
John R. Petrilli

If someone were to ask you what the most important event in history was, what would your answer be? Some might choose the winning of a world war, a life-changing invention, or the day man landed on the moon. Many
would likely cite an event involving world leaders, while those interested in the sciences would probably favor an important discovery. While each has merit, not one of them had an impact on eternity. For this reason, I believe that Easter is the most significant event in human history. A close look at that momentous Passover weekend substantiates Easter as the greatest event in human history. In the third chapter of his first letter, the apostle Peter reveals three ways that the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ have impacted both time and eternity.

EASTER’S CROSS CHANGED OUR SPIRITUAL STATUS FROM GUILTY SINNERS TO FORGIVEN SAINTS.

“Christ died for sins, once for all, the just for the unjust.” 1 Peter 3:18a

Credit card debt is running rampant in our society. Consider this: The average American now carries a credit card debt of over $10,000, a whopping 175% increase over just seven years ago! If you multiply this amount by only ½ of America’s population, it would total a stunning $800 trillion dollars of credit card debt! It’s hard to even fathom what the credit card debt of the whole world is. Now imagine if someone offered to pay-off the credit card debt of the whole world. That would be nothing short of astounding! Now picture in your mind someone paying-off the sin debt of every man, woman, and child ever born! That’s just a hint of the unbelievable magnitude of Jesus’ death for our sins. Our text also describes Jesus with the adjective, “just”.
The scandalously incredible thing about the Easter story is that no charge against Jesus actually stuck. They crucified a completely innocent man! After rigorous and repeated cross-examinations, Pilate found Jesus completely innocent of all charges. Pilate’s wife warned him to “have nothing to do with that INNOCENT man”! The chief priests couldn’t produce a single shred of evidence to convict Christ! Judas went to his grave openly admitting he’d betrayed an innocent man. Not only was Jesus innocent of any crime, His whole LIFE was innocent of any sin! When Christ challenged his enemies to find a single fault in Him, they couldn’t!
In his Pentecostal message Peter calls Christ, “the Holy and JUST One”. In his pre-martyrdom address, Stephen referred to Jesus as “the JUST One.” Paul declared Christ to be, “without sin, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners”. Jesus Christ was the only person ever born with a sin-less nature, and that qualified Him to die in our place for our sins. Without Easter we would be forever stuck in a miserable state of guilt. But Jesus took our guilt & sin to the cross so that we can live as forgiven people.

EASTER’S CROSS CHANGED OUR EXISTENCE FROM MEANINGLESS TO PURPOSEFUL.

“Christ died … so that He might bring us to God”. 1 Peter 3:18b

While cellphones certainly have many advantages, one of the inconveniences is the dreaded “dropped call”. For those not familiar with that term, it’s when the signal is lost and the cell call ends without any warning.
Disconnects are tough to deal with. They bring a halt to the free flow of communication. The greatest disconnect of all time took place when man lost connection with God. That disconnect left us completely out of touch with our Creator. Nothing we could do could ever restore that lost connection. Only the death of the spotless Lamb of God could get us back in touch with God. That’s why Jesus suffered on that Cross, to get us back to God. As Jesus breathed His last, the veil of the Temple ripped in two, openly exposing the holy of holies, and signifying that Jesus’ death had successfully opened-up the way back to God. The meaning of life is all wrapped-up in finding, knowing, and enjoying God. Finding Christ is like discovering the spiritual key that unlocks the real meaning of life. We vainly fill our lives with toys and things hoping they’ll provide a sense of purpose. But this is futile because it looks for significance in all the wrong places. Jesus said quite plainly, “I have come that they may have abundant life … no one comes to the Father except through Me”. Meaning can only be found in having a right relationship with God, and that relationship can only be restored through His Son Jesus Christ. Once we’ve been brought back to God through faith in Christ, we experience meaning and purpose that exceeds our wildest dreams. Because of Easter, we can experience the meaning God intends our lives to have.

EASTER’S EMPTY TOMB CHANGED OUR OUTLOOK FROM EMPTY DESPAIR TO CONFIDENT HOPE.

“Christ was …. made alive in the Spirit.” 1 Peter 3:18c

If you haven’t had the opportunity to see Mel Gibson’s film, “The Passion”, you may be missing one of the best passion movies ever. While I appreciated the accuracy and intensity of the movie, I must say that I was a bit disappointed with the way the resurrection was underplayed. After devoting almost two hours to Jesus’ betrayal, arrest and crucifixion, the movie ends with an extremely short scene depicting Christ rising up
inside the tomb. As I exited the movie theater I was amazed at how many people were so grief stricken. Many were crying openly. I believe this may have been due in part to the movie’s great imbalance between the cross and the resurrection. True, Jesus’ death was horrible and should elicit repentance in our hearts. But without significant time given to the resurrection, the movie left a lot of people drowning in the grief of the cross instead of rejoicing in the victory of the resurrection.

The message of Easter ends on the victorious note of the resurrection! And that’s what Peter describes when he pens the words, “Christ was made alive in the Spirit”.
When it comes right down to it the only reason we can live with any real hope is the fact that Jesus has risen from the dead! Indeed, in this one letter alone Peter mentions hope four times. In Chapter 1, verse 3, he says that the believer has been born into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In Chapter 1, verse 13, Peter encourages his readers to hope to the end. In Chapter 1, verse 21, he says that the resurrection enables us to place our faith and hope in God. And in Chapter 3, verse 15, Peter encourages believers to provide non-Christians with a rationale for their hope by attributing it to the resurrection. Someone has observed that man can live for weeks without food, for days without water, but he cannot live for one second without hope. Hope is essential to our survival.

If this is true of our hopes in time, how much more true is it of our hope for eternity? Indeed, the Apostle Paul cites the resurrection as the very foundation of our faith. In 1 Cor. 15 he goes so far as to say that a life lived without hope in the resurrection is futile, lost, and pitiful. If you remove the resurrection from the Christian faith, the entire superstructure comes crashing down! A gospel without the resurrection is not only not good news, its no news at all. Over the course of time, billions and billions of people have died. But only ONE of those billions has permanently risen from the grave. His Name is Jesus, and He is the only real hope we have.

Without Easter we have no resurrection, and without the resurrection we have no hope. But thank God, we HAVE an Easter, we HAVE a resurrected Savior, and we have a living HOPE! Jesus is RISEN… And We Are FORGIVEN! So how will you celebrate Easter this year? Will you go through the motions of getting dressed up, go to church, and maybe go out to dinner with relatives or friends? How will you commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus this year? Perhaps you have yet to receive Christ as your personal Savior. If so, I can’t think of a neater time than the Easter season to do so. And if you’ve already accepted the Lord, you can celebrate this Easter with a renewed sense of appreciation for the forgiveness, the meaning, and the hope that His death and resurrection brings to our lives.