I don’t want to offend anyone this morning, especially those who profess to be ‘believers’ and are joyfully celebrating the risen Savior today; but is it possible that just maybe many have missed the main point or purpose of what God did on that third morning when He raised His only begotten Son from the dead?

I think we certainly got the memo on what transpired over 2000 years ago on that early morning when the stone was rolled away. We’ve all heard countless messages on how Mary thought she was talking to a gardener when it was Jesus Himself. We know about ‘doubting Thomas’ wanting to see the holes in Jesus’s body. Why you might have even heard about the seeds of a conspiracy theory that was sown... even back then. (Matt. 28:12-15) 

And no doubt, church sanctuaries around the world will host larger than normal crowds today because, that is what we do, after all...we rally the troops on this Easter Sunday morning as we sing and celebrate (and eat a lot) over the fact that the ‘grave couldn’t hold His body down’.

In other words, we ‘Christians’ know how to ‘do Easter’.

And for all the ‘purists’ out there, don’t let the word ‘Easter’ offend you when you hear us wishing others a ‘happy Easter’ today. It is a commonly accepted term used around the world to commemorate the day Jesus was risen from the dead. God will deal with all the others who want to make it more about pagan practices; so don’t let the use of that word ruin the day for you....we’ve got a more pressing issue to deal with; trust me.

Let me share with you where I am going with this today. We know that Easter Sunday does not fall on the same date every year because it was tied in with the Passover which is based on the Jewish calendar and that is based on lunar and solar cycles. It's not a problem that we have a fluid date each year to dress up in our Sunday best; but do you know what happened on January 1, 1863, here in the U.S.A.?

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared: “That all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.”

How silly...and tragic for that matter, would it have been if after that liberating proclamation was issued and made known...if all those ‘persons held as slaves’ went back to their masters and continued to live as slaves? (Yes, history bears out that many indeed, did. And then there was 'Juneteenth'!). But wait...this gets even better (or worse, really)

Imagine now...where every January 1st becomes another holiday and reason for celebrating and rejoicing that historical proclamation. And suppose communities around the country were to host a big dinner festival in town squares as all the slaves are trucked in while they sing, shout, and celebrate over what ‘good old' Abe Lincoln did on January 1, 1863.

Meanwhile, all the slave owners sit back in the shadows as they sneer and chuckle, watching all the fanfare as the day goes on. Then, after all the shouting and eating is done, they load the slaves back up, make sure the chains are secure and they are carted back to the plantation where they resume their lives ...as slaves.

Didn’t see that one coming, did you? [long dramatic pause here]

So what is the point that I suggested we might be missing? Well, let me direct your attention to one verse in Romans 8 that begins with a pesky two-letter word: ‘IF’.

“...IF....IF...IF....the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.... (can you say ‘if’ one more time?)...He...who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (11)

We are talking about (and celebrating) a risen Savior today, yes? The One whom God sent into this world of darkness, not to condemn us, but through Him we might be ‘saved’, yes? (John 3:17). We all know how He was crucified on a cross, buried in a borrowed tomb, and then raised from the dead by the Spirit of Almighty God, the Father, correct?

And that same Spirit, that raised Christ from the dead...has been made available to ‘dwell in us’. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but God did not send that ‘same Spirit’ to dwell in us just so we could have goose bumps, happy tears, and maybe even be enable us to ‘speak in tongues’.

Would you care to see what was foretold hundreds of years prior to the arrival of Jesus as to what that Spirit was going to do? Turn to Ezekiel 36, if you would please. You might take out a pen or highlighter and make note of vs. 25-27 as you read how a day was coming when we would be cleansed from ‘all our filthiness and from all our idols’...and He would ‘give us a new heart and put a new spirit within us’. Why even back then, we read where a ‘stone’ is going to be taken away (26) and now...read this carefully: “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statues, and you will keep My judgements and do them”.

Yes, that would be the ‘same Spirit’ that raised Christ from the dead.

And what...was that Spirit going to cause us to do? It was going to empower us and lead us to keep God’s law (statutes/judgments).

Do you know what ‘sin’ is? Sin...is breaking God’s laws, as in...not keeping them. Sin, is lawlessness. (1 John 3:4)

Do you think it is possible that Paul tossed in that little 2-lettered word ‘IF’ for a reason? IF...that same Spirit is in you? Because if we are continuing on a regular basis to ‘sin’ ...as most 'believers' readily admit they continue to do, then do you see a problem here?

I use the word ‘problem’ because Jesus told us in John 8:34 (in the most ‘assured way’)...”whoever commits sin is a slave to sin’.

Interesting how that word ‘slave’ is thrown into the mix here.

But...Jesus came that we might ‘know the truth and the truth will make you... free’. (8:32)

And what did Jesus say about a ‘slave’ when it comes to ‘abiding in the house forever’ there in vs. 34? Slaves don’t get to enter in. He also made that pretty clear in Matt. 7:23 when He told all those who ‘came in His name’ boasting of all the great things they did for Him...that He did not even know them. And do you know why... they are turned away? They continued...to practice/commit lawlessness (sin).

Those who do have His Spirit dwelling in them...and are abiding in Him...’no longer practice sin’ as they ‘walk just like Jesus walked’. (1 John 2:6; 3:6).

They will be rather easy to spot as well...because ‘by this will all know’. (John 13:34-35; 15:8)

Happy Easter : - )