Today is Easter Sunday, a day where we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today we always have a joyous time singing praises to God for the miracle that he showed us through the life and death of his begotten son, but what happens now?
Easter Sunday is one of my favorite times because it is such a joyous occasion. There are Easter Lilies, smiles on all faces, seeing new faces at our churches and there is a feeling of great joy in the air, but it doesn’t stop here. In fact this event was the acceleration point! This propels us to living our lives for the cause of Christ. From this point every sunday is meant to be a “Little Easter,” but for some reasons its really not. I think the Apostle Paul says what happens next in our lives the best in 2 Corinthians 13-20:
“If we are crazy, it’s for God’s sake. If we are rational, it’s for your sake. The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: one died for the sake of all; therefore, all died. He died for the sake of all so that all those who are alive should live not for themselves but for the one who died for them and was raised.
So then, from this point on we won’t recognize people by human standards. Even though we used to know Christ by human standards, that isn’t how we know him now. So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!
All of these new things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting people’s sins against them. He has trusted us with this message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors who represent Christ. God is negotiating with you through us. We beg you as Christ’s representatives, “Be reconciled to God!” God caused the one who didn’t know sin to be sin for our sake so that through him we could become the righteousness of God.”
There is a lot of good stuff in there, but to break it down it means that when Christ died on that cross and three days later rose from the dead that we ceased to be who we were before. Everything has changed now! You are no longer defined by your sins, but by the faithfulness of God through his son Jesus Christ. What’s more is that you can’t just sit there and believe that! You have to be Christ’s representative in the world! This event is about giving the world HOPE, and HOPE demands to be shared! You can’t keep this good news to yourself, its impossible!
So now what we do is we share the message of Easter!