Easter At Rock Point 2022 | Bill Bush · Rewind

Easter At Rock Point 2022 | Bill Bush · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · Apr 17, 2022

Big Idea

Jesus is the destination — you can get everything else right about church and Easter and still miss Him, and miss the whole point.

Easter is not about showing up, feeling better, or being a good person — it's about a relationship with Jesus, the only way to be made right with God. Because we are rebels, not just mistakers, God Himself paid the price we couldn't pay, and He is inviting every person here to stop running and accept His love.

Key points

1
1Jesus is the destination — you can know everything else about church and miss Him entirely.
Pastor Bill tells the story of driving an hour and a half to see a basketball game with all the right information except the address, arriving to an empty stadium. He applies it to Easter crowds: people can come for tradition, guilt, self-improvement, or ham, and have almost everything else right while missing the one thing Christianity is actually about.
2
2We are sinners, not mistakers — rebels who severed our own relationship with God.
Pastor Bill explains that Christianity differs from every other religion because it isn't about appeasing God to get what we want; it's admitting we by nature want to be our own god. This rebellion, not mere mistake-making, is why we need rescue rather than self-improvement.
3
3The Old Testament's hundreds of fulfilled prophecies point unmistakably to Jesus as the Messiah.
Pastor Bill cites 332 Old Testament prophecies fulfilled by Jesus, including the Daniel prophecy about Cyrus and the 483 years to Palm Sunday, and appeals to mathematician Peter Stoner's odds calculations (one in 10^157 for 48 prophecies) verified by a math review board. He notes the Dead Sea Scrolls prove the prophecies predate Jesus, answering skeptics who claim they were written later.
4
4Isaiah 53, written 700 years before Jesus, describes His ordinary appearance, His suffering, and why His death was 'good.'
Pastor Bill reads through Isaiah 53 verse by verse, pointing out that Jesus looked average (unlike Judas needing to identify Him with a kiss), that He was despised and pierced for our sins, and that being buried in a rich man's tomb was itself a fulfilled detail. He explains 'Good Friday' is good because it was the only way, not because suffering itself is good.
5
5Jesus had to die because there is no other way to God — every other religion offers a way to earn it, but only Jesus offers a rescue.
Pastor Bill walks through Jesus praying in Gethsemane for another way and finding none, and explains the Trinity's shared plan: 'the Father thought it, the Son bought it, the Spirit brought it.' He uses the illustration of a fireman insisting on the one true way out of a burning building to answer the charge that exclusive truth claims are closed-minded.
6
6The dirt bike and cholla cactus story pictures what Jesus did — He took the pain that was ours to save us.
Pastor Bill recounts crashing his dirt bike into a cactus bed after ignoring a rider trying to warn him, and how that rider tore up his own hands and legs pulling the cactus off him and carried him home. He connects it directly to Jesus taking our sin/cactus upon Himself even while we were still fighting Him.
7
7Some people are 'flying' through life right now but are actually just falling, and will miss Jesus the easiest.
Drawing on the Toy Story line that you're not flying, you're falling with style, Pastor Bill warns that a good job, good family, and good life can feel like enough until the crash comes. He pleads with those who feel they have no need for Jesus not to miss the destination.

Application

Don't miss the destination — Jesus is what Easter, and church, is actually for.

Stop settling for lesser reasons to show up
If you come to church out of guilt, tradition, self-improvement, or just for ham, examine whether you've substituted those things for actually knowing Jesus.
Look honestly at the evidence
Skeptics are invited to weigh the fulfilled prophecies and historical evidence for Jesus rather than dismissing it, and to bet on Jesus if they consider themselves people of reason and logic.
Admit you're a rebel, not just a mistaker
Recognize that sin is not simply doing better next time but a fundamental turning away from God that only Jesus's death and resurrection can fix.
Surrender to His love and put your faith in Him
Pastor Bill leads people to pray, confessing they've gone their own way and professing faith in Jesus's death and resurrection, symbolized by raising a hand.
Learn to live from His love, not for it
After putting faith in Jesus, keep growing in understanding His love day by day rather than trying to earn or prove yourself to Him.

Take it into your week

Sign in to ask Rewind about this sermon

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.

Day 1

There is something quietly stunning about the fact that Isaiah wrote these words roughly 700 years before Jesus was born. A suffering servant, despised and rejected, bearing grief and sorrow — written not as a guess but as a promise. Pastor Bill reminded us that more than 332 Old Testament prophecies point straight to Jesus, and Isaiah 53 is one of the most breathtaking of them all. The whole Bible, from its first page to its last, is not a collection of disconnected moral lessons. It is one story, moving toward one destination. That matters for how you read Scripture. When you open the Old Testament, you are not browsing ancient history or hunting for life tips. You are watching a long, deliberate arrow being drawn back, aimed at Bethlehem, at Calvary, at an empty tomb. God did not improvise. He announced the rescue plan centuries in advance and then carried it out exactly as He said He would. If you have ever wondered whether the Bible can be trusted, this is worth sitting with. The specificity of fulfilled prophecy is not an accident. It is an invitation to look more closely — and to notice that the One these words describe is still making Himself known today.

For reflection

When you read the Old Testament, do you tend to see it as connected to Jesus or as a separate, older story? What might change if you read it as one unfolding promise?

Pray

Pray for fresh eyes to see how Scripture points to Jesus, and thank God for a plan that was never improvised.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message cuts right to the heart of what Easter is actually about — not a holiday or a habit, but a rescue. Before we jump in, what's one word that comes to mind when you think about the word 'rescue'?

Discussion questions

1
Isaiah 53 was written centuries before Jesus was born, yet it describes His suffering, death, and purpose in striking detail. What stands out to you about that passage, and what do you think it was meant to communicate about who Jesus is?
2
Pastor Bill drew a distinction between seeing ourselves as 'mistakers who need to do better' and 'sinners in rebellion against God.' What difference does that distinction make in how people understand what they actually need from Jesus?
3
Isaiah 53:10 describes the suffering of Jesus as the Lord's 'good plan.' How do people tend to wrestle with the idea that something so costly could be called good — and what does the resurrection add to that picture?
4
Pastor Bill pointed out that Christianity is unique in that salvation cannot be earned or self-achieved — it rests entirely on what Jesus did, not what we do. How does that set Christianity apart from the way people often think about religion in general?
5
Isaiah 53:11 speaks of God knowing each person by name. Pastor Bill connected that to the idea that God's sacrifice was not abstract or impersonal. How might that sense of being personally known shape the way we think about what repentance actually means — turning from going our own way and placing trust in Jesus?
6
Pastor Bill's challenge was simple: don't get everything else about Easter right while missing the destination. As a group, how might we help the people around us — friends, neighbors, family — actually slow down and look at what God has done, rather than treating Easter as a box to check?

Pray together

Gratitude for a rescue that is complete, and openness to truly receiving what Jesus has done

Sign in to save this message.

Topics

Jesus' Death and Resurrection Messianic Prophecy Repentance Salvation Through Christ Sin and Rebellion

Powered by Rewind · make your church's Rewind →