Easter Service–Align Church Taita

Easter is for Christians as Waitangi Day is for Maori

• A transaction took place
• Easter: God gave a gift
• Waitangi: the Confederacy of Maori Chiefs gave a gift

Luke 22:39-48

• Read by James
• The Prayer in the Garden
• Betrayal and Arrest in Gethsemane

Luke 22:66-71

• Read by Fiona
• Jesus Faces the Sanhedrin

Luke 23:13-25

• Read by Dave
• Taking the Place of Barabbas

Luke 23:26-32

• Read by Jean-Anne
• The King on a Cross

Luke 23:33-47

• Read by Sam
• Jesus Dies on the Cross

Crucifixion

• One of the most gruesome ways to kill a man.  Even worse for an innocent man.
• The Romans relished the opportunity to perfect their technique.
• For what crime was he punished?  He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, fed the hungry.
• It was not for any of these things.  He was killed for claiming to be equal to God.
• Let no-one confuse you.  Jesus claimed equality with God.  He didn’t claim to be just a good man, or a prophet only.  No, he had the audacity to teach in power in His own right.

Liar, Lunatic or Lord?

• Given the irrefutable evidence that Jesus claimed equality with God, what are we to make of this claim?
• Did he know he was lying, which would make Him a liar?  No, the evidence of his teachings are inconsistent with this attribute.
• Did he believe what he was saying, but in reality he was deluded, which would make Him a lunatic?  No, the evidence of His true followers (who heal the sick, feed the hungry and give sight to the blind, raise the dead) deny that the root of this movement is based on a lie.
• In which case, you are left with no other choice than to accept that He is the Lord.

Tuks

• Recounted stories of the dedication of his earthly father to preach the gospel in Fiji.
• He understood the love of God.
• “It’s always a privilege to serve God.”
• Tuks was 14 when he inherited a Methodist collar from his grandfather.

Easter is about the love of an amazing God.

• The only reasonable response is to give your heart to Him.

Atheists claim to be intellectually consistent – they just believe in one less god than Christians!

• On balance, the coincidences that accumulate to allow life to exist here, for man to understand the heavens, for there to be a temperate zone for the Earth, for the universe to expand (consistent with His word “stretching out the heavens”) are too overwhelming to ignore.
• It takes more faith to believe in no god, than to believe in the Judeo-Christian Creator of the Universe.