Every year we see chocolate eggs appearing on the shopping aisles and for many children around the world they wake up on the Sunday morning and devour a copious amount of chocolate, a very sugary breakfast indeed!
While we could explore the history of the egg, the links to various festivals, rituals and celebrations, I would rather focus on the day, Easter Sunday.
Before there were Easter bunnies, chocolate eggs, or even debates about what the day represents and whether it should be celebrated, there was a Sunday, like many before it. The first day of the Jewish week. Until now, it was uneventful, just another day. Yet this one was different.
As we have walked through the revelations of grace, this fourth stage is possibly the most known, yet least understood.
Easter Sunday, the day of the resurrection. The day where Jesus emerged from the grave and once again walked the earth. The day, where Jesus overcame our greatest fear of all … death.
What greater fear is there?
Going to the principal’s office vs death.
Meeting a potential employer vs death. Chosen to stand in front to deliver a speech vs death.
Jumping out of an aeroplane vs death. Any fear whatsoever vs death. If Jesus overcame death, what is there to fear? If even death itself cannot have victory then what is there to be anxious about? Nervous about? Fearful of?
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”1 Corinthians 15:55
To have a real revelation of scripture that Jesus rose from the dead is to overcome all fear, anxiety, and worry.
In Luke 24, it shares this day of mourning, the day where the women had woken early to go and prepare for Jesus’ final resting place.
Then, as they arrived at the tomb and found it open, in Luke 24:5-6 two men in clothes like lightning say “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!”
Oh, how easy it is to read these lines. Two thousand years on. Blah, blah, blah … lah di dah dah.
Far too often these words are relegated to just a muddle of letters on a page. Their significance diluted by time and their meaning lost.
Believers show yourselves! Where are you who KNOW this scripture? Where are you who are boldly standing on these words?
We need to share this with the world!
Our Western world is so broken, chasing things and finding depression. Seeking joy and only finding anxiety. Making plans for their future and only finding worry.
I implore you to step up and show the world that we are saved. We have inherited eternal joy. We are victorious! God’s love is overwhelming and He so wants to burst through our numbness.
If the resurrection of Jesus becomes your revelation what could possibly stop you? What could possibly stand in your way?
Step up, step out and cry for joy as this revelation envelops you.
For those, who have made it this far, and still these words seem trivial or mundane then please come and visit our church and find out how you can be ignited by the Holy Spirit. That you are truly loved and can be filled with joy, with peace, with love.
