R1529 Rethinking Easter, Pt.2

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton and a message called Rethinking Easter. Just two days ago we were celebrating Easter in a very unique way and so many lives have been changed over the last three days. Literally thousands of people have given their hearts to Christ and recommitted their lives to Jesus. And today it's our prayer as we rethink Easter with Dr. Don Wilton, that's the finishing of today's message, Rethinking Easter, that we would gain insight.

For those of us that know Jesus, that we'd see Easter in a fresh new way as we rethink Easter. And perhaps you've tuned by today and you're wondering, is this Christianity something you want to develop, you want to follow? We believe that as you study God's Word together, you'll hear not just Dr. Don Wilton, but the voice of God reminding you that He loves you and has a great plan for your life. Let's open God's Word, the encouraging word together.

And now Dr. Don Wilton. All God, all man, He came into this world and took upon Himself all man. And He was tempted in all points just as we are, yet without sin.

But at the same time, He was always God and He told His disciples, He said, if you've seen Me, you've seen God the Father. So Jesus, the man in the garden, got on his knees because Jesus, the person, understood pain. He knew what was about to happen to him. There was nothing worse than being crucified. There was no greater torture.

It was the worst torture anybody could ever have. And he knew it. And so he said, Father, would you take the cup of my suffering nevertheless, because I'm God, I'm the Son of God. And we saw that in the life of Abraham, who was completely obedient.

Jesus, in complete obedience to the Father, agonizingly submitted nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done. So as we rethink Easter, they came and arrested Him right here in the Garden of Gethsemane. They stepped down here into this valley. You remember what we called it? The Valley of Jehoshaphat.

Do you know what its other name is? The Kidron Valley, K-I-D-R-O-N. Do you know what Kidron means in the Hebrew text? Destiny. So he walked up the Valley of Judgment, was arrested and began the journey of his destiny. Why did Jesus come to this earth? Why was he born? What was his destiny?

So he walks back down the Kidron Valley. When he gets down to about there, he takes a turn again, going up a sharp incline past the city of David, right up into this place over here, and he goes to the house of Annas, or Anna, A-N-N-A. And Anna was very high up in the hierarchy. He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest. So there is a connection here between Anna, who was one of the rulers, and Caiaphas, the high priest. So look what happens here.

He goes up, and he's very sharp, and he doesn't miss a lick. And he's right here at the house of Anna, and guess what happens? Anna asks him a loaded question.

You rethink Easter, and you get to Anna, where Jesus was taken after his arrest. First stop, he gets a loaded question. Do you know what a loaded question is? Have you ever had someone come up and say to you, did I see you at that steakhouse last night? And you know jolly well you were at the steakhouse, and that they knew you were at the steakhouse. It's like, big dummy, what are you asking me that for? What do you mean, did I see you like the rooty toot toot toot? What do you mean, did you see me? Here's the loaded question. So Anna, in all his religious almightiness, turns to Jesus and says to him, excuse me, Jesus, aren't you the one that's been causing all this trouble, and speaking to all the Jews here at the temple, and showing good works, and healing people?

Aren't you the one? Jesus turns back to him and says to him, excuse me, you know that I'm the one, because you've seen me teaching, and preaching, and healing people. Do you know what Jesus got for that?

Pow! One of the gods stepped up and smacked him up one side of the face, and said to him, how dare you talk to someone so important like Anna. Just rethink Easter. By the way, how important do we have to become in order to give Jesus a slap in the face, and teach him not to talk to us like that? But Jesus did it. Well, Anna said to him, off with you, and he went to the house of Caiaphas. When he went to the house of Caiaphas, even to this day, there are huge pits, prisons, and they took Jesus and they threw him down into the bottom of one of these pits. Even David the psalmist, inspired by the Holy Spirit, in Psalm 88, wrote about it. You know what happened to Jesus?

You want to rethink Easter? He was totally abandoned. There was nobody else with him. He was in the bottom of the pit.

Guess here's what's happened. Darkness closed over him. You know Jesus is the light of the world, and yet he allowed darkness to close over him. He became abandoned. Caiaphas sent him off with you, and so Caiaphas sent him right over here to this area right here, next to the Dome of the Rock between the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and this area right here was known as the Sanhedrin.

Sanhedrin, S-A-N-H-E-D-R-I-N. The Sanhedrin was the upper headquarters of the religious elite in Jerusalem. You know who lived there? All the top dogs of the church, and get this, the Bible tells us that these very top religious people condemned Jesus. The church, the church condemned Jesus.

They would not believe him, they would not accept him, and they would not do what he said. These were the top leaders. And do you know how many people were following them, said, man, if those top religious leaders, if the leaders of our church could condemn him, we're in. And so the Sanhedrin over here said, next step, let's send him over here to the Praetorium, the Antonio fortress, it's right on the northern side of the Dome of the Rock.

Today it's right on the Arab section of Jerusalem. And he sent him there, guess who was at the Antonio fortress? A fellow called Pontius Pilate. That's where the government was. And the religious leaders said to the government, go ahead and send this guy off, condemn him.

That's all the government needed to hear. If the government can get a religious leader to sit next to them and defy God, God had made. And that's what happened with Pontius Pilate. And so all these people were around, they all followed the religious leaders. And by the way, it was Passover. And it was the tradition of the Jews at Passover to at least release one convicted criminal.

The government would do that. And so Pontius Pilate looked around and said, well, we got to release someone, shouldn't we release Jesus? Because I don't know that he's done anything wrong. And they began to scream, crucify him. Crucify him. Don't kid yourself. This was a howling mob.

This was not a little patty patty poofy patty footsy thing. This was not a get over it, just take Jesus, run him down the hill and kill him. This was a frenzied mob. Crucify him. Now what does Pilate do?

Well, who do you want me to release? So they find Barabbas, who was Barabbas? Barabbas was a convicted felon.

Nobody disputes that, he was an insurrectionist, he was found guilty of murder in the first degree, and he was sentenced to death by execution on a cross. And here comes Barabbas and the crowd say, let him go, crucify Jesus who is spotless. Do you know, Barabbas, as I rethink Easter, I wonder where he went. I wonder what he thought as he watched what was happening, saying to himself, man, I'm the one that's supposed to be whipped and scourged and nailed to a cross and beaten to death. This Jesus is taking my place and has set me free. But the wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so they released him from the Praetorium here and he went to this place here called the Echo Homo.

Right here. Which was where they kept all the barracks of the Roman soldiers. These were the worst of the worst. And they took Jesus and they bound him up and they put a robe on him. And they began to beat him and beat him and beat him and tear chunks of flesh out of his body. They took a crown of thorns and they rammed it on his head and they mocked him. And then they knelt down in mocking him and they said, oh look at you now.

Hail King of the Jews. Please forgive the interruption. We'll pick up right where we left off with Dr. Don Wilton in just a moment. But Dr. Don wants me to remind you we're here to connect with you 24 hours a day, both on our website at tewonline.org and this phone number 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. Or on our website, tewonline.org. Right now there is some great strength that we're gaining in praying for our adult children.

Perhaps that doesn't apply to you but maybe someone else. And you would see these resources on our website at tewonline.org as a remarkable fuel to the fire of your prayer life. Again, discover more.

Take a look right now at our website, tewonline.org about the power of praying for your adult children. Let's dive back in now as God's Word is being brought to life for us. We're in Matthew chapter 28 with Dr. Don Wilton on this edition of The Encouraging Word. You jerk. You upstart.

You imposter. And they took Jesus out onto the Via Doloroso. And there they found a man by the name of Simon of Cyrene according to Matthew 27 and verse 32. They said, you come carry his cross. The Bible says that Simon was the father of two sons, Alexander and Rufus.

Do you know in Romans 16 and Acts 11, 12, Paul and these people talk about Rufus and about the faithfulness and the witness of the men and women from Cyrene. And I just wonder whether those boys who were little at the time might just have been there with their daddy. And those little boys saw their daddy carrying the cross of Jesus. And it had such an impact on them that they knew that he was Jesus and they themselves grew up to become powerful bearers and witnesses of this Easter message because right there through the witness of their father, they began to rethink the meaning of Easter. And so it is that he began that journey. And some people contend that Jesus was crucified here at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and others like me believe that he was crucified at the place of the skull at the Garden Tomb.

It really matters not. So let me tell you what happened. They put him on a cross there on that hill far away where that old rugged cross stood. They beat him up, placed him in a public arena because the ultimate purpose of crucifixion was public humility. It was to shame the person being executed. And as the people came by in their droves, they looked up and there he was.

Can you imagine that? I mean, he brought Lazarus back from the dead. He cannot even save himself.

I mean, what kind of upstart is this? This guy can't even practice for himself what he preached to others. Oh, come on, man, get a life. Those religious leaders, that pastor of my church is exactly right. You know, that person that's defying the authority of God, of course they're right. You don't have to believe it all.

I mean, this is silliness. Jesus. The Bible says that he gave up his life for us and he was crucified and they came and took his body and they placed it in that tomb, the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea where on the third day we read about it.

It's right there. The Bible says, behold, there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. What did Jesus do when he got to heaven?

He was seated at the right hand of the Father. The angel sat. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him, even the gods trembled and became like dead men. The angel said to them, don't be afraid for the one that you are seeking that was crucified is not here. He's risen. He's alive.

Do you know what happened? Jesus came out of the grave and he appeared to a group of these same disciples on the road to Emmaus, which is about here coming up to Jerusalem. Then he went and he appeared to the disciples over these hills here, the hills of Samaria that go toward the Battle of Armageddon and the Valley of Jezreel and over here is a beautiful lake called the Sea of Galilee.

And Jesus, after he came up from the dead, he appeared to his disciples. He even told them how to fish, where to catch them. Do you know how many fish they caught according to the gospel? 153 fish.

Why 153? Because at Jesus' time, there were exactly 153 nations in the world. And Jesus was saying, when you rethink Easter, remember Jesus died for all people, every one of them.

But you know what he did? He left there and he went up here and he went up to the Mount of Ascension. The Bible says he was caught up from their presence and these same disciples who just four days earlier had been in the upper room having supper with him and communion, these same people stood there looking saying, where did he go? And the angel came again.

He said, don't worry about a thing. This same Jesus who went up is going to come back down. So what's going to happen when he comes back down? He's going to land in exactly the same place according to Revelation chapter 19.

Now get this. When Jesus lands here with all of those of us who know and love Jesus, he's going to walk down from the Mount of Ascension past the church of Mary Magdalene, the church of the teardrop, past the church of all nations, past the very garden of Gethsemane where he cried out to the Father. He's going to walk down into this valley and there is going to be a golden thread, the Bible says, as he crosses the valley of his destination, having settled the issue of man's judgment. He's going to mount through the Golden Gate, which has been sealed since 1524 by the Muslims.

The Bible says in the prophecy of Zechariah and Ezekiel that no man ever will ever open that gate. The only one will be the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's going to come and he's going to set up his kingdom. And as he comes, the Bible tells us this.

The Bible says two things are going to happen. First of all, there's going to be an earthquake when he lands on the Mount of Olives and that fault line is going to go right through Mount Moriah, the place of sacrifice. And it's going to come where it ends, right there at the Garden Tomb. The fault of Mount Moriah does this, comes from the Garden of Gethsemane, Mount of Olives, all the way to the place of the skull. The Bible says that rivers of living water, remember Jesus is our life-giving water.

He said, drink from me, you'll never thirst again. The Bible tells us that rivers of living water are going to flow out from Jesus as this mountain splits. And it's going to flow here into the Kidron Valley, the Valley of Destiny. And it's going to flow down the Valley of Destiny and it's going to meet, there's another valley that comes this way called the Cheesemakers Valley.

There are three of them, Kidron Valley, the Cheesemakers Valley and the Valley of Gehenna. There are three that come like this to a point. And right at the meeting point here is where hell is and the streams of living water flowing from Jesus, the Son of the Living God, are going to flow down, washing right over the gate of hell. It's going to take a left turn and it's going to cross these Judean wilderness mountains and come out in the Dead Sea. And the Bible says the Dead Sea is going to explode back to life. And Jesus said, come to me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, I will give you rest.

This is what happened at Easter. Jesus gave his life for me. God raised him from the dead for me. He's coming back again for me.

And I'm going to live with him. It's going to be no more separation. I don't understand perfect, but everything's going back to the Garden of Eden. The Bible says if anyone's name is not found written in the Lamb's Book of Life, they are to be cast into Gehenna. And then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had passed away. And I saw the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven, from God. And a voice from the throne of God came and said, now and from evermore, I establish and make my dwelling place with mankind.

There will no longer be any separation. No more curse, no more night, no more tears, no more mourning. And so shall we forever be with the Lord.

Get this one. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That whosoever believes in him shall never die, but will have eternal life.

Such great truth. Eternal life is there for the offering. Today you could know what it's like to have your sins forgiven, to have a purpose for living and a place in heaven as we make the most important decision in our life.

Or perhaps return to that decision with a fresh new fervor. You've been listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word, as he's been preaching and teaching from the pulpit. And now as he steps into the studio, open your heart to what he wants to share next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin, and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you just gave your life to Jesus Christ, praying with Dr. Wilton, or perhaps rededicating your life to Jesus, know that Dr. Don wants to pray for you. We collectively want to pray for you. And Dr. Don wants you to have some resources that will help you take the next steps in growing your faith. Give us a call and let us send you these free resources at 866-899-WORD. Again, the number is 866-899-9673. Or meet us online as well at www.tewonline.org. We would love to celebrate with you and put these free resources in your hands.

Speaking of resources, if you go to our website www.tewonline.org, you'll discover many resources just like this. Generations are lost. The desire to be popular and accepted is an attractive lure. It's a huge challenge to live in a way that is pleasing to our Lord.

It's so easy to get off track. But remember, God is in control. There is power in prayer. For your gift of support to the Encouraging Word this month, you will receive Dr. Wilton's message, Train Up a Child, along with the bonus book, The Power of Praying for Your Adult Children. I look forward to receiving your testimony of how God used you to change the precious generations in your family. Now that's just one of many great resources, all on our website at www.tewonline.org. And while you're there, be sure and sign up for the daily Encouraging Word email from Dr. Don. It's absolutely free. Click on the Devotion tab and you'll find it a wonderful resource to launch each and every day. That's online at www.tewonline.org. And in this post-Easter week, today we were rethinking Easter. Tomorrow we talk more about the hope of Easter and how it's not just something we celebrate on Sunday, but we continue to celebrate every day.