Easter and the Right Story

Today we celebrate Easter.  Around the world in different ways Christians will focus on the risen Christ.  "Happy Easter" will be said.  And yes, it is a happy day indeed.  Of course, for Christians, every Sunday is Easter.  Every Sunday is resurrection day.  Christ is risen.  Hallelujah. 

 

But Easter doesn't mean the same thing to everyone.  For some it is eggs and bunnies and candy.  I love eggs, though I prefer them pickled.  I'm really not a fan of rabbits.  For others Easter is all about tradition and rituals - both religious and social.  Everyone seems to have a context, a story, into which their celebration of Easter fits. 

 

 

What is clear to me is that for many, Easter can be celebrated without any connection to the gospel Jesus preached.  Somehow, at some point, Easter -  the resurrection message, became a stand-alone menu item.  A sort of spiritual side-dish that can be ordered and eaten with any dinner you like. 

 

Isn't it strange that so many are comfortable celebrating the life of Someone without any real connection to His message?

 

Easter is one part of a grand story.  Easter is a chapter in God's book of salvation.  Granted, it might be the most important chapter.  But it is only 1 chapter.  Without the rest of the story this day makes no sense. 

 

I believe the great problem with modern Christianity can be summarized this way:  we are trying to plug Easter into the wrong story.  We have taken a central, exciting, spirit-lifting historical fact and transplanted it into whatever religious tradition makes us happy.  But it isn't working.  In medicine, the organ donor and recipient must be matched.  The same is true with the Easter story and the context you put it in.  Easter is out of place when not connected with the gospel story Christ preached.

 

Some are trying to plug Easter into the health and happiness story.  God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.  The problem here is that Easter is not about your present circumstances.  Paul, discussing the resurrection of Christ in 1 Corinthians 15 says that "if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable."  The resurrection of Christ teaches us that believers will be resurrected too, into a glorious and greater life than we have now.  Easter isn't about making this life better, but about making the next life possible.

 

Some are trying to plug Easter into the emotionally charged semi-spiritual atmosphere of modern worship.  Let's sing.  Let's dance.  Let's play the music as loud as we can and celebrate!  He is risen!  Yeah!  The problem here is not the singing, or even the dancing.  The problem is the total rejection of Easter as a message, a doctrine and a teaching.  The pattern of Jesus Himself, and His disciples, was always a pattern of teaching.  Of Jesus we read again and again in the gospels "they were astonished at His teaching."  Of His disciples we are told they were always "teaching and preaching the Word of God."  Paul tells Titus to teach "sound doctrine." 

Some, like myself maybe, are trying to plug Easter into the comfortable Christianity story.  He is risen.  I'm saved.  Now let me just muddle through the rest of this life and hope for glory.  But the problem with this terrible dilution of the Christian faith is that it insults the very Savior who rose for me to give me new life, new habits and new purpose.  A risen Savior demands a changed life from me.  I can't have my Easter and my old way of living and thinking too. 

 

Easter, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, has a Biblical context.  It is part of God's story.  I'm no expert.  But the context of a story seems pretty important to me.  The context of Easter is that mankind, all of us, have gone astray.  Some go astray publicly and heinously.  Others go astray quietly and peacefully.  But we all go astray. 

 

Jesus came to reclaim straying sinners like you and I. 

 

To do this He had to live a perfect life.  He did.  To do this He had to die in our place and bear the punishment we deserved.  To do this His sacrifice had to be accepted by the Father.  It was - and the resurrection proves it. 

 

And ALL the benefits of Easter: regeneration, forgiveness, acceptance with God, adoption into His family, eternal life - come only to those repent and turn away from their pattern of straying (sin) and believe and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. 

 

That is the Biblical context of Easter.  It is a link in the chain of God's plan of salvation for you and I.  Celebrating Easter won't save you and it won't save me.  Simply singing "He is risen" won't wipe away our sins.  We need the whole car of salvation, not just the engine, to bring us to glory.  We need every ingredient in the recipe to make the dish complete.  One part won't do. 

 

My point to my professing Christian friends today is this:  What are you celebrating today?  A resurrected Savior?  Yes, indeed!  But He is more than His resurrection.  He came, He lived, He taught, He suffered, He died, He rose, He sent, He preserved and He will one day return.  Easter needs a context, or it is meaningless.

 

And for those who are yet strangers to Christ - why stay that way?  There is no hope in this life or the next without our resurrected Savior.  Begin with His resurrection.  But then work out the message in the Bible.  Read why He came.  Read why He died.  Doesn't it make a lot more sense than the story you are living with right now? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's Your Problem?

If you were to look over my shoulder on most days of the week you would see hundreds of bottles of pills.  Hundreds.  I work in a little hospital pharmacy where we dispense prescription medication to sick patients every day. 

Imagine if the next time you went to your pharmacy that the pharmacist opened up the door and simply said to you, "help yourself."  No instructions.  No direction.  Throw away that prescription.  Just a welcoming invitation to take any bottle from the shelf and ingest any number of tablets with the sincerest of hopes for your health and happiness.

What would happen? 

Maybe you would get lucky and happen to lay hold of the bottle you needed and administer yourself the appropriate dose to promote your well-being and health.  Maybe.  Not likely.

More likely the average person would grab the wrong medicine in the wrong amount and die; or at least get no better.

How come?  Aren't they all, in theory, good medicines?

Yes.  Of course. 

But they are not all suited to cure your specific problem. 

When making the choice to prescribe a medication your physician (assuming he or she has your best interest in mind) will make their decision based upon their careful and specific diagnosis of what is wrong.

Does it matter which medication they prescribe?  Of course it does.

Now let's change the illustration a bit.

Does it matter which church you attend?

On any given Sunday you can presumably (at least in many U.S. locations) take your pick from dozens and dozens of church-options within a reasonable distance from your home.  Does it really matter?

As with medicine, I submit that the church you choose will either help you or hurt you (or do nothing at all) depending on what is really wrong with you. 

Every Sunday, from thousands of pulpits across our nation, "medicine" is being dispensed into the souls of those gathered to worship. 

If you choose your church without an accurate diagnosis of what is really wrong with you it is possible that your heart will get sicker and sicker.

So what's your problem?

The Bible's answer to this question is clear.  You may choose to disagree with the diagnosis.  If, however, the diagnosis is correct - the fact that you disagree will not alter to course of your condition.

The Bible says that mankind's fundamental problem is sin.  

That is it in a nutshell.  Sin.

"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" - Romans 3:23
"But the Scripture has confined all under sin" - Galatians 3:22
"You were...dead in trespasses and sin" - Ephesians 2:1

The "right" church then, for sinners, is the church that clearly and consistently points this awful fact out.  Our problem is not fundamentally our circumstances.  It is not our spouse (sorry hun).  It is not our parents (sorry kids).  It is not our personality or health or job. 

But what, exactly, is sin?  Simply put, sin is rebellion against God's law.  God has said "do this."  And we don't.  God has said "don't do that!"  But we do. 

That's sin.

And God hates it.  And if we think that "hate" is too strong a word for how God views sin - we are mistaken.  The Bible says God hates it. 

And so the right church for sinners is the one that tells them every week how God has chosen to deal with sin and offer salvation. 

How has God chosen to deal with mankind's sin?

First, He sent His Son to pay the debt for our sin by dying on the cross:

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of  us all" - Isaiah 53:6

"I am the good Shepherd, the good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep" - John 10:11

"having made peace through the blood of His cross." - Colossians 1:20

Second, He offers salvation freely to any who will repent of their sin and believe in His Son.

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved" - Acts 16:31

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish" - John 3:16

Third, He offers to change us.  God has not wiped away our sin only to send us back to our old ways.  No, we aren't perfect yet.  Far from it.  But He gives a new heart and His Spirit to begin the work of changing us.

"If any man is in Christ Jesus he is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new" - 2 Corinthians 5:17

"we are no longer slaves to sin" - Romans 6:6


So, does it matter what medicine you pick when your body is sick?  I think so.  So do you.  Even the best tasting (but wrongly chosen) medicine may be killing you.  Some, to go back to our opening illustration, would look at all the bottles of pills and just walk away.  Too many choices.  Better to not pick any at all.  That's too bad.  Because there is a right choice, and there is help available.

And does it matter which church you pick if your soul is sick?  Yes, I think so.  The question for us to ask ourselves is not "how did that sermon make me feel?" but rather "did that sermon address the real problem with my soul?"  Some, like the discouraged patient, look at all the church-choices and simply walk away - skeptical and indifferent.  That is too bad also.  You don't have to walk away.

If your problem (like my problem) is our sin - there are churches who will help.  There are pastors and teachers who will point you to God's cure as presented in God's Word.  God hasn't left you to wander around forever.  Christ offers Himself.  "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am chief."

A Memorial Day Meditation

"By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us." 

 I John 3:16a

I am thankful today for the freedoms we enjoy as a Nation, paid for by the lives of many both past and present.  My heart goes out to friends and family shedding tears today over the loss of dear ones.  

Leonel Ortiz with wife and 2 daughters

I thank God for a country that allows me to have days like yesterday.  We gathered at Immanuel Chapel for a Christian Bible study at 10:00AM, followed by a Christian worship service at 11:00AM.  Following this I shared a fantastic lunch with many believing friends - all openly and publicly.  We all got together again at 6:00PM for another worship service lead by a different pastor.  Following this we spent another wonderful hour hearing from a Spanish-speaking Colombian pastor that we support about the remarkable spread of the gospel going on in his home country.  This was facilitated by a gracious Spanish-speaking Christian sister from another church in Massachusetts who willing came (with her lovely family) and translated for him.  It was a great day, and I am mindful it was enjoyed because we have many freedoms as Americans that have been handed to me through those who have fought for them and died for them.  To the men and women who served both then and now, I thank you.

This morning my thoughts traveled from a thankfulness for those who laid down their lives for our country, to the One who laid down His life for the world.

Jesus is described in John's gospel as the One who "comes down from heaven and gives His life for the world" (John 6:33).

He also fought for our freedom.  The Bible calls us all "slaves of sin."  Ever told a lie?  Even one?  Ever stolen anything?  Even something small?  We all sin.  "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."  Christ died to free us from the consequences of our sin, the just punishment our sins deserve. 

But Christ's death for our freedom was unique in two important ways:

1)  Jesus died FOR the enemy.  Every soldier knows that he or she might die BY the enemy.  Jesus died FOR the enemy.  "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us  (Romans 5:7-8, ESV)."

You and I are enemies of God by nature.  We do not come into this world loving God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind.  We do not love our neighbor as ourselves.  Sin has made us enemies of God.  Christ died for the enemy.

Reader, are you willing to acknowledge yourself an enemy of God?  If so, there is hope.  God has made provision for the freedom of His enemies through the death of  His Son. 

2)  Jesus rose in victory over death.  Today many will mourn the loss of loved ones.  Many graves will be wept over afresh.  Many cemeteries will hear the slow and sorrowful steps of the friends and families of the fallen.  But unlike our lost loved-ones, Christ rose victorious over death.  His sinless sacrifice was accepted.  We read in John 5 that Jesus said "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

Reader, do you believe this?  Are you willing to lay down your arms today and fall into the loving embrace of a Savior who loved us and gave Himself for us?  Or will you, sadly, continue marching in war against a good and holy God? 

Memorial Day is a day to remember and be thankful.  Memorial Day is a day to honor those who gave their lives for us.  Memorial Day is a day to pray to God for peace: peace abroad, peace at home, and peace in our hearts.  May the Lord bless this Memorial Day to our souls.  May we recall the benefits we have inherited.  And may we embrace a Savior who offers Himself freely to you today.