Live Each Day Like It’s Easter Sunday!

Several hundred years before the birth of Jesus, a crucial battle raged between two great civilizations—the Greeks and the Persians. They were among the world’s super-powers at that time. The clash of their armies took place on the level fields near a city called Marathon. The battle went on for hours. In many respects it was a fight to the death. In the end the outnumbered Greeks, the underdogs in the fight, managed to pull off an unlikely victory over the Persians.

But there was a problem. The Senate, the governing body of the Greeks, many miles away in the city of Athens, was about to ratify a treaty of partial surrender and appeasement with the Persians. Knowing what was about to happen, the victorious Greek soldiers sent a runner in full battle gear to cover the twenty-seven miles to Athens to share the good news about their victory. By the time the young man reached Athens he had literally run a marathon. The legends from that time say that he was totally spent, that he literally ran himself to death. In his exhaustion he was able to utter only one word to the Athenians before he died. “Victory,” he said as he collapsed.

That one word made a huge difference in the lives of the people of Athens. Instead of a surrender there was a celebration! In the place of fear there was peace and in the place of tears there was joy. Instead of slavery there was freedom. The good news of a victory changed everything for a people who rightfully expected defeat.

Although it would be a challenge for us Christians to use only one word to summarize Easter, I think you would agree that “victory,” does the job pretty well. Victory is what our celebration last weekend was all about. Through the words of Scripture that were spoken and sung in our services last Saturday and Sunday we were once again reminded that Easter is our victory celebration.

Today as we gather in the afterglow of Easter, we are again going to recall the facts surrounding Jesus great victory and be led to continue to respond to that victory in our daily lives. It is my prayer for all of you that you would:

“LIVE EACH DAY LIKE IT’S EASTER!”

I. Recall the great things your Savior has done

II. Respond to the great things your Savior has done

Psalm 118 is one that Bible scholars rightfully call “Messianic.” In other words it pointed ahead to Jesus—the Messiah. It was a very direct prophecy about his work as the sacrifice for sin and the substitute for sinners. The original context and significance of this Psalm is somewhat unclear. Some feel that it was written as a celebration of one of King David’s victories. Others say that it may have been written later for another king or even for the return of the exiles from Babylon. If you read the whole Psalm (we heard part of it earlier in our service) you will come to the conclusion that it is a hymn celebrating some great victory for God’s people under the leadership of the king whom God had sent them. Although the Old Testament is filled with great victories that the LORD won for his people ultimately, they were just shadows of the great things that the Savior would do for God’s people.

I.

“V-E Day.” “V-J Day.” What do those letters mean to you? A generation ago everyone knew what those letters meant. V-E Day stood for “Victory in Europe Day” and marked the end of World War II in Europe. V-J Day was short for “Victory in Japan Day.” That day marked the surrender of the Japanese and signaled the end of the war. Of course, there were huge celebrations on each of those days. And I am sure that those who fought in the war and those who went through the difficulties here at home remembered those two days for years to come. But over time the importance and greatness of those victory days has faded. Today it might be a challenge to find someone who even knows the actual dates of each. And unless we know the history behind those two days and the sacrifice that went into bringing them about, they really aren’t going to mean that much to us. We would first need to hear some of the history concerning the forces of evil that threatened freedom around the world at that time. Then those of us who didn’t live through World War II would also need to learn about the blood, sweat, and tears that went into achieving victory.

Since nearly two thousand years have passed since V-O-G Day (victory over the grave day) we all need to be reminded of what happened. We need to look at the enemies that our Savior faced and the facts about what went into his victory. That is one of the purposes of the Easter season.