Personalizing Easter Series

Happy Palm Sunday to all of you! We celebrate the day Christ entered Jerusalem with shouts of Hosanna ringing in the air. As much as I admire Martin Luther King Jr., there are not even two people who gather every Sunday to celebrate him. But over one hundred million will gather together to celebrate Jesus each and every Sunday.

Keep your Bibles open to Ephesians 2 (page 1159-1160 in your pew Bibles).

Jesus wants to change your life and your perspective. Maybe you think that the most successful people are God’s only favorite people. As one person put it, the best are blessed. Nothing could be further from the truth. Let me show you why.

1. You’re United to Christ

Hope comes from Jesus Christ: “even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace, you have been saved—” (Ephesians 2:5).

Your spiritual life began when you met Jesus Christ. And notice what Christ does when He enters your life – the Bible says Christ “made us alive together with” Him. That’s resurrection language. That’s Easter terminology.

1.1 Resurrection Conference

Imagine this with me. What if every person from the Bible who was raised back to life got together in one place? The Bible is full of “almost funerals.” What if the daughter of Jairus and the leader of the synagogue from Jesus’ day got together the widow’s son from Zarephath from Elijah’s day? Remember, both were dead and brought back to life. And what if you saw the widow’s son from the small town of Nain talking with Tabita, who was prayed back to life? Remember, this widow’s son’s funeral was another one of those “almost funerals” when Jesus spoke his dead body back to life. And what if you were darting by your children’s classroom at school only to have someone tell you that Lazarus, the man who was dead for three days, was in the next room down the hall? And he talking to Eutychus, the young man who fell asleep during Paul’s long sermon? Do you have any idea how many dead people come back to life in the pages of the Bible? I’m only sharing with you a sample, just a taste of the “almost funerals” in the Bible. Imagine if all these people were together in one place. Would you want to circle back and listen to them retell their stories? Would you shush your little ones in order to hear them compare their stories? Oh, the stories they would tell about the voice calling them from their very grave.

1.2 Spiritual Resurrection Stories

Gathered in this very room is another kind of resurrection conference. You are surrounded by those who have been raised from spiritual death to spiritual life. In this very place are many who were at one time dead in their trespasses and sins but are now raised to spiritual life. Sitting down just a few feet from you in the pew is a man, a woman, or even a teenager whose spiritual rotting corpse was made alive by Jesus Christ. He was a dead man walking. She was a dead woman walking. But Christ entered into her life and his life. The Bible says you were dead and now are alive. Christ entered into his life, and life now lives where only death resided!

Nothing I am telling you is fiction. The Bible speaks in terms of Easter in the passage you just heard. Notice that God does three items for believers: “even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace, you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:5-6).

God made YOU alive, God raised YOU up, and God seated YOU with Him. Essentially, Paul is taking the events of Easter weekend and making it personal to you. He’s personalizing Jesus’ life for you.

1.3 What is Christian?

If I were to ask you, “What do you think a Christian is?” and you were to say, “I think a Christian is somebody who just tries their best to live like Jesus said…” That is a popular sentiment, but it’s nothing close to what the Bible says a believer truly is. Becoming a Christian is a radical thing, a revolutionary thing. Becoming a Christian isn’t adding something to life.

Now, there are some people in the room who don’t know Christ who need to hear this. But there are also some people who follow Christ who need to be reminded of this.

The difference between being a Christian and not believing is the difference between being dead and alive. God makes you alive with Christ… He raises you up with Christ… and He seats you in the heavenlies. A Christian is a whole lot more than someone who goes to church and does some good.