“An Easter to Remember” [on screen]

(various passages)

Easter Sunday

Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD

First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida

April 4, 2021

Introductory Comments:

We all have those events in our history that we always remember: perhaps you remember where you were when President Kennedy was shot, when your first child was born, when the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded, when the Twin Towers were attacked, when you got the news that you were hired for your first job, or when your spouse said, “I do.” I remember right where I was sitting when I got the call that the pastoral search team thought I was the guy to be your pastor. 

Some events are ones that we naturally remember because of the significance of the event. Others, we remember because they are markers of what God is doing in our lives.

Churches have memorable moments too, do they not? Many of you could tell me stories of when buildings were built, pastors were hired, pastors left, and other significant events happened. 

We remember certain things. 

Well, this morning we are going to talk about an Easter to remember. Actually, we’re going to talk about three Easters to remember. 

Before we do, let’s pray together.

(prayer)

The act of remembering in the Bible is quite common. As God led His people into the Promised Land, He instructed Joshua to set up stones for the people to remember all that God had done. We see this in Joshua 4:1-7:

1 After the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord spoke to Joshua: 2 “Choose twelve men from the people, one man for each tribe, 3 and command them: Take twelve stones from this place in the middle of the Jordan where the priests are standing, carry them with you, and set them down at the place where you spend the night.”

4 So Joshua summoned the twelve men he had selected from the Israelites, one man for each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go across to the ark of the Lord your God in the middle of the Jordan. Each of you lift a stone onto his shoulder, one for each of the Israelite tribes, 6 so that this will be a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ 7 you should tell them, ‘The water of the Jordan was cut off in front of the ark of the Lord’s covenant. When it crossed the Jordan, the Jordan’s water was cut off.’ Therefore these stones will always be a memorial for the Israelites.” [on screen]

So, church, let us remember. Let us remember these three Easters. 

First, . . .

I. 2020: An Easter to Remember[on screen]

2020 was a crazy year, wasn’t it? After all, it’s not very often that you have a global pandemic! Add in a very hostile political climate, troubled race relations in America, and a country divided on many issues, and many of us would like to forget 2020. 

However, I want you to remember this word from 2020: “Faithfulness” [on screen] God showed how faithful He was over this last year. 

This time a year ago, we were trying to figure out what we would do as a church. Many churches thought that they wouldn’t be able to survive financially. Many churches thought they’d have to lay-off staff. Many churches thought it may be years before they could meet back. We had no idea what would happen and what to do!

Indeed, the leaders of our church didn’t know exactly what to do either. I reflected back on my seminary days and realized that I didn’t have a class on how to lead through a global pandemic. As your three pastors put our heads together, this is what we came up with: [show images from video recordings]

There were a lot of things that we could have done better, but by God’s grace and wisdom I believe there is one thing that we did correctly: we remembered that no matter what, God is faithful. 

Church, we must remember God’s faithfulness during this pandemic and always.

Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “22 Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never en