Easter Sunday 2025 // Pastor Chuck Colegrove // April 20

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
That choir huh, they got one more.
They got one more.
It's the knockout punch.
Well, I just want to say againthank you for joining us and if
you're a guest man, you couldn'thave made our day more special.
I've met so many of you on theway in.
I look forward to meeting youimmediately after service and

(00:21):
church family.
Let's take a minute and welcomeour online campus.
They're watching in this regionand around the world.
I'm thankful that you're withus today.
Hope you're having a beautifulEaster.
And, man, I'm going to tell youwhat.
I am ready to preach God's word.
Are you ready to receive it?
Today?
The year was 2005 and our familywas living in Houston, texas,

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at the time, and this waspre-twins.
So this was just the party offour.
We called ourselves the C4,party of four, and it was Evan
or not.
No, it was Ethan, I don't evenknow.
I got so many kids I don't evenknow their names anymore.
It was Ethan and Elliot andErshon and I and you know this

(01:06):
is 2005.
I mean, it's one of thosethings where you kind of forget,
like how fast technologychanges.
And so this was before theiPhone was out.
But I still and this willsurprise you young people, but
there was a day I was atrendsetter when it came to
electronics.
Now I got the smallest phone inthe world, but that's on

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purpose.
And so, back in 2005, I had oneof the first smartphones.
It was like a combination andif you know this, you gotta give
me an amen on this.
It was a combination of a PalmPilot and then it was a phone, a
Treo was the brand and it wasum.
So I mean, you guys are likelooking like deer in headlights,
you don't even know.
Google it, it's worth theGoogle.

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And so I had this littlesmartphone and I had it in a
like a leather case that Icarried it in.
It looked real professional andproper and it had a spot for my
wallet and my cash and itzipped up real nice and clean
and it was.
You know, that phone wasdefinitely too big to try to put
in your pocket.
That's why I had to carry it insomething.
And so I had this little walletand it had the phone in there

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and I would carry it everywhereI went.
And you know, I don't know ifyou've been around me or if
you've been around Ethan at all.
You know we like to set stuffdown and we can't remember where
we set it.
And on this day in 2005, we werepacking up to go to lunch and
so we loaded the boys in the carand I made sure everything was
set.
And while they were getting inthe car, I don't know, I was
talking, putting stuff in theback of the truck, and I set

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that wallet phone on the bumperof our expedition Ford
Expedition and we got in the carand started driving to lunch,
and it was about five miles.
We went over bridges andthrough the city and made it to
the spot to have lunch and wegot out and we were about to
walk in the restaurant I waslike, oh, I don't have my phone

(02:57):
in my wallet with me.
I must have left it in the car.
So everybody stops.
I go back to the car and it'snot in there and I look under
the seat and I look everywhere.
I'm like boys, did you take it?
Are you playing a trick on me?
They're like no, dad, it's notus.
And as I go to tell her, it'slike man.
I guess I left my wallet athome to see if she had her money
, hopefully.
And so it was like I looked onthe bumper and there was that

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wallet and phone sitting on thebumper Made it the entire five
mile trip from our house tolunch.
It's the year I learned thatsometimes, in spite of our own
faults and failures or ourforgetfulness and folly, we're
gifted a second chance.
We find ourselves in the middleof a second, even a third

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chance.
Even though we don't deserve it, we get another chance at it.
We're graced with anopportunity to try it again.
Why don't you turn to yourneighbor and say this is gonna
be my favorite Easter ever?
And to the one you've beenignoring all service, just bump
up and say, because you're here,yeah, I see, just helping you

(04:05):
out, just helping you out.
Man, what a powerful week we'vehad.
We spent this whole weekjournaling and devotions of the
Holy Week, the final days ofJesus's life on earth and the
final days of his ministry.
And then Friday we gatheredwith monastery, our young adults

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, ministry and pastors Ben andPriscilla and had a really
powerful Good Friday service aswe reflected on the cross.
And then, saturday we woke upearly and grabbed several
hundred and hundreds of donuts,so much so that Pastor Matthew
couldn't even see out of his car.

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It was full of so many donuts,and then we brewed about 600
cups of coffee and we served OakPark and the surrounding area
at their annual Dash andScramble.
We like to call it Easter EggHunt, but they call it Dash and
Scramble.
So we did that Saturday.
And then here we are today, onSunday, and the stone is rolled
away Amen.

(05:12):
So I want to dive into thescripture and text today, as I
share with you things we shouldremember on this Easter.
Tell your neighbor, don'tforget it.
1 Corinthians, chapter 15,verse one, says this Let me now
remind you, dear brothers andsisters, of the good news I
preached to you before.

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You welcomed it then and youstill stand firm in it.
It is the good news that savesyou if you continue to believe
the message I told you, unless,of course, you believe something
that was never true.
In the first place, I passed onto you what was most important
and what had also been passed onto me.
Christ died for our sins.

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Just as the scripture said, hewas buried and he was raised
from the dead on the third day.
Just as the scripture said, hewas seen by Peter and then by
the 12.
And after that he was seen bymore than 500 of his.
That was for the Corinth church, not for a free church.
Then he was seen by James, andlater by all the apostles and,

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last of all, as though I hadbeen born at the wrong time, I
also saw him, for I am the leastof all the apostles.
In fact, I'm not even worthy tobe called an apostle after the
way I persecuted God's church.
It's really, really incrediblethat we get this passage of

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scripture from Paul to remind usof the important things, and
this Easter I want to lean inand remind you of some things.
You know, a reminder is apowerful thing, because often,
in this world of chaos andconfusion, we don't always need
to find something new, but weneed to find something true.
And truth has a name.

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His name is Jesus.
What Jesus did on the crossover 2,000 years ago is more
than historical, althoughhistorically, scientifically,
even medically, we can provewithout a doubt that Jesus did
die on the cross, that he wasburied in a tomb and that that

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tomb is now empty.
We can prove that without ashadow of a doubt, that Jesus
did die on a cross, that he wasburied in a tomb and that that
tomb is now empty.
We can prove that without ashadow of a doubt.
But what he did is more thanjust historical.
It's transformational.
I know because my own life hasbeen transformed.
I know because I can look outacross this audience and see
lives of people whose hearts andlives and families have been

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transformed by the power and thewonder working blood.
It's transformational.
I know that because I'vereceived a favor that I could
never earn and a gift that Icould ever never purchase.
That is the price that Jesuspaid for my life.
So let me give you some thingsto remember this Easter.
Number one this Easter I willremember what is most important,

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what matters most.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15and three.
He says for I handed to you asof first importance what I in
turn had received.
He says listen, I'm gonna marksomething that needs to be
recorded as the most importantthing in your life, which means
we have our opinions and we haveour preferences and we even

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have our Easter fit.
And all of that finishes in adistant second to the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
It is the gospel of JesusChrist that saves us, and Paul
says if you hold on to it, itwill save you.
And can I just say if you're ina season of uncertainty, if
you're in a season of unknown,just hold on to the gospel and

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let the gospel do what it willdo and it will save you to the
utmost.
So he says.
I want you to remember whatmatters most, and what are those
things that matter most?
First, I would tell you thething that matters most is that
Jesus died for us.
He died for us 700 years beforeJesus died on the cross.

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Isaiah wrote in a prophecy thisIn Isaiah 53 and 3, he said he
was despised and rejected bymankind.
A man of suffering, familiarwith pain, like one whom people
hide their faces.
He was despised and we held himin low esteem.
Surely, he took our pain andbore our suffering.

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Yet we considered him punishedby God, stricken by him and
afflicted.
But he was pierced for ourtransgressions and he was
crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought uspeace was on him and by his
wounds we were healed.
And then Isaiah the prophetcloses by saying we all, like

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sheep, have gone astray.
Each of us has turned to ourown way and the Lord has laid on
him Jesus, the iniquity of usall.
He died.
He died a terrible death onthat cross.
When we see the images of thatopening song, jesus paid it all.
And we just see the images ofthat opening song.
Jesus paid it all and we justsee the artistic expression.

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I don't think it compares towhat he truly experienced.
But Jesus died for us More thana thousand years before even
the punishment of crucifixion toa cross was invented.
We find that the psalmist writesthis in Psalm 22, beginning
with verse six but I am a wormand not a man.

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This is a messianic, a Jesusprophecy.
I'm a worm and not a man,scorned by everyone, despised by
the people.
All who see me mock me.
They hurl their insults,shaking their heads.
He trusts in the Lord.
They say Let the Lord rescuehim, let him deliver him, since
he delights in him.

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Dogs surround me, a pack ofvillains encircle me.
They pierce my hands and myfeet.
All my bones are on display.
People stare and gloat over me.
Listen.
They divide my clothes amongthem and cast lots for my
garment.
The psalmist, over a thousandyears before even the idea of

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crucifying somebody, the mostlowest and most shameful
punishment in public humility.
The psalmist writes this iswhat's gonna happen to our
Savior.
Jesus died.
Paul says don't just rememberthat jesus died.
You need to remember that jesuswas buried.
He was buried, but not just inany tomb.

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He was buried in a borrowedtomb because when you're getting
up in three days you don't needyour own.
So jesus died and he was buried, just just as the scripture
said, and then he rose again.
The Bible says he rose again onthe third day, and I would tell

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you that the world is litteredwith tombs of the bones of
prophets and kings andphilosophers, littered all over
the world.
But can I tell you what?
There's one tomb that's empty,littered all over the world.
But can I tell you what?
There's one tomb that's empty.
There's one tomb that the stonehas been rolled away because

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Jesus rose from the dead on thethird day.
So you need to remember what'smost important.
Number two you need to remember,you need to remember the power
of the third day.
You know Jesus rose on thethird day.
You've read it, we've talkedabout it.
If it's your first Easter, thatmight be the first time you've
heard it, but we've all heard itonce or twice at least.

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Rose on the third day.
You know God is a God ofpatterns and promises.
There's something powerfulabout the patterns and promises
of God when they go together,and the power of the third day.
What is so interesting aboutthe power of the third day?
Well, in creation week, thecreation story, it was on the
third day that God broughttogether the idea and produced

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trees and seed bearing fruitthat would produce after their
own kind.
That was on the third day.
He created the law of seed timeand harvest and in Genesis,
chapter eight, the Bible saysthat as long as the earth exists
, there will be seed time andharvest.
It's amazing you plant a seedand the Bible says in John 12

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and 24, unless a seed dies andgoes into the ground, it cannot
bear much fruit.
And so you take that seed andyou crush it and you push it
into the ground and you bury it.
And then for day two whichcould be a day or several days,
but a season of day two existsand you don't see anything

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happening in the ground.
But then on day three seed timeand harvest a plant breaks
through that ground, new life isformed, there's flowers that
begin to bloom.
We've seen it all overChicagoland over the last couple
of weeks.
Listen, we moved into a house acouple of years ago and we
haven't really finished doingthe flower beds in the front.

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But the people before us, theymust have planted some daisies
before we.
We were there and literally wehave.
We were laughing about itbecause we have one daisy in the
front and one daisy in the backand we don't do anything to
protect them or we don't coverthem up when it's freezing.
And all of a sudden in thespring, here comes that daisy,
right on time.

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It's the power of the third day.
You know there were otherinstances in scripture about the
third day.
What about Jonah?
Jonah runs from God, refuses topreach to Nineveh, Ends up in
the belly of a whale and on thethird day the whale spits him
out and he says you know what?
I think I'm going to go preachto Nineveh.
You probably would too.

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What about Abraham, who waspromised to be the father of
nations?
And finally, at a hundred yearsold, god lives up to the
promise and Abraham becomes thefather of Isaac.
And then God asked a peculiarthing Abraham, if you love me
and you trust me, will yousacrifice your one and only son

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on the mountain?
And Abraham walks Isaac up themountain in a three day journey
and on the third day as he layshis son on the altar.
The Bible says God himselfprovided a lamb in place of
Isaac on the third day.
I don't know what kind of seasonof life you're in.

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Maybe you're in a day oneseason and you've gotten bad
news.
You've heard the doctor'sreport and it doesn't sound well
.
Maybe you've gotten, you've had, this unexpected betrayal by
people in your life.
Maybe you're in a day oneseason.
Can I tell you, just hold on.
It might be day one, butthere's a day three coming.
Maybe you're in the season ofday two and it's dark and silent

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and around the tomb there'stears and mourning and it seems
like heaven has been shut offand your prayers bounce off the
ceiling.
But can I tell you, can youjust hold on If day one is
tragedy and day two mightdespair, but can you just hold
on Because day three is comingin and on day three the stone's
going to be rolled away.
There's going to be lifebreaking through the darkness.

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There is a new thing God'sgoing to do in your life and it
will be beautiful.
The Bible says he makes allthings beautiful in its time.
You see, if Jesus was the seedand the cross was the soil, you
became the harvest of hisrighteousness.

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Remember the power of the thirdday and then, finally, this
Easter.
This Easter, remember the powerof his appearing.
Paul tells us he appeared toPeter.
Peter denied that he knew Jesus, even though he had been in

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close proximity for over threeyears, had seen every miracle
Peter who had walked on water.
Peter who made the confessionthat Jesus is Lord and Savior of
all.
And when he said it, jesus waslike Peter, you are a rock, and
upon the rock of that revelationI will build my church, and the

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gates of hell shall not prevailagainst it.
Peter who says no, I never knewhim, I don't know who he is, I
don't know what he's done.
That Peter Jesus appeared to,which says if you spent your
whole life running from anddenying him, he still is going
to appear to you.
He appeared to the apostles andthe disciples, the doubters, the

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ones who wandered and wentastray.
He appeared to them.
He appeared to over 500 of hisfollowers on the hillside before
ascending into the heavens,leaving the promise of the Holy
Spirit.
He appeared to James, but thenPaul says he even appeared to me

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.
Even though I was born late inthe game, I'm the last person
you would ever think Jesus wouldshow up for.
I'm the least of all theapostles.
I don't have the pedigree.
I didn't spend those threeyears with him.
He showed up for me and if welean in and pay attention, if he

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would show up for somebody whopersecuted the church,
imprisoned and even killed thosewho were establishing the New
Testament church in the day hesaid, as if I was born at the
wrong time on the wrong day, onthe wrong side of the tracks, he
still appeared to me.

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He still appeared to me and ifhe will appear to that group of
misfits, fearful, forgetful,failures, full of folly, if
he'll appear to all of them, Iknow he'll appear to you Because

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he's still appearing to thebroken.
He's still appearing to thehurting.
He's still appearing to thedoubtful.
He's still appearing to thebroken.
He's still appearing to thehurting.
He's still appearing to thedoubtful.
He's still appearing to theskeptical.
He's still appearing to the onethat doesn't know if could ever
get better.
He's still on his way becausethere is no limit to how far
he'll go to find.
You Leave the 99, if I have to,to find the one who needs me

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most.
And you ask what makes it allpossible, what makes it possible
that Jesus could die on a cross, that Jesus, dying on a cross,

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be buried and on the third dayrise again?
Is it the power he walks in?
100% God, 100% man?
Yeah, power, walking with thekeys to death, hell and the
grave?
Yes, it's his power, but it'snot only his power.

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Is it how much he loved us?
No greater love does a man havethat he would lay down his life
for a friend.
Does he love you?
Yes, he loves you, but is ithis love that makes it all
possible?
Is it power?
Is it love that makes it allpossible?
It's the power, it's love, hisobedience to the Father that in

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the garden, before he's arrested, he's saying Father, if there's
any way, let this cup pass, butnevertheless, in obedience, thy
will be done.
If it must be, I'll be obedientall the way to the cross.

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Was it his power?
Was it his love?
Was it his obedience?
And I would tell you church,church, it's his holiness, his
purity.
You see, you and I were borninto a broken world.
We're born broken and we'reborn separated.

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The Bible says enmity betweenus.
There's a space between us.
When we talk about sin inchurch life.
We're not really talking aboutthe actions.
We're talking about the spacebetween us and our Heavenly
Father.
We were born to be inrelationship, but when we're
born, we're born apart from Himbecause of Adam and Eve and the

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decision they made.
And really we like to blameAdam and Eve, but we actually
make that decision over and overagain so many times in our own
life.
I'll do it my own way, I knowwhat's best for me, I'll get it
together later, but it's hisholiness that makes the

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difference.
You see, we were born corrupted, but he was born of an
incorruptible seed and in thatseed he multiplies righteousness
in you.
It's not just that he died forus.
He died as the perfect,spotless lamb, the perfect

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sacrifice for us.
When we receive communion,remember I told you they killed
the lamb, applied the blood overthe doorstep.
That's exactly what Jesus hehimself became the lamb, perfect
in sacrifice, spotless, withoutblemish, holy, holy means pure,
sacred and set apart.
It was his holiness.

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And the Bible says in Romans 5,8, while we were yet sinners,
christ died for us.
It's how he showed his love,commended his love.
Yeah, he loved us in our sin,but he didn't just die for our
sin.
He became sin so that we mightbecome righteous.

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You see, it's his holiness.
It's his holiness when Peter.
When Peter says you need to beholy because Jesus is holy, he's

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not setting an unreal standard,although if we attempt in our
own, we can never be good enough, but thank God he is.
We can never do enough good,but thank God he already did and
in His holiness he purchasedour salvation.

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In Hebrews, chapter 7, verses 26and 27, the ritual yearly was
for the priest.
He first, the high priest first, had to cleanse himself and
then he could go into thepresence of God where the ark of
the covenant was what's wherethe Ark of the Covenant was,

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what's called the Holy of Holies, into that space.
He had to cleanse himself, thenhe had to go into that space
and he had to do that everysingle year.
You know what Hebrews tells us?
That we have a high priestwhose name is Jesus that is holy
and because he's holy hedoesn't have to cleanse himself.

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In fact, he doesn't even needto go back into the Holy of
Holies every year for ourcleansing.
The Bible says he did it onceand for all on Calvary's hill.
He paid the price.
Listen, the price was holinessand Jesus paid it in full for
you and for me.