Easter 2025 | 2 Kings 23

Just as we do every Sunday before we step into studying God's Word, I want to give you an opportunity to pray really quickly and ask God to speak to you. So, if you will, just pray, "God, would you speak to me this morning?" Then, would you pray for the people around you and ask God to speak to them as well? Then, I want to ask you to pray for me and ask that God would speak through me to you.

Lord, I believe you're here now and that you want to speak to us. Lord, I pray that every single person in this room would hear from you. God, would you speak clearly to our hearts? Lord, I pray that not one person would leave here today without having a meaningful moment with you. I pray, God, that you would open up our eyes to see you. Open up our ears to hear from you, God. I pray that you would find our hearts to be open and receptive to all you have for us today. In Jesus' name, amen.

Several years ago, I was sitting in a Good Friday service with my wife Kat and our oldest son Noah, who was only 2 years old at the time. It was a citywide Good Friday service in downtown Austin at the Austin Convention Center. As we sat in the service, Noah, my 2-year-old, began to be vocal at times when it wasn't best to be vocal, so Kat and I made an executive decision that we and everyone else in the room would enjoy the service best if we watched it on the TV screens in the lobby.

So we went out there, and that was definitely the right call. We began to watch the service on the TV screens. We were some of the only people out there, and it was going great. But I'll never forget. As we sat there, this guy walked in, and he was wearing a hat that said, "I [Heart] Jesus." Now, if you ever look at someone and wonder if they love Jesus and they're wearing a hat, that answers your question.

As he walked in, he was about to walk past us, and when he got even with us, here's what happened. He stopped, he turned, he looked at me, and he goes, "Hey, do you love Jesus?" I was like, "If only I'd worn my hat. He wouldn't have even had to ask." But I told him, "Yes, I do love Jesus." Unfortunately, that was the peak of our conversation. It was all downhill from there, because here's what he went on to tell me.

He said, "You know what? I wish they had let me speak in this Good Friday service, because all the guys in there are false prophets." I was like, "Well, my pastor is speaking, so I should probably look into that." Then he went on, and here's what he said: "The reason Jesus Christ came to earth was to show us how we can live perfect lives so we can go to heaven."

I didn't agree with that, because I know myself, and I know I'm very imperfect, but I believe I'll spend eternity with God because I know the only one who has ever been perfect. The mistake I made was letting him know I didn't agree with him. I said, "Well, what do you think about this?" and he was like, "What do you think about this?" I was like, "Well, what do you think about this?" and he was like, "What do you think about this?" My wife was like, "What are you doing?" and I was like, "He's wrong."

So we begin to go back and forth. I can tell this guy does not like what I'm saying, because he begins to get more animated. His voice volume is going up. I know our conversation has reached a climax when, in a moment in time, he looks at me, points his finger, and says these words: "I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ!" I mean, what do you do with that? I'm a pastor. That's supposed to be my line. What am I going to say now? "I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ." Like, who wins the rebuking in that moment?

Then the conversation got more awkward, because the guy was like, "Are you prepared to say the seven words? If you're a child of God, you need to be prepared to say the seven words. Are you prepared to say the seven words? Because if not, you're not a child of God." I was like, "I do not know what the seven words even are that I need to be prepared to say." Then the guy ended up leaving the conversation. He went into the Good Friday service.

I was so rattled, I looked at Kat and was like, "Let's just leave." The evening ended (this is no joke) with us running through the parking garage with our 2-year-old and speeding off in our sweet white Buick minivan, because as we were walking out to the parking garage, there was no one around, and then we saw this guy coming, and we were like, "He's coming to kill us." Anyway… It was a pretty good Friday, but that was not what I was expecting.

Here's why I tell you that. When you looked at what he was saying about Jesus and what I was saying about Jesus, we had two fundamentally different understandings of Jesus. See, he believed Jesus came to show us how to live. I believe Jesus came to die and conquer death so that we could live. Those are two very different understandings of Jesus.

When you really boil down what that guy was saying, he was saying, "My eternity rests on me." I was saying, "My eternity rests on Jesus." So, I just want to ask you this morning…Which is it for you? Does your eternity rest on you or does your eternity rest on Jesus? My hope is that every single person would leave today with absolute certainty that your life and your eternity is safest in the hands of Jesus Christ.

If you have a Bible, this Easter I want to invite you to turn with me to the book of 2 Kings. You didn't see that coming, did you? Was anyone driving with their family on the way to church, like, "It's Easter. We're going to be in 2 Kings today"? Nope. But 2 Kings, chapter 23, is where we're going to be.

If this is your first time ever at Watermark, here's what you need to know. We are calling 2025 the Year of the Word. Our entire church family is reading through the Bible from cover to cover. So many people go their entire lives without ever reading the entire Bible, which is the best-selling book of all time. Some people make judgments about a book they've never read. Don't let that be your story.

The reason we're reading the Bible cover to cover is we believe God has gone to great lengths to speak to us, and when we open up this book, we can hear from the God of the universe. So, I just want to invite you to jump in with us on our reading plan. Tomorrow is a great day and place to jump in with us, because we're starting a new book, the book of 1 Chronicles. So, I want to invite you into that.

If you're new to the Bible, here's what you need to know. The Old Testament basically is the story of ancient Israel. We, as a church, just yesterday, finished reading the book of 2 Kings. The books of 1 and 2 Kings chronicle the story of all of the kings of the nation of Israel. After King Solomon, you read the stories of 39 different kings. Out of those 39 kings, guess how many of them turn out to be good kings? Eight. That's a terrible batting average. The kings of Israel aren't starting a leadership podcast anytime soon.

The kings of Israel cultivate an appetite in the reader for a greater king, for a perfect king, for the ultimate King. What I want to show you today is even the greatest of the eight kings… Out of all 39 of the kings, eight of them were good. We're looking at the greatest of the good. Even the best of all of the kings cultivates an appetite for an even greater king, a perfect king. We know that king to be King Jesus.

So, I want to look at King Josiah. If you've been tracking with us on the reading plan, you read this just yesterday, and it has everything to do with Easter. Let me show you how King Josiah cultivates an appetite for an even greater king. If you're in 2 Kings 23, jump to verse 25. We're going to bounce around the chapter. I don't want to catch you off guard today, but we'll kind of jump around.

Listen to what verse 25 says about Josiah. "Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him." Do you hear it? There was no one before him like him. There was no one better after him. He's the greatest of all of the kings.

When Josiah shows up, the nation of Israel is a dumpster fire. It is on life support in need of reviving. Josiah basically needs the paddles. It's like, "Clear!" That's what Josiah is there to do: to revive the country, to turn the country back to God after it has slipped into idolatry and pagan worship. And he does it. He turns the country back to God. He reforms the land, yet look at what the very next verse says.

"Still the Lord did not turn from the burning of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. And the Lord said, 'I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel…'"

This is telling us Josiah was a good king, but he wasn't a good enough king. He couldn't turn the wrath of God away from the nation of Israel. Then you turn to the New Testament where Jesus shows up, and listen to what the apostle Paul says about Jesus in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1. He says, "…Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come."

This is the king we truly need. Jesus does what Josiah couldn't. He turns the wrath of God away from us. He makes a way when there was no way for sinful humanity to be acceptable to and together with a holy God forever. You don't want your eternity resting on you. You want your eternity to rest on Jesus Christ. You do. So, here's what I want to do this morning by looking at Josiah. Josiah's life is actually going to show us why Jesus is the king we all truly need.

1. Josiah observed the Passover; Jesus became our Passover. Back up now to verse 21 and look at what it says. So, Josiah rediscovers the Book of the Law. That's a huge deal. Then here's what it says in verse 21.

"And the king commanded all the people, 'Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.' For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem."

The Passover was an annual national celebration. For us, that's like Fourth of July. Everyone in the nation celebrates the Fourth of July. The difference between the Fourth of July and the Passover was, with the Passover, all of the festivities took place in Jerusalem, so Jerusalem was like a college town on game day.

I went to Texas A&M University, and on game days, College Station's population would swell. The same thing would happen in Jerusalem. At Passover, the town would be packed full. When game day was happening in College Station, people were all coming to town for the same thing. People would be dressed the same way, and everyone was coming to witness greatness. In Jerusalem, people are coming to celebrate the fact that greatness has already taken place.

So, what was the Passover celebrating? It was celebrating the fact that there was a time when God rescued the nation out of slavery. If you remember, the nation of Israel was enslaved to the Egyptians for 400 years. God is going to bust the Israelites out of Egypt. How does he do it? He does it by sending 10 plagues upon the land. The tenth plague is where an angel sweeps through the land and kills the firstborn child and animals throughout the land.

Now, you need to know that angel was sweeping through to kill all firstborns, not just the Egyptians but any in the land. That would include the Israelites. Both Egyptians and Israelites were sinful, and sin deserves judgment, yet God made a way for the Israelites to miss judgment. God instructed them, "Take a lamb without blemish, kill it, take the blood of the lamb, and paint the blood on the doorposts of your home. When the angel sweeps through the land, God's judgment will pass over your home." Why? Because a death for sin has already taken place. Sin deserves death. Death has already taken place.

Now, Josiah observes the Passover. He brings it back in full force, observes it meticulously and faithfully, yet I want you to see Josiah observed the Passover, yet something that had once saved the Israelites from God's wrath was no longer enough. Something greater was needed. Jesus shows up and becomes our Passover Lamb.

That's why the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed." Do you want to know why we call Good Friday good? It's because it is such good news that Jesus Christ has shown up to be our sacrifice, the provision for our sin, the one whose blood was shed, the one who died so we wouldn't have to.

Now, I want to speak to the people in the room right now who feel like they're getting their oil changed this morning at Watermark Community Church. Here's what I mean by that. I've learned that there are really great mechanics, and then there are not that good of mechanics. That's true for, honestly, any profession.

There was a period of my life when I was most skeptical when I was getting my oil changed, because I always showed up, and I was like, "They're going to try to convince me I need something I don't really need." So, I'd show up and be like, "I just need an oil change," and they'd be like, "Sounds great. We'll take care of that."

Then a time would come where they'd be like, "Sir, if you'll come with me." They'd take me over to a computer screen, and they'd be like, "We see that your car is at 123,000 miles. It just so happens that we recommend a fluid change of this type at the 123,000-mile mark. It costs $200. I'll do it for you for $100 today. And let's get these wiper blades changed for you. And you know what? Look at these filters."

They'd show me filters, and there were these perfectly placed leaves. It's like, "Man, these things are filthy. You're going to need some new ones of these." There was a time in my life where my car could have been smoking as I pulled in, and I'd be like, "Just the oil change for me today, folks," because something in me believed, "You're just trying to convince me I need something I don't really need."

That might be how you feel this morning. You might feel like I'm sitting here, like, "You don't want your eternity to rest on you; you want it to rest on Jesus," and I'm painting this picture of something you need that you don't really need. You might have walked in, like, "I already have what I need. I'm good." You might be sitting there like, "Look. I've got my family. I've got my career. My life is good."

Maybe you're just trying to put as much love into the world as possible. You're doing your best. You've found your own spirituality. Maybe you've leaned into the spiritual aspect of yoga and it centers you. Maybe you've bought into some healing crystals. Maybe you've explored a psychedelic retreat, and you're like, "Look. I am finding what works for me. I have what I need, and you're trying to make it seem like Jesus is something I need when I really don't."

Do you know what the good news is for me when it comes to an oil change? I now go to a place where the person will look at me and honestly say, "Hey, all you need today is the oil change." I want to be that for you. If you're here for the first time, I haven't been with you enough to earn your trust, but let me say this.

If you've believed that you have everything you need because you have your own spirituality over here, and you're putting love into the world over here, let me just tell you, I really believe you've bought everything except the oil change. Your engine is on fire, and you're buying everything except what you need most.

Let me tell you why I say that. Just follow me on this, and let me tell you why I'm saying that. Here is what every person in the room needs. You need something in your life that reconciles two realities. Humanity is sinful and God is holy. You need something that's going to reconcile those two things, because if humanity is sinful and God is holy, then it does not make sense for a sinful humanity to be able to be acceptable to and together with a holy God.

Now, some of y'all might be sitting there, saying, "Look. I don't agree with those realities." If you hear me say that everyone is a sinner, you might be like, "I don't even know what you're talking about. When you're talking about sin, I don't even know what that is, and I don't think you're talking about me." Let me put us all on the same page. Here's how John Piper defines sin.

He says, "What is sin? Sin is: The glory of God not honored. The holiness of God not reverenced. The greatness of God not admired. The power of God not praised. The truth of God not sought. The wisdom of God not esteemed. The beauty of God not treasured. The goodness of God not savored. The faithfulness of God not trusted. […] The commandments of God not obeyed. The justice of God not respected. The wrath of God not feared. The grace of God not cherished. The presence of God not prized. The person of God not loved."

That is sin. That's what we're talking about. When I say that all of humanity is sinful, that's what we're talking about. Every person in this room should be able to find themselves somewhere in there. But then you take that, and you have to combine it with the reality that God is holy. What does it mean that God is holy? It means he is set apart. He is distinct from humanity.

If you've been with us in 2025, then you know a constant theme in the Bible is that God is holy. A few weeks ago, I shared an illustration that multiple people were like, "Man, when you shared that, that made perfect sense to me." So, instead of coming up with a different illustration, I want to invite those who are visiting today into this illustration in hopes that it might be helpful for you. If you heard me share it a few weeks ago, my hope is that God would renew your mind and heart to the reality of God's holiness. Here's how I like to explain the fact that God is holy.

When my oldest son was born, he unexpectedly had to go into the NICU, the neonatal intensive care unit. He spent nine days in the NICU. Some of y'all have spent a lot more time in the NICU than we did. Some of you might be 60, 70, or 80 years old, and you've never been in the NICU. The NICU is a very sobering place. It's hard to get into. It's restricted access. Your name has to be on a list, and before you can go in there, you have to scrub in.

You set a timer for three minutes. Every single time, you go to the washing station and set a timer for three minutes. You take a brush. You scrub from your hands up to your elbows for three minutes straight. I've never been more clean in my life. When you walk into the NICU, it is this weighty feeling. It's this sobering reality that cleanliness is of utmost importance. You being clean matters. If you're a parent of a child, other people's cleanliness matters.

Now I want you to think about this. I want you to think about a 4-year-old with the latest sickness being passed around at school. It's just always going around. You know that sickness you send your kid to school with? I said it a few weeks ago. You're like, "He just has bad allergies." No, he doesn't. Yellow means infection.

I want you to imagine that 4-year-old running straight past the washing station, busting through security, and he starts taking laps around the NICU, coughing all along the way. He has that wet cough. Can you hear that wet cough? He's coughing "hello" to the preemies over here. He's taking his yellow snot, wiping it as he goes, touching every surface, taking every kid's hand and high-fiving them all along the way.

Now, if you're the parent of that child and you've never been in the NICU, then your posture might be like, "It's not that big of a deal. He's a 4-year-old, and everyone is getting sick these days. If you don't get it from him, you're probably going to get it from somebody, so let's just all calm down. It's not a big deal."

But you need to know the parents of the patients, the doctors, and the nurses will have a much different perspective about your kid's sickness. They will feel the greatest offense, not toward your child but toward the sickness in that child being brought into this place where cleanliness is the highest value, and they will unapologetically remove that child from the NICU. Why? Because his sickness is toxic. It has no place in the NICU.

I tell you that because no one has ever walked into the throne room of God or looked a holy God in the face, so it's easy for us in 2025, when we talk about everyone being sinful, to be like, "Yeah, everyone sins. It's not that big of a deal. We're doing the best we can. Everybody has something." But you need to know that God has a very different perspective on our sin. It is devastatingly offensive to a God who is holy, holy, holy, and a holy God will not tolerate our sin in his presence.

See, our sin deserves judgment, and the right thing for God to do is to hold us accountable, but here's the great news. When you trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, it's like the blood of Jesus Christ being painted on the doorposts of your heart, and God's judgment for your sin passes over you. Josiah observed the Passover; Jesus became our Passover. While Josiah failed to turn God's wrath, Jesus faithfully absorbs God's wrath so we can experience God's blessing.

2. Josiah reformed the land; Jesus resurrects our lives. Look at what verse 24 says. "Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord."

Was necromancer on anyone's bingo card for Easter Sunday? Just me? Okay. Here's what you need to know. We don't have time to unpack everything chapter 23 is talking about. If you were to go and read it, you would see that Josiah deep cleans the country. He deep cleans it. He destroys anything that resembles idolatry or pagan worship, and he's successful at it, yet even his deep cleaning of the land wasn't enough to turn away God's wrath. Why? Because his reforms proved to be temporary.

See, when Josiah dies, so do his reforms. In fact, his son takes the throne after him, and his son only reigns for three months. In the amount of time that your child is home for summer break, the country turns back to pagan worship, turns back to idolatry. Here's what we have to understand: While Josiah could cleanse the land, he couldn't cleanse the hearts of the people in the land, and more than external reform, God requires internal transformation.

That's why the truth of 2 Corinthians 5:17 is so beautiful. If you want to know what Christianity is truly about, here it is. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." This is what's true of anyone who puts their trust in Jesus Christ. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. Let's break that down really quickly.

It says, "If anyone." Anyone. Do you know what anyone is in the Greek? Anyone. Young, old, male, female, liars, thieves, adulterers, those who practice witchcraft, those from other religions, those who have made a mess of their lives and other people's lives…anyone. "If anyone is in Christ…" That means you have put your trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

Here's what I'm telling you. This is why it's so important. Josiah could only reform the land, but Jesus, when he gets ahold of our lives, makes us new. If you know Jesus, do you want to know how God sees you? God sees you as a fundamentally different person than you were before you were a Christian.

We're talking about resurrection this Sunday. Do you know what else is back from the dead? The tubs. Would you guys welcome the tubs back to the stage at Watermark Community Church? If this is your first time here, you're like, "I don't know what's happening right now." These were a reference point for us for, like, six different sermons back in the fall.

As I was thinking about the tubs, I realized that back in the fall, I started in the wrong place with you guys. I started here, and I said, "This is you." That was wrong. We have to go back even farther. Where we have to start is here. This is you and me apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ. We just established that everyone is sinful.

Here's the reality. We all want to go to heaven when we die. If there's only heaven and hell, then we want to go to heaven when we die. What so many people think is "You know what? Then I just need to make sure I get my life as clean as possible." So we're like, "I'm going to try to live a good life. I want to put love into the world. I want to meditate regularly just to center myself. I've kind of found my spirituality."

Remember, God requires more than external reform. If you think about you and me, sinful human beings, we don't match a holy heaven. The reason I say that is we have to remember that God is where heaven is and heaven is where God is. You can't say, "I want to go to heaven when I die, but I don't really care about a relationship with God. I'll just do my own thing." God is where heaven is and heaven is where God is. You can't divorce the two.

So, we just have to remember that unholy people cannot belong in a holy heaven with a holy God. But here's the great news. We just heard, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." Romans 6 would say that when Christ died on the cross, we died with him. Our old self that was in rebellion against God, that deserved God's judgment… That person has fundamentally died in God's eyes. He's gone, which is great news, because here's what that means.

You don't have to be defined by your worst moments. You don't have to be defined by your failures. You can be defined by God's forgiveness in your life. But it's not just that you have died. What Christ does is he makes you new. He makes you forever clean. Romans 6 would say that we have been raised to walk in newness of life. We're celebrating the resurrection today. Because Christ rose from the dead, he raises us to new life.

Now, here's where we have to grow. Some of you were here all six Sundays that I brought out the tubs in the fall, yet you've still slipped back into the wrong mode of operation. See, our tendency is to think that we're here and God is up here in heaven. Yes, thankfully he has forgiven us, and we're excited to spend eternity with him, but right now, we're just trying to muscle through. We're just trying to get to heaven. We have to remember, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." Let's make sure we're aware of the extent of newness of life in Christ.

Here's the reality. Don't forget this. If you know Jesus Christ, then what the Bible would say is Christ actually lives inside of you by the presence of his Holy Spirit. That's pretty incredible. If you trust in Christ today, God comes and lives inside of you today, which is incredible. If that's all there was, that's enough, but remember what the verse says. "If anyone is in Christ…" So, not only does Christ live in you, but somehow, you live in Christ. You are secure in Christ. That's where you are. This is why this is so important.

This is for all of the people in the room who wake up feeling like a disappointment to God. That's probably no one in this room, but for the people who sometimes feel like spiritual failures, like God would be more into you, would like you more, if you were just a little bit better, just a little bit different, here's what you need to remember. Now that you are permanently sealed in Christ, when God sees you, he sees Christ. When God looks at you, he sees Christ in you.

So, all the love, all the delight, all the pleasure God has for Christ he now has toward you because you're in Christ. This is where it gets even better. The Bible would say that Christ is in us and we are in Christ, but we are hidden with Christ in God. This is amazing. Ephesians 2 tells us that somehow, spiritually, we're already seated with Christ in the heavenly places. That's a crazy thought.

What that means is when we die, our physical location is just going to sync up with our spiritual location. See, the reason you will belong now and forevermore with a holy God is because the holy Son of God came to get you, to rescue you, and to take you to be with him. See, Josiah could only reform the land; Jesus resurrects our lives.

Some of you might be wondering why you feel empty. You feel like something is missing. You have a lot of stuff. You're trying to feel satisfied by putting more stuff into your life, yet you somehow still feel like something is missing, something is lacking. Let me tell you what I believe is missing: Christ in you. You in Christ. You've been made for relationship with God. Your soul has been made to only be fully satisfied in the one who made you, Jesus Christ.

3. Josiah in the end was conquered; Jesus in the end only conquers. Look at verse 28. "Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him…" What that means is Josiah went out to battle against Pharaoh Neco.

"…and Pharaoh Neco killed him at Megiddo, as soon as he saw him. And his servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's place."

This is such an anticlimactic story. You've got the greatest out of 39 kings. He turns the country around, and it's like, "He went out to battle. Pharaoh Neco killed him as soon as he saw him." There's not even an account of a battle or a struggle. It's like. "He saw him. He killed him. It's done. It's over." That's like whatever the most anticlimactic series finale of a TV series was for you. Just think. What was it? Was it Seinfeld? Was it Lost?

What TV series just crash landed for you, like, "What was that? That's how it's all going to end?" That's Josiah. He has turned the country around. Died. Done. When he died, reforms died. His son comes in and turns the country back. Jesus also died. Jesus was also put in a tomb. Jesus also appeared to be conquered, yet on the third day, Jesus walked out of the grave. Listen to what Colossians 2 tells us happens because of Christ.

"And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him…" We just illustrated that. "…having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him."

Don't miss this. If you're tuned out, welcome back. This is courtroom terminology. Here's the picture. You are in God's court. God is the holy judge, you're the guilty defendant, and the evidence is overwhelming. God can't just let you off the hook. That would make him a corrupt judge. What do we deserve? We deserve hell. We deserve eternity separated from God.

So, what does the holy, righteous judge do? He steps off his judge's stand, steps into our place in the person of Christ, takes our sentence, dies in our place, absorbs the wrath of God on our behalf, and by conquering the grave signals "It's done. It's sufficient." Paul tells us that in doing so, he disarmed Satan and his forces. What does that mean? It means he stripped Satan and his forces of their power. Not only that. It says he put them to open shame by triumphing over them.

Here's what that means. When Christ rose from the dead and began to appear to people, that was him going public, declaring, "Satan has been defeated." It makes the front page of the papers of our hearts. It goes viral. He has put Satan and his forces to open shame. So, what does that look like? John Piper helped me see this. It's so beautiful.

What does it look like that Satan, through Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, has been stripped of his power? Here's what it means. Think of it this way. Satan is an accuser. That's what the Bible says he is. He's an accuser. So, picture Satan as this lawyer who puts on a cheap suit, slicks back his hair, comes into the courtroom, and is like, "Oh, yeah, yeah. Don't forget about the lying. Don't forget about the cheating. Yeah, you see that affair, God. What about that abortion? You see all that. What about that? What about that?"

And you know what? He's right. That's the thing. He's right in his accusations. But here's the amazing news. Christ, who conquered the grave, sits next to us and says, "Paid for it. Conquered it. Cleansed him from it. Made her righteous. They're with me. It's done. It's finished. Stripped of your power."

Not only that. I want you to think about death. Death is a tool Satan has used to draw us away from God, because he's a liar. So what's the lie? "Death is the end." That's the lie he uses. "Death is the end, so get everything out of this world that you can. Make this world and all of the luxuries of this world your highest pursuit because death is the end. Oh, you're sick and you're going to die early and death is the end? Curse God. Oh, you lost a loved one to death and death is the end? That's not right. Curse God."

Then Christ comes, conquers death, and declares in his resurrection, "Death isn't the end; it's the beginning." We don't live for this life; we live for that life. You're sick? That sickness might be leading you to death, but that's just the end of your life on earth. That shows so short in comparison to eternity that death ushers you into in the presence of God in whom are pleasures forevermore. Death isn't the end; it's the beginning. Christ always has the final word. Satan has been defeated.

So, if you want to know how the cross and the empty tomb work together… Do you know what the cross is? It's the payment. Do you know what the resurrection is? It's the receipt. Christ has come. He has paid for your sins. If you will allow him to, he will gladly pay for your sins. He has conquered the grave. That's a receipt from God the Father saying, "It's enough. It's accepted." If you'll trust Christ, his payment is sufficient for you. Your eternity doesn't have to rest on you. It can rest on him, and you can be safe and secure.

I think back to that Good Friday service where that guy said, "Are you prepared to say the seven words?" I still don't know what the seven words are. I sat with some friends this week. We wondered, "What are the seven words?" I don't know what his seven words are, but I'll just throw out an option for what those seven words maybe could be. It's the words the angel spoke to the women at the tomb when they came expecting to find a dead body.

What does the angel say? "He is not here. He has risen." He is not here. He's not dead anymore. He's risen. Those are the words that should be on the lips of children of God. Yeah, he did die. In dying he became my Passover. But he has risen, and because of his resurrection, he resurrects my life. Because he has risen, he conquers. He has conquered Satan, sin, and death, and a day is coming where he's going to take me to be with him to enjoy him forever.

I'll just close with the question I started with: Does your eternity rest on you or will it rest on Jesus? Jesus didn't come to just show us how to live; Jesus came to die and to conquer death so we could live. I just want to ask right now… If you came into this place today, and you don't know where you stand with God, but you want to be right with him, and you've come to realize that Jesus is the way to be right with God, then I want to invite you right now to pray these words.

Just say, "Lord Jesus, would you come into my life today? Thank you that you died on the cross for me. Thank you that you rose from the dead for me. Would you come into my life? Would you forgive me of all of my sins, and would you begin to lead me in a new life?" If you just prayed to receive Christ into your life, you need to know that you walked in here dead and you're going to leave here alive in Christ.

For everyone else in the room, if you know Jesus already, let me just ask you… What's the Spirit of God saying to your heart right now? What do you need to say, "Thank you" to God for? Are there any ways that you're still living like you're dead when Christ has made you alive? Are there any areas where you're accepting defeat when Christ has conquered? Would you just do business with the Lord now?

Lord Jesus, we love you. We praise you as the resurrected King. We praise you for all that you've done. We need you, we love you, and we trust you with our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.