Please stand as we declare the Shema and read The Word of God together in His presence.
The Shema
Shema Israel,
Adonai elohenu-Adonai echad
Ve’ahavta et Adonai eloeikah,
B’khol levavkah,
Uve’khol naphshekah,
Uve’khol m’odekah,
Ve’ahavta I’re’aca comocha. Amen.

Hear O Israel!
The Lord is our God – the Lord Alone.
Love the Lord your God
With all your heart,
With all your soul,
And with all your might,
And love your neighbor as yourself. Amen.
Our corporate reading this Easter morning is the Bookd of Galatians, Chapter 6. Gal 6, beginning with verse 1. 
	Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. For each one shall bear his own load. And let the one who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh. But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.  
Thank You, Lord, for Your Life and Truth. We ask that You would accomplish everything that You intend for us in our time together as Your People. Amen. Please be seated. 
This is an Easter message that I delivered many years ago. However, in consideration of our study of discipleship just recently concluded, it holds a greater emphasis as to the instruction that we have received. It makes an even more challenging and vital aspect to that which Our Heavenly Father has set before us in the life and the completed and fulfilled work of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus, Our Savior, Our Lord, and Our Rabbi. 
Gal 6:14, But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  
We greet each other this day with the proclamation of that which we know in our hearts and minds - Jesus Christ is risen! He is alive! As the angels explained at the tomb in Luke 24:6+7, "He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again." 
So do we honor Him today, this Easter Sunday, and every day of the rest of eternity! He lived that perfect life of honor and absolute obedience to The Heavenly Father. He set before us what it looks like to fully walk in the manifested Kingdom of God on this earth. He died our death and was then raised up in glory in order that we who believe upon Him are now alive with Him. Because of the magnificence of His miraculous and awesome and gracious and merciful manifestation of the love of God, we too are earnestly looking forward to that time when all of creation will honor its True Lord, Jesus Christ. 
It may seem different that we are reading from the Letter to the Galatians this Easter morning, rather than from the gospels which detail the story of the resurrection. However, it is upon the reality of His crucifixion and resurrection that we want to focus our attention as so directed by the Apostle Paul in this letter. 
The primary question that is before us is this - How can we boast in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ? This is the direct encouragement that the writer of this letter makes to every one of its readers, including you and me! 
Isn’t the rough hewn and torturous cross a thing of scorn and shame and misery? Wasn’t it because of our sin and defiant disobedience and lawless and vile nature that God had to send forth His Only Begotten Son to be nailed, hand and foot, to that despised cross? In truth, it was on its ugly, blood-stained cross bars that Christ bore the full brunt of all God’s righteous judgment, dying the death that was rightly ours!    
As the Apostle so declares in his letter to the Colossians, Col 2:13-15, everything that was being held against us in our debt of transgression and sin was dealt with at the cross of Christ! It was hung on the cross to be forever considered paid in full by the sacrifice of Him Who was nailed there for our wrongdoings, our disobedience to God, and our vile offenses of sin and selfishness! 
Col 2:13-15, And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. 
Please keep in mind that Jesus was not under the judgment of humanity at the cross. He was under the righteous and holy and just verdict against sin that was ours to bear. As so proclaimed in Rom 5:6-10, God used the established Roman and Hebrew authorities to act in full accordance with His eternal plan at precisely the right time in order to bring forth the only manner of His redemption for those whom He so loved. Jesus chose to suffer the pain and the anguish of that unjust penalty on our behalf, and for any who would receive that freely offered gift of salvation. 
Rom 5:6-10, For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 
This heart of God’s love for you and for me was so declared by Christ before His death in John 3:16+17. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. 
Jesus, the Messiah, was sinless and perfect and unblemished in every way! He was wholly undeserving of the penalty that He came to pay. It wasn’t the accusations of the leaders that nailed Him to the cross; it was the love of God for such as you and me. 
This is fully highlighted in 2 Cor 5:21. 2 Cor 5:21, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. It was the matter of the Son, the Holy One, the Perfect and Almighty Creator of Heaven and earth, setting aside His Nature and Being as God, and willing coming into His creation to become our sin! 
	It is on that basis that we are able to boast in the cross of Christ. That which was despised and seen as a curse by humanity, was used by God to bring forth the manifestation of His love and His salvation for those who were in such dire need. Without Christ’s death on the cross, there would have been no resurrection power of His life to make us alive together with Him at the point of our confession that He is the Son of God and that He came to bring salvation to everyone who will but believe upon Him! 
	This reality is proclaimed by the Apostle Paul throughout his writings to the various churches who believed the Good News of Jesus Christ resurrected. If you would, open to the Letter to the Romans, Chapter 1, as we want to read verses 14-25. Please pay close attention to the fact that no one has any excuse before the Throne of God. He has made Himself known to all through His handiwork seen throughout His creation.  
Rom 1:14-25, I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. Thus, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "But the righteous man shall live by faith." For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 
Accordingly, as the Apostle so freely states, …I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "But the righteous man shall live by faith." 
The Gospel, the Good News, that Jesus of Nazareth, the Only Begotten Son of God, had been crucified and resurrected was not something that caused the Apostle shame to declare. Remember that, at that time, crucifixion was the cruelest and most abased form of punishment. This was a most brutal era in which death was meted out with tremendous frequency. Crucifixion was the lowest and most despised manner of putting someone to death. It was scandalous and cursed to be hung on the cross.
However, the Apostle recognized and boasted in the fact that the cross of Christ is the only means by which humanity could be saved from the dutiful and righteous wrath of God. Therefore he preached Christ’s death on the cross and His glorious resurrection with eagerness and with utmost humility and sincerity and urgency for the sake of any who would listen and believe. He also lived in the resurrection life of Jesus to any and all whom he encountered, as should every disciple of Jesus.
When we consider the gospel of Christ, that He died on the cross and arose again after three days, does it register in our hearts, as it did with the Apostle Paul, that eternal lives are at stake? This is no little topic for conversation when we just want to kill time or make small talk. This is not a topical basis for some societal gathering of the like-minded. We are dealing with lives that will face the eternal wrath of God if there is no recognition of the supreme cost to God for His salvation of humanity! The cross of Christ represents the only means for anyone to be reconciled to God! It is all at the cost of the life-blood of the Only Begotten of the Father! 
Without the cross, there is no living relationship possible with the Triune Godhead, only righteous death and punishment. This is true of the totality of humanity, not just a separated few who saw themselves as superior to the rest of the peoples of the earth. 
Consider what the Apostle wrote to the believers at Ephesus in Chapter 2, verses 13-18. Eph 2:13-18, But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. 
It is because of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ being hung on the cross that we are now reconciled to God in Him. All the debts of our sins have been fully dealt with at the supreme and inestimable price of His lifeblood! As a result, when we believe upon Him, we are brought into the very presence of the Almighty covered by the robe of Christ’s Righteousness and His Holiness! We are at peace with God in Him and we are at peace with ourselves in Him and we are at peace with each other in Him. He is our peace, as we sing from time to time. All barriers and enmities have been broken down and abolished as we are, by His death on the cross and His glorious resurrection, reconciled unto God and unto each other! 
As well, as a result of the fact that Christ died on the cross, our belief in Him as our Savior unites us into His death and into His resurrection from the dead. This is recounted so wonderfully for us in Romans, Chapter 6, verses 4-11, if you would please turn to it. 
Romans, Chapter 6, verses 4-11. Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Amen.
In Him, we are freed from sin and death and all its terror! We are no longer slaves to our old nature but we are made alive and liberated from all sinful bondage in Jesus’ resurrection life. In His victory over death, as we celebrate it today and every day, we are given hope and grace and power and might and peace and life everlasting! 
It is by the cross that our lives evidence the reality of our new life. Yes, because of the tremendous power of Christ’s resurrection life, we are able to thank God for the cross and to see it as the only means by which He could bring forth His life and make it to be our life in Him. So be it!
But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Col 3:1-3. If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Amen.