How does the world see Easter? According to secular magazines, Easter means spring – new beginnings – touchy feeling things – pastel colors.
How do believers see Easter? We remember the following:
* Jesus died.
* Jesus was put in the tomb.
* Jesus was resurrected.
* [Then we add—] And there are implications for the elect because of those things that happened to Jesus.
Let me say: that is good to do, and that is what we should do. However, we cannot stop there. Easter is not when we remember things that happened to Jesus a long time ago, things that have implications for me.
For a Christian—
Easter is when we remember events that actually happened to you – to me.
Many Christians celebrate their spiritual birthday based on the day they were saved, and I like that. But there is a way to have another birthday: Easter is every Christian’s birthday. It is not just something that happened to Jesus; it is something that happened to me – to you.
* On [Good] Friday, my old self was nailed to the Cross. * On Saturday, my old self was placed into the Tomb. * On Sunday, I came out of the Tomb, but I did not come out the same person.
I was put on that Cross on Friday as a slave to sin and I came out of the Tomb on Sunday morning with the power of sin broken.
We do not act as though the power of sin is broken in our lives. That is very unfortunate. Though our sin nature was not eradicated, its power was broken. The reason the old sin master still exercises power over us is that we are empowering him. He does not have to have the power; we empower him.
As we will see, we empower Sin in the following two ways:
1. By not doing some things we should do, and
2. By doing some things we should not do.
And let me stress—
This Has Nothing To Do With Our Behavior…
THIS IS 100 PERCENT CONTINGENT UPON OUR ATTITUDE! - By Johnny Tatum
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