Understanding Easter – Lesson 4 – Events Leading to Jesus Suffering – March 22, 2026

Introduction:

Each year at Easter time, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus are preached and celebrated. It is a special time for Christians to remember that our sin was paid for by the blood of Jesus and that His life was sacrificed for us. This year, in preparation for Easter, we will take one sermon to look at His life, because we will not fully appreciate what Jesus died for until we understand what He lived for.

To understand the mission, we have to understand the need. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, it broke the relationship between God and man. Sin and death were passed on to every one of Adam’s descendants, and humanity needed to be rescued.

Jesus made it very clear in Luke 19:10 that “The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” This sermon will trace His life from His birth to the garden of Gethsemane to show how He consistently fulfilled that purpose. So let’s go back to the beginning and watch that mission unfold.

The Birth of Jesus — The Mission Begins

The story of Jesus begins in eternity. John 1:1 tells us that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And John 1:14 tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus took on flesh and entered His own creation — born in a stable, laid in a manger. (Luke 2:1-7)

Even His name declared the mission. When the angel appeared to Joseph he said, “Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) His very name announced why He had come.

When Jesus was eight days old He was brought to the temple in Jerusalem to be presented to the Lord according to the law. (Luke 2:22-24) There was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, a man devoted to God, who had been promised by the Holy Spirit that he would see the Messiah before he died. When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus into the temple Simeon took Him in his arms and declared he had seen God’s salvation. (Luke 2:28-32) He then turned to Mary and warned her that a sword would pierce through her own soul. (Luke 2:35) Even at the cradle there was a shadow of the suffering that lay ahead.

But while God was confirming the mission, Satan was already moving against it. Revelation 12:4 gives us a glimpse behind the curtain — Satan himself was poised to destroy the child the moment He was born. He worked through King Herod, who ordered the death of every male child two years old and under in Bethlehem. (Matthew 2:16) Satan knew that Jesus had come to seek and to save the lost, and he wanted to stop Him.

The Ministry of Jesus — The Mission in Action

The Baptism of Jesus

After His birth and childhood, Jesus began His public ministry around the age of thirty. Before He preached a sermon or performed a miracle, He went to the Jordan River where His cousin John was baptizing people. Jesus was baptized by John and when He came up out of the water the heavens opened, the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove, and the voice of the Father declared, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17) God Himself was publicly confirming Jesus’ mission to seek and to save the lost.

The Calling of Levi

There are several moments in the ministry of Jesus that show His mission to seek and to save the lost. One of those moments involves a tax collector named Levi. To fully appreciate this story we need to understand two things about that day and culture.

First, tax collectors were hated by the Jewish people. They worked for the Roman government, collected taxes from their own people, and cheated them in the process. They were considered traitors and were shunned by everyone around them.

Second, the Pharisees were the religious leaders and teachers of the law. The very name Pharisee means “separated one.” They believed that keeping the law and staying away from sinners was the path to pleasing God. In their minds tax collectors had put themselves so far outside of God’s law that God wanted nothing to do with them.

So when Jesus walked up to Levi sitting at his tax booth and said “Follow me,” it shocked everyone watching. (Luke 5:27-28) Then Levi hosted a great feast in his home and invited his fellow tax collectors and others that society had rejected. Jesus sat down and ate with them all. The Pharisees were outraged and demanded to know why Jesus would eat with such people. Jesus answered them — “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32) Jesus was seeking the very people the religious leaders had written off because He came to seek and to save the lost.

The Healing of the Paralytic

Another event in the ministry of Jesus that shows His mission to seek and to save the lost takes place when Jesus was teaching in a home packed with people, including Pharisees and teachers of the law. Four men brought a paralyzed friend to Jesus to be healed but the crowd was too large to get through. They climbed to the roof, broke through it, and lowered their friend down in front of Jesus. (Luke 5:17-19)

When Jesus saw their faith He said to the paralyzed man, “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.” (Luke 5:20) The Pharisees were furious because only God has the authority to forgive sins. Jesus then healed the man completely, proving He was God who had come to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 5:24-25)

This event shows the hostility toward Jesus growing. Satan was working through the religious leaders to push Jesus toward the cross, not realizing that the cross was exactly where Jesus was headed all along.

Jesus Predicts His Death

As Jesus continued His ministry He began telling His disciples that He would suffer, be rejected by the religious leaders, be killed, and rise again on the third day. (Luke 9:22) He repeated this prediction three times. (Matt 16:21, Matt 17:22-23, Matt 20:17-19)

The fact that Jesus knew this and forewarned His disciples proves that the cross and crucifixion were always part of His mission to seek and to save the lost.

Jesus Sets His Face Toward Jerusalem

One of the most significant events in the life and mission of Jesus is recorded in Luke 9:51. The Bible tells us that Jesus set His face to go to Jerusalem. This was a Jewish expression meaning His mind was made up and nothing would turn Him back. Jerusalem was where the religious leaders were plotting against Him, where the crowds would turn on Him, and where the cross was waiting. Jesus knew all of this and He went anyway. He came to seek and to save the lost and nothing was going to stop Him from completing that mission.

Zacchaeus

The final event we will look at in the ministry of Jesus is found in Luke 19, just outside Jerusalem. This is where Jesus spoke the words “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” As Jesus was passing through the city of Jericho a crowd had gathered to see Him. Among them was a man named Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector of the region. Because he was short and could not see over the crowd he climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus. (Luke 19:1-4)

When Jesus reached the tree He stopped, looked up and said “Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.” (Luke 19:5) The crowd was shocked that Jesus would go to the home of a tax collector. But Zacchaeus came down immediately, welcomed Jesus, and declared that he would give half of his possessions to the poor and repay anyone he had cheated. Jesus declared that salvation had come to his house that day. (Luke 19:8-9)

Then Jesus stated — “For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10) Next we will look at the events of the final week that led Jesus to the cross.

The Final Week — The Mission Completed

So far in this sermon we have seen Jesus seeking and saving the lost. Now we arrive at the final week of His life where every event moves Him closer to the cross.

The Triumphal Entry

The last week of Jesus’ life began on Sunday with His arrival in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. The city was packed with people who had heard about His miracles and teaching. Jesus rode into the city on a donkey, and in doing so He was making a statement that He was the promised Messiah. Over 500 years earlier the prophet Zechariah had written “thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass.” (Zechariah 9:9) In that culture a king riding a donkey was a symbol of peace. Jesus was entering Jerusalem as the King of peace and every person who knew that prophecy understood exactly what He was saying. The crowds lined the streets, laid their coats on the ground before Him and waved palm branches shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (Matthew 21:1-9)

The religious leaders were furious because the crowd was declaring Jesus the Messiah and their grip on the people was slipping. Satan was working through them and the plot to kill Jesus was intensifying. He came to seek and to save the lost and Jerusalem was where that mission would be completed.

The Cleansing of the Temple

On Monday of that week Jesus returned to Jerusalem and went to the temple. God had designated the temple as a house of prayer and worship for all people. When Jesus arrived He found that the religious leaders had allowed money changers and merchants to set up tables inside, selling animals for sacrifice and exchanging currency for profit. This means the place God intended for people to come and meet with Him had become a corrupt marketplace. Jesus overturned their tables and drove them out, declaring “My house shall be called the house of prayer but ye have made it a den of thieves.” (Matthew 21:12-13)

Satan was working through the religious leaders and this event pushed their plot to kill Jesus to a new level. They were now actively looking for a way to arrest and kill Him. (Matthew 21:15-16, Luke 19:47)

Judas and the Betrayal Plot

To understand what happens next we need to understand that Satan was not only working through the religious leaders. He was now working inside the inner circle of Jesus himself. Among the twelve disciples that Jesus had chosen was a man named Judas Iscariot. Judas went to the chief priests and offered to hand Jesus over to them for thirty pieces of silver. They agreed and from that point on Judas was looking for the right opportunity to betray Him. (Matthew 26:14-16)

This was a significant turning point. The religious leaders had been looking for a way to arrest Jesus without causing a riot among the people. Judas solved that problem for them. Satan had found his way inside the very group of men Jesus had chosen, and the events that would lead to the cross were now set in motion.

The Last Supper

On Thursday evening of that final week Jesus gathered His twelve disciples in an upper room in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover meal together. Jesus knew this would be His last meal with them before His death. (Matthew 26:20)

The Passover was a sacred meal the Jewish people celebrated every year to remember the night God delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Jesus took that familiar meal and gave it a new meaning. He took the bread, broke it and said “This is my body which is given for you.” He then took the cup and said “This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (Matthew 26:26-28) Jesus was telling His disciples that He was about to become the final Passover sacrifice. His body would be broken and His blood would be shed to deliver all people, from every nation, from the bondage, the condemnation, and the judgment of sin.

This was Jesus seeking and saving the lost right up to His final hours. And when the meal was finished He led His disciples out to the garden of Gethsemane.

The Garden of Gethsemane

After the meal Jesus led His disciples to the garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives just outside Jerusalem. He asked them to wait while He went further into the garden to pray. Jesus knelt down and prayed “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:41-42)

Jesus knew exactly what was coming. The arrest, the abandonment of His disciples, the false trials, the beatings, the beard pulled from His face, the crown of thorns, the mocking, the scourging, the cross, and the weight of the sin and judgment of all humanity placed upon Him. He knew all of it. And in the garden He submitted completely to the will of the Father, because He came to seek and to save the lost and He was going to finish it.

Application

So what do we do with everything we have seen today?

Everyone hearing this message is either someone who was lost and has been saved, or someone who is still lost and Jesus is still seeking to save. Luke 19:10 covers both.

For those of us who have been saved, remembering the life and mission of Jesus prepares us to celebrate Easter with a grateful heart and a full understanding of the cost of our salvation. He knew everything that was coming and He came anyway. For you.

For those who are not yet saved, everything we have covered today was for you. From the cradle to the garden Jesus was on a mission and you were the reason. He is still seeking. He is still saving. And if today is the day you recognize that you are lost and need to be saved, do not let this moment pass. Call on Him. Thank God that He loved you enough to come looking for you. Receive the forgiveness of your sin, the cleansing of your heart, and the salvation that only He can give.

Next week we walk with Him through the suffering. This week sit with this — from the cradle to the garden, every step He took was toward you.