Why Easter?! (Youth Edition)Sample

Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

Have you ever thought about how weird it is that, at Easter, we celebrate someone’s death? In normal day-to-day life we don’t generally celebrate people dying, but at Easter we do! In fact, we even refer to the day that Jesus died as ‘Good Friday’!

It can seem a bit confusing, but the reason we celebrate Jesus’ death is because when Jesus died, he died for you and for me. Jesus’ death was a sacrifice for us – he died for my sins and your sins; for the things we do that are wrong.

When it says in today’s verse that Jesus died ‘for’ us, it means that Jesus died ‘instead of’ us. Jesus took our place and died instead of me and you, so that we could step in to eternal life with Him.

Jesus’ death was a demonstration of just how much God loves you. In fact, today’s verse says that Jesus’ death is precisely ‘how we know what love is’. In other words, if we want to know what love looks like then we should look at Jesus’ death on the cross. I wonder if you have ever asked the question ‘What is love?’ Well, the Bible says the answer is found at the cross!

By dying on the cross Jesus laid down his life for us, demonstrating his eternal love for each and every one of us. He took our place so that we could step into full and eternal life; free from any guilt, shame or sin. And the most amazing thing is that he would have done the same thing for you if you were the only person on the planet!

How awesome is it that we can be assured that guilt, addiction, shame and sin can all be taken away through Jesus’ death on the cross! And we can embrace the identity we were originally designed for. A new identity, in Jesus, where we do not lose our true selves, but we become our true selves.

At Easter we celebrate Jesus’ death because it was through his death that Jesus took upon himself the mistakes of the world. And we can be confident that it actually was a ‘Good Friday’, because it was on that day that Jesus died for us, laying down his life so that we can step into a new identity and a new life of forgiveness, wholeness and freedom.

Action:

- Go on a walk and listen to some music. Have a think about what love means to you. When have you felt the most loved?

- Think about what it means that Jesus demonstrated his love for you, by dying on a cross to forgive you of all your mistakes.