Scratching the Surface of Easter

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

@#$%

"Humanity's greatest historical fear is death. 

Choosing Jesus defeats it.

More Jesus!  Less fear!

The amount of fear in a person's life measures

the amount of Jesus in a person's life."

Adamson

@#$%

@#$%

    Every Sunday is Easter Day!

    People who really know and love Jesus have always considered every Sunday to be "a little Easter Day" compelling people who really know and love Jesus to honor Him through worship, work, and witness.

    People who really know and love Jesus are more eager to worship Him, work for Him, and witness to Him as a privileged expression of gratitude for His favor here and hereafter than as some kinda religious duty that makes fidelity look like a bad case of hemorrhoids.

    Clue.

    People who really know and love Jesus smile a lot!

    Jesus is written all over the faces of people who really get it/Him!

    Jesus is seen in people who really know and love Him because they serve Him by serving like Him a lot!

    People who don't, don't!

    It all started over two thousand years ago on that first Easter Day.

    People weren't excited about religious stuff like the funny church clothes that too many clergy wear in defiance of Matthew 23 or any of those distracting idolatries and vanities that obsess pulpiteers and pewsitters that are rarely more than coincidental to following Him by His example as attested in Holy Scripture.

    People didn't run around on that first Easter Day celebrating fabrics, furniture, architecture, liturgies, litanies, rubrics, rituals, ceremonies, polity, sects, denominations, or anything else religious that are rarely more than coincidental to following Him by His example as attested in Holy Scripture.

    Nope.

    They ran through the streets of Jerusalem and then throughout the world with the best news ever: "He is risen!"

    Those first witnesses knew His resurrection meant resurrection for anyone who trusts Him as Lord and Savior along with the wherewithal to live triumphantly in the meantime of worldly meanness, madness, and misery.

    His resurrection elevated the hope that emboldened the faith to love Him by loving like Him in the certainty of "paradise" with Him in heaven after the last breath.

    Yes!

    Praise Him for the irrepressible smiles and service since that first Easter Day!

    We know Jesus rose from the dead because:

        1. The Church has consistently focused on

        and referred to the resurrection of Jesus as

        the keystone of its praise and practice since

        A.D. 32;

        2. The worship calendar shifted for Christians

        from the Jewish Sabbath (7th day of the

        week) to Sunday (1st day of the week)

        because Jesus rose from the dead on

        Sunday (see Mark 16);

        3. The New Testament consists of 27

        testimonies to our Lord's resurrection;

        4. The disciples were transformed from

        cowards into bravehearted Gospelers

        willing to face the tests of torture and

        martyrdom because of Jesus'

        resurrection; and

        5. Jesus is alive in/through all who

        believe in Him; or as the old song goes,

        "You ask me how I know He lives?  He

        lives within my heart!"

    Because Jesus rose from the dead, people who really know and love Him worship regularly, work for Him according to the gifts/resources entrusted to them by Him, and witness to His invitational, welcoming,         including, and eternally unconditional love.

    Yes!

    Every day is Easter Day!

@#$%

@#$%

Blessings and Love!