Come As You Are: The Hope of Easter for Imperfect People - 3TC Podcast - Jeff Ryan - 4/20/2025

This Easter message emphasizes that the church is a place for sinners, not the perfect, and encourages confession and forgiveness. Pastor Jeff highlights the significance of Easter, describing it as a day of joy, hope, and candy. Jeff explains the preparation and purpose of Easter, linking the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to the opportunity for imperfect people to come into God's presence. He stresses the importance of trusting and believing in Jesus and invites listeners to come or come back to Jesus. 

Welcome to Three Timbers Church! We are so glad you found us online and encourage you to explore all there is to learn about our church located in beautiful Bennington, Nebraska. When you come to Three Timbers, you can come as you are to experience the love of Jesus through the people of God. ​

Whether young or old, single or married, new to church, or a lifelong attendee, there's a place for you here. We invite you to join us toward a meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ. Our goal is to share the passion, power, and presence of Jesus with others. We believe in supporting families through service, education, and loving one another as Jesus loves us, unconditionally.

Transcript

Unknown: 0:00

Welcome to the three timbers podcast. We hope this will encourage and uplift you today. One of the things that there are a lot of people who think that in order to be a part of a church or to go to church, you gotta be perfect. And one of the things I want to let you know is none of us here are perfect. We will never achieve perfection, and we never have had perfection. So if you have messed up in your life, if your life is a mess right now, you're in the right place, because this is where people are. The church is not a museum for saints, it is a hospital for sinners. And so we gather here, not as perfected people, but the one who worship, the one who was perfect on our behalf and what we do. And if you are just visiting us, we're thankful that you're here. But we take time within every service, and we confess that we're not perfect. God already knows this, and then we read responsibly the joyful news that we are forgiven. So let's go to the Lord and let's confess our sin. Father, we come before you because you've called us to we can't hide anything from you. We can't live behind your back. You know of every misstep, Miss thought, every word that we misspoke. You know the opportunities that we let pass by Lord. You know that we are a mess, and yet you say you're mine. You tell us that you love us, and today, Lord, is the day that we understand why we are your people and and why, Lord we come, and why we gather and why we worship, because we're forgiven, because we're not trying to be perfect, we're trying to be faithful. So Lord, I just ask that each of us would confess our sin against you and even our sins against our brothers and sisters, that Lord, we will forgive those because you have forgiven us. We ask this in the name of Jesus amen, let us read the wonderful words from First John. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. And that is why we are here. That is the joy of today. Today is resurrection, Sunday, a day filled with joy, a day filled with hope, and if we're honest, a day filled with candy. Candy will be a very big part of today. There will be Easter baskets. There will be Easter candy. There will be candy whether you are a child or whether you are an adult. And we know that the number one piece of candy that everybody wants chocolate, chocolate is always the number one seller, the number one go to candy that everybody wants to have on Easter but here's my question, do you know number two? Do you know the second most popular Easter candy? No, believe it or not, I'm here to tell you it is peeps. Peeps are the number two candy for all of Easter now I want you to know a few things about peeps. When peeps first started being made, it took 27 hours to make them. Now it takes six minutes to make a peep. When they first started, they had wings, but that went away. Yellow was the first and still is the most popular color of all of the peeps. If you were to line up every peep that was made for Easter this year, it would circle the world twice. That's how much we love peeps. They come in all shapes and sizes. Obviously, the chip is the most popular of all of those. They were made some 60 years ago by a machine called the depositor, and they are still made that way today. Here's the really good news. They have only 28 calories, and they are fat free. So when someone says to you today, Hey, slow down on the beach, you can say it's only 28 calories, they're fat free. They are made in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and that's close enough to Philly that we're going to say Philly has made the peeps. I just want to be very clear on that. Do you know that in Bethlehem, on New Year's Eve, instead of dropping a ball, they drop a huge peep to count down to the new year. And the most frightening thing about peeps, and you will deny this, but you do it. When we eat a peep, we always bite the head off first. Why is that about us? I don't know, but we all seem to want to do that. Now you may say, What in the world does this have to do with Resurrection Sunday, other than the fact that. All that can Well, there's something that is we have in common with peace and Resurrection Sunday, both are about preparation and purpose. If you do not understand the preparation of Easter, you will not understand the purpose of Easter, and that's what we want to look at today. So you pray with me before we hear God's word, Father, God. We, thank you so much for this day. We, thank you for the hope we, thank you for the joy we, thank you, Lord, for the promise that you have made going all the way back to Genesis 315, Lord, that you will put enmity between mankind and the devil, we thank you that today is a day of victory. It is not a Day of Defeat. It is a day of joy. Father, I pray that you would get me out of the way in my sinful, fallen, messy heart and Lord, that You would speak to us today through Your Holy Spirit. That Lord, we wouldn't just hear with our ears, but we would hear with our hearts. We would hear with our lives. I pray, Lord, that this would not be a religious activity, but it would be a relational opportunity, Lord, for us to grow deeper or even begin our relationship with you, Lord, I pray that you would be glorified and magnified in all that is said and done. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, amen. Amen. I'm going to be reading from John chapter 14. If you've got your Bibles or you want to bring up your Bible app on your phone, I would encourage you to do that. We're going to be reading verses one through six, and we're going to hit a verse that everybody probably has seen or heard of their life, but it's a verse that is very connected to Easter that perhaps you never thought was Jesus for John 14 verses one through six. This is Jesus speaking. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Do you believe in God? Believe also in me. My Father's house has many rooms, if that were not so what I told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you may also be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we get there? Jesus answered, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So we need to understand what is happening here in John's Gospel. Jesus is withdrawing with His disciples. He is pouring into them, kind of that that one on one time, kind of preparing them for what He expects of them, which is what He expects of us, and that is to be His witnesses to the world. To be a witness for who Christ is, to be a witness for what Christ has done. What we need to understand is that the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus are all a part of the preparation for Easter. Let me say that again, the birth, life, death and resurrection are all part of the preparation of Easter. The purpose of Easter is that the barrier that separated you and die from God that is gone. The purpose of Easter is that you and I now have a way to come into the presence of God, messy, sinful, imperfect people that we are. The purpose of Easter is to give us a way into the presence of God, because no amount of religious living or good works can allow us to come into the presence of God. So we need to understand the difference between preparation and purpose. So many of us today believe that this life that we live right now is our purpose. Everything that we do is about this life. Every moment that we have is about this life. Every thought that we have is about this life. We believe, at times, that our whole purpose is this life, and some of those things can be very good. Our purpose is to raise good kids and grandkids. Our purpose is to be a really good spouse. Our purpose is to be a really good citizen. Those are wonderful things, but that's not our purpose. That's part of the preparation. Our purpose is to enjoy God and glorify Him and all that we do and point other people to him to make disciples. So we need to know the difference between preparation and purpose. So you may be saying, Okay, if, if everything that I'm doing is not my purpose, but my preparation. What should I be doing? What is the preparation that I need to be taking in my life? I think it's threefold. Number one, believing in and trusting God. Do you believe in the God of the Bible? Do you trust the God of the Bible? That is a. Preparation. That doesn't mean that you're 100% there, right here, right now, but you say, I am preparing. I am growing. I want to believe in God, and I want to trust God. That is part of our life today. Are you actively doing that? Secondly, Have you accepted His grace in Jesus? Sometimes the thing that holds us back from God the most is us. Sometimes we can't forgive ourselves. So we don't believe that God can forgive us. Friends, I'm here to tell you today, God has forgiven me. Whatever it is that you have done, whatever your struggle may be or have been, God has forgiven you, except the gift of Jesus. You cannot earn it. You'll never be good enough. We can only accept the grace of Jesus. That is part of our preparation for the next life is accepting Christ and thirdly, applying God's word to your life. If you are not reading God's word, you cannot apply God's word that is a lifetime ongoing process of preparation, Lord, I'm preparing for what is to come because I am reading your word. So we have to understand the difference between preparation and purpose. Now, Jesus says to the disciples the beginning of this text, don't be troubled. Well, why were the disciples troubled? Well, you and I know what troubles are. The disciples were troubled because that Christ said he was leading them. They couldn't imagine, how were they going to go on without Jesus. So in their hearts, they were troubled, saying, What is going to happen? Sometimes maybe they were troubled with their own selfish hearts. Hey, this thing has been moving pretty good. We got a lot of followers. We got a lot of likes. We got a lot of people. Now, what are we going to do? How will this affect me? So they were troubled. And how often are we troubled because of something that will affect us? They were troubled because Jesus says one of you will betray Me. Each of them looked around and thought it was somebody else. Maybe they thought, could it be me? And they were troubled because their faith was wavering. I don't know about you, but I could fit into some of those categories. Has your faith ever wavered? Have you ever been troubled because of what's going to happen to you and what Jesus is telling them, he says, Don't be overwhelmed. Don't be intimidated by your circumstances. Do this. Trust Him. Believe him. Believe that everything that was said in this book has happened and will happen. Believe that Jesus is who He says He is. Believe that God will do what God said that He will do and that's what Jesus was saying here. Believe in me, trust me. Super easy to say, really hard to do. And you know why it's hard to believe in and to trust God? Because we have to admit that we're weak. We have to admit we don't know it all, that we're not perfect parents, we're not perfect spouses, we're not perfect friends, we're not perfect employees that we make mistakes that we struggle with. We have to admit that we cannot be self reliant on ourself to somehow be so good that God just can't wait to get us into heaven. We have to say we're not perfect. So when Jesus says, Believe in me and trust in Him. That means that we have to understand who He is and who we are, and what Jesus was saying is, trust in me, that I will come back. Trust that I will come back. It's hard when you say goodbye to somebody right whether you got family in town for the holidays or whether you got a child that's away in college, it is so hard when somebody leads you, but you are trusting that they will come back. You are trusting when they said, I will be back for Christmas or summer. I'll be back when we go on vacation. And so what Jesus was saying is, trust in Me, I will come back for you. And that's what Easter is about. It's about trusting that Jesus did come back from the dead, but it's also an opportunity for us to come or come back to Jesus. Don't miss that we said he is risen. He is risen indeed, and that is true, and we celebrate that Jesus came back from the dead. But friends, Easter is also about you coming to Jesus in trust and believe, or coming back. Maybe you've kind of drifted away, or even stepped away from God because of hurt in your life, challenges in your life, circumstances. Today is a day that we celebrate that Jesus came back from the dead, but we celebrate that. It's our chance to come and come back to Jesus. Jesus knew what was coming. He knew the crucifixion was coming. And he's not just comforting the disciples, but he says, Trust in me, believe in me. He is commanding them to do that because he knows that's the only thing that will get. And through. And when you look at that word trust in the original language, it's an ongoing trust. It's not a one time trust. It's every day. It's every moment trusting in Jesus. It just can't be I'll trust when I need something, and then I'll go back to trying to do it myself. The disciples had separation anxiety because they couldn't imagine life without Jesus. How do people live without the hope and joy of Jesus? How can we believe that there is hope and joy in our world and in our lives without Jesus? Because he came back from the dead. Now, Jesus says, In my Father's house, there are many rooms. I don't know what you've ever dreamed of heaven being like. I don't think it's like a dorm, but I think it's this unbelievable nation where each of us has this wonderful opportunity to be in the house of God. And I know about you, but I'm pretty sure if I say this to parents and grandparents, there's nothing like when your house is full, when your kids and your grandkids are home, it just changes everything. Imagine the house of God when it's full with all of God's children. But there's preparation that Jesus said needs to be done, Jesus, I'm going to prepare a place for you, preparation, but I will come back for you the purpose, so that we can be in the presence of God for all of eternity. See the life, death, crucifixion, resurrection. That was the preparation of Easter. The purpose of Easter was Jesus rising from the dead, coming back, defeating sin and death, so you and I can come into the presence of God. You know, in surveys, when people are asked, Do you want to go to heaven, almost everybody says yes, even if they don't understand what heaven is or where heaven is, they just know that nobody's come back with any complaints. So it must be pretty good. So people just want to get to heaven, but in order, there has to be some preparation, and that preparation was the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We can't do anything to prepare a place. There's only one way that we can get there, that's Jesus. If you've ever moved in your life, you know that wherever you move, you can't move in until something has been paid, whether that's the first month's mortgage or the first month's rent, you cannot move into a place until there has been a pain. Friends, you and I cannot move into heaven until today, because there has been a payment by the life, death, resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now you and I can move in. Now you and I can have that place that Jesus has been preparing for you and I, but in order for you and I to have that, that place, that room, that God has for us, we need to come, or come back to Jesus. And there may be some of you in here that say I don't know what it means to come to Jesus. I don't know how if I can know the whole Bible, that's not what it means to come to Jesus. What it means to come to Jesus is, I know I'm not perfect. I confess my sin, and I believe that Jesus died on the cross. I believe that He rose from the dead, and I will trust in Him for my salvation. No more trying to be churchy, no more trying to be religious, but I'm going to believe and trust in Jesus that he's my Lord and he's my savior. If you do that, you come to Jesus. And there are many who need to come back to Jesus, who have kind of drifted away and not having that daily time with Jesus, not spending time with Jesus in His word, not worshiping. Today is a day not about just Jesus coming back, but it's a day about you and I coming back to Jesus. Crucifixion, resurrection are all part of God's preparation of Easter, so that we can fulfill the purpose of Easter, which is to be in God's presence. I want to read you this words, and if you've got that text filled up, I want you to look at exactly the word that Jesus says. Here I am preparing a place for you. I will come back for you. You know the way those are powerful words. Do you believe and trust that Jesus has prepared a place for you? Do you believe in trust that Jesus will come back at the Second Coming? Do you believe and trust that Jesus is the way, or maybe you're like Thomas? I love Thomas, right? Because Thomas says what everybody else is thinking, right? Thomas says this, Lord, where are you going? How can we know the way Thomas was, was articulating what is so true about so many people then and now. So many people are lost. So many people don't know where they're going. They know they want to be. Get to heaven, they don't know where they're going in life. They don't know where their career is going. They don't know where their relationships are going. When you understand the preparation and the purpose of Easter, you know where you're going, you know the way to where you're going. See, if you don't know the purpose of Easter, you don't know the person of Easter. And if you don't know the person of Easter, you don't know the purpose of Easter, as much as we we love the candy and the pizza and the chocolate, and that's wonderful to celebrate. And we're going to have an Easter egg hunt after church for the kids. It's going to be awesome. We have to make sure that we understand the preparation and purpose of Easter that begins my understanding the person of Easter. Easter just can't be a date on the calendar that we circle go, oh yeah, Easter's coming. Let me get that new outfit. Let me get that candy. Let's make travel plans. It has to be. This is the day of hope, because Jesus came back, and this is the day to remind me that I need to come and come back to Jesus in a relationship. It's the day that reminds us of the ongoing transformation and deepening of our relationship with God. Listen to the words from First Peter. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus, Christ, in His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you who, through faith, are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is all ready to be revealed in the last time hear those words that that something is waiting for you and I, but the purpose is for you and I to be with God and without understanding the preparation and purpose of Easter. We truly can't celebrate Resurrection Sunday. We truly cannot have everlasting hope and everlasting joy unless we know the preparation and purpose and person of Easter. Jesus says, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. There is no other way to heaven except through Jesus. It's not through churchiness, it's not through religious activity. It is through a relationship with Jesus Christ only. It's an opportunity today. Today is an opportunity not just for us to celebrate that Jesus came back from the dead. It's an opportunity for us to say it's not too late for me to come or come back to Jesus. And I think what it comes down to is, do we trust and believe in the divinity of Jesus? Do we believe he is who he said he was? Do we believe that he is who the Bible says he is? But there are people who reject the divinity of Jesus today. And I don't mean just openly. I mean there are people in the church who who reject the divinity of Jesus today. How do we know that the reason people reject the divinity of Jesus is because people are satisfied with how they're living and what they're doing. They don't feel the need in any way to do anything different that's not on their terms. They will believe what they want. They will do what they want. They're satisfied with what they do, or they're satisfied with doing nothing, and in doing that, we are rejecting the divinity of Jesus because we're saying, I don't need Jesus in my life. So many people deny that they are lost. They deny that they are lost. They're like a man driving his family on vacation. We're not lost, but we're lost. It's like being in a building it's filled with smoke and saying, Well, there's no fire in here. And everybody else says, yeah, there's fire in here. If we are not following Jesus, Christ as our Lord and Savior, then friends, we are lost. As much as we think we know where we're going, as much as we think we can determine the outcome of our life, we are lost if we are not following Jesus. And third, we are convinced that there are multiple ways to God. Hey, if I'm just religious enough, if I'm just good enough, if I'm just charitable enough, if I'm just nice enough, I know that God will bring me into heaven. I may not be in the top tier of heaven, but I'll get in. We need to understand the the preparation or purpose is so that we can stop trying and just accept who Jesus is. I want you to think about how Jesus fulfills all of Scripture as a prophet, priest and king. He is a prophet because he is Jesus. He is God incarnate. He is a priest because he is the sacrificial lamb and he is a king, because not only is he the giver of life. He is the giver of eternal life. When Jesus says that He is the WAY, he's not pointing to a way, like I'm pointing to a door, he says he's the way. This is what it says here in Hebrews 10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the. Blood of Jesus by a new and living way open for us through the curtain that is his body. Have you ever felt intimidated to to go in to see somebody? Maybe it was at work. Maybe it was a coach, something that I'm not good enough to come into somebody's presence. I'm not worthy. I make too many mistakes. How can I come into somebody's presence? Friends, you and I can now come into the presence of God, the God who created the heavens and the earth, the God who makes the sun rise and the sunset, the God who makes little children laugh and and run around for Easter eggs, the God who has blessed you with health and a job and family and friends that God who hung the stars and knows them by name, you and I get to come into His presence, because that's the purpose of Easter. Christ is the dependable, redemptive revelation Love Letter of God. You name that. God says, Come to me. Come back to me. Easter is the culmination of God's preparatory work to bring us back into his presence. Remember, Adam and Eve are in the presence of God in the Garden, and then sin entered the world, and they were separated from the presence of God because of sin. Now you and I get to come back into his presence. Why? Because we understand the preparation that God went through, through the birth, life, death, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and the purpose of all of that, the purpose of today, the purpose of Easter, the purpose of Christmas, is so that you and I can spend eternity with God in His presence. Think about that first Easter morning meeting up today, we're excited. You know, he's risen. He's risen. Indeed, Easter egg hunts, and we have all this stuff. That first Easter was terrible. The one that they had been following for three years, the one who said that he's the Way, the Truth and Life, the one who said that he was the Messiah, the one who said the Son of God, we just saw him die on the cross on Friday. And I think Stephanie said, We've gotta get out of the Good Friday mentality living, right? So they went to the tomb with that Good Friday mentality, and they were preparing to involve the body of Jesus. So they came with preparation. But what happened there? They got a revelation that Jesus was who He said He was, and did what he said he did. And when they prepared, they received revelation which led to transformation. That's what Easter is. It is the revelation that God loves you, that God created you, that God wants to be with you. And when we do our preparation, when we believe and trust in God, when we accept the grace of God through the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and when we know and we apply God's word to our life, that will begin the transformation of who we are, one of the questions that we have to ask is our relationship with Jesus, seasonal or personal? Is it occasional or purposeful? There's been a lot of preparation that's gone into Easter. Lot of Ham has been made. A lot of tables have been set. A lot of eggs have been hidden, and a lot of the parents have sneaked some candy and eaten some already. Don't lie, you know you have, but we got to celebrate the real preparation, the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. And we must understand the purpose of what Easter is that you and I can come into the presence of God so as we eat our chocolate and we eat our peace, as we celebrate time with family, let's remember it's not just about Jesus coming back from the dead, overcoming sin and death. It's an opportunity for you and I to come and to come back to Jesus. Amen. Let's pray, Father. We thank you so much for this opportunity, just, Lord, to come and to praise you, to worship You. We, thank you, Lord for Your goodness and Your faithfulness. We, thank you, Lord that it is not too late for any of us, any of us, any of us, to come to Jesus. It's not about knowing the Bible front and back. It's not about being good or good enough. It's about coming and saying, I need you to be my Lord and Savior. I believe that you died for my sins because I'm not perfect. It's about saying, Jesus, come into my heart and be my savior. And it's also about those to come back, maybe those who were raised in the church, who went to church the. Life has just kind of drifted them away from you the Lord, let today be the day. Let this be the place where somebody says, I'm going to come back to Jesus. I'm going to to give my life, rededicate my life and my marriage and my time, my talent and my treasure, to Jesus. So Father, I want to just put this out there. And if there's anybody who wants to come or come back to Jesus, just pray this prayer silently in your heart with me right now, Dear Jesus, I confess I'm a sinner. I ask you to come into my heart and be my Lord and be my Savior and father, I celebrate that those who prayed that prayer, Lord that their room is now being prepared. It is now getting ready. Lord that when you come back, Lord, because we came back to you, people will get to be with you for eternity. Thank you for joining us for more information about three timbers, church ministries and services. Visit three timbers.org. We would love for you to join us in person. You.