Easter series: Message 2
Sermon Outline: Easter Friday
Topic: Easter Friday
Main Point:Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on Good Friday, we can now enter through the door that leads to eternal life.
Intended Response: Step into a new way of living and reveal the Kingdom of God to others by opening the door to Jesus (Rev 3:20).
Key Text:Jn 10:7-15
Introduction
When we think of Easter Friday, we often recall the dramatic imagery surrounding Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. This message seeks to engage our congregation and visitors by exploring another image – Jesus as the door to life.
Point One: Jesus calls Himself a door
Our faith is in the safest place when we trust in Jesus.
Jesus was prepared to lay His life down to save ours.
As the Good Shepherd, He will never leave us in times of trouble.
Point One:Jesus truly is the Greatest Door of all!
Point Two: Why did Jesus die on Good Friday
Sin came flooding into the earth when Adam and Eve disobeyed God.
Actions open doors of consequence and sin.
On Good Friday, Jesus opened up the door to eternal life.
Point Two:Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on Good Friday, we can now enter through the door to eternal life.
Point Three: On the cross, Jesus closed the door that gives sin the rule over our lives
But why didn’t Jesus lock the door to sin?
We have a choice to close the door to sin and open the door to Jesus.
What choice will you make?
Point Three:Good Friday reminds us we have a choice to close the door of sin and open up our hearts to Jesus, the door to eternal life.
Teaching Illustrations and props:
This sermon uses the illustration of Jesus being the door to life. A good prop would be to set up a door on the platform with you. Song list: Behold me standing at the door (229 OSB, 408 NSB), Aurelia (299 OSB, 614 NSB), How great is our God
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Easter series: Message 2
Sermon Transcript: Easter Friday
Hook
Play clip from Monsters Inc. Door Scene
2 min
Introduction:
Good morning everyone.
Easter has a lot of imagery surrounding it:
- Bag of silver coins,
- Last Supper,
- Washing of feet,
- Garden of Gethsemane,
- Soldiers with lanterns,
- Courtroom,
- Whip,
- Crown of thorns,
- Scarlet robe,
- Lamb,
- Cross,
- Sponge filled with vinegar,
- Curtain ripping in two,
- Stone that was rolled away,
- Empty tomb.
Each image tells a different part of the Easter story.
As I was thinking through all of this imagery, it came to me that there is another image that tells the Easter story – and it is that of a door.
We don’t think about doors much; they’re just an ordinary part of life. There’s nothing special about them. We might become more alert to a door if we’re locked on the outside of one; have you ever needed to get something from a shop and you raced to get there only to discover the door is locked?
I counted I went through 9 different doors several times each this morning on the way to church, (bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, garage, car, church entrance, office, auditorium, lunch room…). We will probably go in and out of 30 doors a day without thinking about them.
If you Google beautiful doors of the world you will see some of these:
And of course, man think this is the greatest door of all… …the fridge
Transition
The greatest door of all is Jesus. We don’t think of Jesus as being a door, but He is. In fact, He is the greatest door anyone can walk through. What do I mean by this and how might this relate to Easter?
Well, let’s read Jn 10:7-15
Scripture Jn 10:7-15
Therefore Jesus said again,“Very truly I tell you, I am the door (gate) for the sheep.All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.I am the door (gate); whoever enters through me will be saved.They will come in and go out, and find pasture.The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep,and my sheep know me just as the Father knows me,and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.
“So Jesus said to them again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep” (Jn 10:9 NASB).
A.
In this story, Jesus is speaking to some religious leaders – these people loved God, but they were so focused on trying to be perfect. Jesus was trying to explain to the religious leaders that the only way into God’s ‘good books’ was to trust in His sacrifice.
I think that is still a relevant challenge for many people today. Sometimes we feel that we have to be perfect for God to accept us, but it doesn’t work that way. No one can measure up to God’s standard – that’s why God sent Jesus. He was the only one to obey God perfectly. And now, God accepts us not because of what we do but because of what Jesus has done. But back to the story…
To communicate this, Jesus He uses the analogy of a shepherd leading His flock:
Jesus is the Good Shepherd, we are sheep; and just like a shepherd leads their sheep to green pastures, Jesus will lead us into abundant life.
In that part of the world, shepherds would travel miles, leading their flock to feeding grounds. It was very common for shepherds to sleep outdoors in the wilderness with their flock on such treks. To keep flocks safe and warm the shepherd would lead their sheep into natural or man-made sheep pens – a U-shape structure:
At night, the shepherd would literally lie down at the front, blocking off the entrance. This action was known as becoming ‘the gate’ or ‘door for the sheep’.
- As the door to sheep, the shepherd’s body would function as a door, preventing the sheep from wandering off.
- It was also a way to protect the flock from any wild animals. By laying down, the only way a wolf or jackal could get to the flock was to try and climb over the shepherd to get to the sheep. Of course, this meant that shepherd would wake up and fight to protect them – I’m not sure if anyone here has ever tried fighting a wolf with nothing but a stick in hand but I imagine it’s a pretty scary situation. We just read how a hired hand would rather run away than stay and fight a wolf – this is life or death stuff.
There is much we can learn from this illustration:
- Our faith is in the safest place when we trust in Jesus.
- Jesus was prepared to lay His life down to save ours.
- As the Good Shepherd, He will never leave or abandon us in times of trouble.
Doesn’t that sound like what happened on the cross on Good Friday? Jesus came, and to save and protect our souls from a godless eternity, He laid down His life to save ours.
Jesus acted like a door when He lay His life down on the cross to save us.
Jesus truly is the Greatest Door of all!
And let’s not forget, Jesus didn’t live a life focused on self – He gave up His life for others. That is what we are empowered to do through God’s Spirit – to transform Australia one life at a time with the love of Jesus.
The invitation to walk through the door of life doesn’t just “get us into heaven” – it is about stepping into a whole new way of living – to reveal the Kingdom of God here and now, and invite us through the door of life that is Jesus.
Point 1.Jesus truly is the Greatest Door of all!
Transition
I often think why Good Friday happened. I know what happened: Jesus died on a cross for the sins of humankind. Butwhy did Good Friday have to occur the way it did? Again, I think about a door…
B.
In the beginning, when God created humankind, we were made to be part of God’s family – to live in a vibrant relationship with God. But Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and that relationship was damaged. When they disobeyed God, they opened the door to sin.
As a result, sin came flooding into our world. We readover and over again, how the effects of sin destroy families, societies, people’s future, their identity – sin is a thief that robs us of life.
The first of example of this is in Genesis 4:2-7:
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to theLord.And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.
TheLordlooked with favour on Abel and his offering,but on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favour. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
Then theLordsaid to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
When Cain gave in to his anger, he opened the door to sin and killed his brother.
There are many ways we open spiritual doors in our lives: could be an action, could be words, could be a decision.
Some doors let tragedy into our lives, some doors bring joy.
Insert personal story of pain and struggle - highlight the trigger moment and relay that back to a door being opened. For example, “I remember a time I was in an argument, and I knew I should be quiet and turn away,but I opened my mouth and made it worse. At that moment I opened a door to arguingand it was all downhill from there”.
I wonder what doors have been opened in your lives? What has come into your world because of someone’s negative actions – or perhaps, your own?
Some doors are harder to close than others: addiction, poverty, abuse, shopping, lying, gossiping…
On Good Friday, Jesus was closing one door and opening another:
Rom 5:12: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people because all sinned.”
Rom 5:19 “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous”.
He was closing the door to sin and opening the door to life.
That’s why the events of Good Friday happened.
When Jesus died on Good Friday, He opened a new door - “a new and living way” (Heb 10:19-20) that leads to a life-givingrelationship with God.
Point 2.Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on Good Friday, we can now enter the door to eternal life and by the Spirit of God, close the door to sin.
Transition
So that’s why Jesus died. But you’d think it be a bit easier for us now. I mean, if the door to sin was closed, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world?
Well, there’s a reason for this…
C.
1. On the cross, Jesus closed the door that gives sin the rule over our lives, but He didn’t lock it … not yet anyway.
I wonder why didn’t Jesus lock the door?
That’s another message,butin short, God gave us free will. God doesn’t control us. We are responsible for the choices we make.
Sadly, many people make terrible choices that affect others and themselves.
Let me read a quote from Don Miller’s book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years:
I don’t know why there are dark forces in the world, but there are. And I don’t know why God allows dark forces to enter into our stories, but he does.
My friend, Kathy, had a hard relationship with God for a long time. She had a marriage go bad. Some hard things happened to her daughter because of this. Some of them happened at the same time the Rwandan genocide was happening, which made the whole world seem crazy. She wondered why it mattered if Jesus died since the world went crazy anyway.
About a year ago she was ready to let go of God completely. Then she had a chance to go to Rwanda, with a small group of people. She spent some time in the countryside, and then went to the capital city, Kigali. They took a tourist bus to the genocide museum in Kigali. Kathy got off the bus and made her way through the exhibits, reading about the events that led up to the genocide, the colonial rule, the confusion of identity created by British occupation, and the tribal tensions that mounted between the Hutus and the Tutsis.
Churches got caught up in the genocide too. Kathy read the part about religion and was emboldened. “See,” she prayed, “you created us only to let us march around in our misery. You’re supposed to be good. What are you good for?” A twenty-minute ride away from the memorial is one of the genocide sites—a church where Tutsis had hidden from Hutus during the massacre. The Tutsis believed they would be spared if they took refuge in the church, but they weren’t. The men came in with their machetes and slaughtered those hiding in the church.
They cut the hands of the mothers who covered their children’s faces, and they cut into the children’s faces. The museum had piled the skulls against the wall and laid out the bones as a memorial. Kathy took the tour bus to Ntarama. She walked into the church and looked at the bones lying cold on the iron rails. She looked at the ragged and bloody clothes hanging from the walls. She was ready to feel the same old anger at God, only a thousandfold more.
She was ready to pray her last prayer, announcing that she could no longer believe in God in a world with such pain, with so much devastation. But Kathy told me it was
Then and there, in that church, that she heard from God. Instead of the old anger, she felt overwhelming tenderness and sorrow.
This is what happens when people walk away from me, Kathy. I have brought you to this place to show you something important. This is what happens when my compassion and love leave a place.
It is when people do not allow God to show up through them, she realized, that the world collapses in on itself.
(Page 116-117 A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: by Donald Miller)
2. We have a choice to make: will we keep the”sin door” closed, or will we open it? Jesus said it would be a tough choice to make – a challenging path to walk.
In Matthew 7:13-14 we read:
Enter through the narrow door (gate). For wide is the door (gate) and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the door (gate) and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Jesus leaves us with a choice; Hedoesn’t force His way in. In a very famous painting called Light of the World, the artist depicted a verse from Rev 3:20:
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
The power of the image is that there is no door handle on the outside. Only the person on the inside can open the door to Jesus – only we can make that choice.
Perhaps now is a good time to stop and ask ourselves the most important question anyone can ask, “where is Jesus in my life?”
Is He standing outside, knocking, hoping to come into your life, or is He inside reminding you of the forgiveness you have received and how much God loves you?”
POINT 3Good Friday reminds us we have a choice to close the door of sin and open up our hearts to Jesus, the door to eternal life.
Conclusion
At Easter, Jesus closed the door to sin and opened up the door to abundant life for everyone who will place their trust in Him:
Rev 3:7-8:
These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.
Have you ever come home from grocery shopping like this – when you are carrying so many bags you can’t get through the door in one go?