Easter Is Everything To Us

Sunday Teaching

Apr 4

The full video of this teaching is available at the bottom of this post and can also be accessed directly at this link.

Today, I want to help those of you who are not followers of Jesus see why Easter still grabs us Christians by the heart.

For some of you, I get how Easter might seem like just another cultural expression of just another organized religion.

You may see our faith as something we were raised into, or maybe as something some of us came to later in life because we needed a crutch to get through a lackluster life.

I understand how you might see us making a big deal out of Easter every year and assume it is just an emotional experience we stir up in ourselves.

And yes, that may be true for some cultural Christians you have known. But today I hope you will see that it is not true for us.

The reason Easter has its grip on us is that we came to believe that what happened in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus changes everything for us. We celebrate that every day, and we make a really big deal of it on Easter. Romans 6:1–11 puts words to it for us.

1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. - Romans 6:1-11 NLT

ENSLAVED BY SIN

One of the most important things we realized before we became followers of Jesus is that we were all born with a sin problem. At the end of Romans chapter 5, Paul says sin entered God’s good creation through Adam, and ever since then, sin and death have ruled over all of us.

We were not born neutral. In Romans 1, 2, and 5, Paul does not say humankind is good, free, and occasionally messy. He says we are under the power of sin. Then he gets even sharper in chapter 6, saying we were slaves to sin.

But before any of that could change, God had to wake us up to our unbelief.

DRAWN TO BELIEVE

All of us Christians have our stories. Our testimonies about when, where, and what was going on in our hearts, minds, and souls as the Holy Spirit helped us move from unbelief to belief.

Jesus told his disciples in John 16 that when he sent the Holy Spirit, the Spirit would convict the world of its sin of unbelief. And that is exactly what happened to us. The Holy Spirit opened our eyes to see that our biggest problem was not out there somewhere. It was in us. We had not trusted God.

And for many of us, that realization was unsettling before it was freeing. It was the moment we stopped thinking that being “good people” made everything okay between us and God. We realized that not truly believing in and following Jesus was our spiritual problem. But that conviction was not God trying to crush us. It was God correcting us, bringing us to Jesus, and leading us out of unbelief and into life.

BURIED WITH CHRIST

We moved from belief to baptism because Jesus was baptized and said that all his followers should be baptized too. It was a sign to ourselves, our friends, family, coworkers, and other Christians that, as Romans 6:4 says, “For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism.”

We got into the water of baptism because we truly believed our old life was to be buried with Jesus in his death. Our old unbelief. Our old way of living, cut off from God.

Baptism ties us directly to Jesus being placed in the tomb on what we call Good Friday. Baptism is not just a symbol to us. It is a declaration that our unbelieving life before Christ is buried, dead, and gone.

But thank God the grave was not the end of the story for Jesus, and it is not the end of the story for us either.

SET FREE FROM SIN’S POWER

I know when those of you who haven’t accepted Jesus see one of your friends or family members become a Christian, it can be a little annoying because they immediately start changing so much about the way they think, what they say, what they do, and where they go. Yeah, they are still who they were. But also, so much changes about them. Let me explain why.

Romans 6:6–7 says, “our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.”

I want to assure you, we don’t start changing because we think acting better makes us right with God. And it is not because we think we are better than everybody else. It is because we have come to see how sin damages and wrecks things.

It harms us.
It harms other people.
And it harms our relationship with God.

So when you see Christians taking sin seriously, repenting, aligning our thoughts and lives with the teachings of Jesus, trying to love people well, trying to live honestly, and being forgiving, we are not trying to act holier than thou. It is because we believe Jesus has set us free from sin’s power, and we hope our new attitudes and behaviors benefit everyone around us.

NEW LIFE

Romans 6:4–5 says that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

After Jesus resurrected, we get a glimpse of his life before his ascension. He still had a human body. He could be touched. He made breakfast and ate with his friends. He walked and talked with people. He showed them his wounds, spoke peace over scared people and taught them about the Kingdom of God. He sent them out with purpose. He was still himself. But raised, victorious, and never to die again. And that is how we understand our life in him.

That’s why we Christians will spend the rest of our lives learning to bring our thoughts, desires, words, choices, relationships, money, pain, conflict, and hope under the leadership of Jesus. In His Kingdom that is here and now. While we’re waiting for His kingdom to come in full. That’s what we mean when we say we are disciples of Jesus.

EASTER IS EVERYTHING TO US

And all of that and more is why, for us Christians, Easter is not just a religious day on the calendar. It is the story we are living. It is why we sing passionately, pray continually, give generously, and live the way we do. We have personally experienced Easter.

When we talk about new life, we do not mean self-improvement.

When we speak about being forgiven and having a new start, we are not talking about optimism or positive thinking.

When we talk about following Jesus, we do not mean adding church to an already busy life.

When we talk about living holy lives, we do not mean being fake or boring.

When we say we are growing in our faith, we do not mean turning our brains off or pretending everything is okay.

What we mean is that through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God offers all of us, including you, forgiveness, freedom from sin, a new relationship with him, and a whole new way to live. We mean that Jesus did not come just to make bad people a little nicer or religious people a little busier. He came to bring spiritually dead people to life.

GOD IS DRAWING NEAR TO YOU TOO

Maybe through this article, God is doing with you what Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do. Maybe he is opening your eyes. Maybe he is showing you that your biggest problem is not out there somewhere. Maybe he is confronting your unbelief. Not to crush you. Not to shame you. But to draw you close, bring you to Jesus, and lead you out of unbelief and into life.

That unsettling feeling you may have right now may be God's mercy.

That pull you feel may be the Holy Spirit drawing you.

So do not keep pushing him away.

Do not keep telling yourself you will deal with this later.

If God is drawing you, will you accept him?

Will you stop trusting yourself and start trusting Jesus? Will you admit your sin, your unbelief, and your need for him? Will you receive the forgiveness, freedom, and new life he offers?

Easter was real, powerful, and life-altering the moment Jesus walked out of that tomb alive, and it still is today. Step into the reality of Easter with us.

Greg McNichols