Now what? The Aftermath…
Easter has now come and gone. We survived at-home celebrations! This was a year we won’t soon forget for many reasons. My hope is, that in the quietness and rest of this Easter holiday season, you experienced Jesus in a new and fresh way. I hope the reminder of the resurrection sparked excitement in your hearts like it would have the disciples when they saw the resurrected Jesus that Sunday.
So now that Easter is over, what now? Other than taking down the decorations to prep for the next holiday, what can we do this week and the coming and months in light of Jesus and His resurrection? If you know the resurrection story of the Bible you know that while Jesus resurrection is the pinnacle of our faith, you also understand that it’s not the end of the story. It’s really a new beginning. Knowing that Jesus Christ was dead, and came to life, gives us a dramatic turning point in history. This is the part where my excitement level starts bubbling. I can’t contain my excitement! (Sorry that this post will contain many exclamation points!) The Risen Savior – is alive. He is not dead! He conquered death and sin. He laid His life down as the ultimate sacrifice. On that cross, He took the punishment for my sin, defeating Hell so that I might have eternal life. It was enough! Nothing else was needed to give me that free gift. It required nothing of me. He literally took my sin before I was created, knowing who I would be and how I would sin against Him. He willingly took it that day on the cross. My face was in His mind as He walked that long painful walk to Golgotha. So was yours, when you are in Christ! He chose that death so that we might be given grace and mercy. That makes me want to get up and dance! I believe if we are Jesus followers, we all agree with those statements but what I find is, after the week long focus, we can forget. We can fall back into the grind and get busy doing what our daily lives require and live like it’s just a yearly celebration.
But Jesus didn’t come, die and rise again so that all we do is get excited once a year. He came to give us life and life abundantly. He came to give hope, and peace, and freedom, and unconditional love. If all we do is make this a reason to have a party or force our families to go to church, then we have missed the point. The Life-Giver offers us new life. He gives us what we could never earn and takes a punishment we rightly deserve. That means that His death and resurrection was more than an awesome story! It is the life water to my thirsty soul. Literally, every day of my life needs that water. The Living Water that satisfies. We often celebrate and only picture Jesus that week. Surrounded by His disciples, teaching and then descending to Heaven. But we fail to remember that He didn’t disappear after that. He is alive. He is active today in our world today. And He is coming again! That is the best part.
Right before His ascension, Jesus reminded them that a Helper would come that would infuse them with power. And just a few weeks later these disciples who were afraid, confused and filled with questions, were overwhelmed by the awesome power of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2) They immediately went from being scared and doubting, to empowered and full of faith. The entire book of Acts is the enfolding of that time following this event. They had encountered something amazing. They had been filled with a power that gave them strength to do what they hadn’t previously been able to do. They were transformed. The symbol of the butterfly is often used to describe this transformation. It’s all the same creature, the caterpillar and butterfly but it becomes a new creation with new abilities and noticeable changes. That’s the disciples to a tee! They had an encounter that transformed them and changed the course of their lives. They saw the radical life changing power of God and they knew Jesus was going to return for us one day too.
After this transformation what did they do? Celebrate for a time and then go back to normal life? Not at all! Everything changed. There was a new purpose and passion for their lives. Each and every day was a day to share who Jesus was and is and why that was important. Eternity was more important than the past and a focus for the present. The disciples became more like traveling missionaries. Starting churches (groups of people who loved Jesus, not buildings) in new areas. They were busy sharing the Gospel message. Now before you think I am telling you that if you love Jesus you will become a missionary abroad, let me say that the 12 traveled but for the vast majority of the followers of Christ, they stayed where they were when they encountered Christ. They continued with their daily lives and continued their previous line of work. They just did it with a new purpose and passion, just like the disciples.
Acts 2:42-47 (The Message) They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. Everyone around was in awe—all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met. They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved. I like the Message version because you can see how joy filled their lives were. We know that doesn’t mean there was never a disagreement because scripture talks about that further in the New Testament, but they had a unifying goal. To share the love of Christ and the hope of eternity! The way they did that, was eating together, praying together, studying scripture together, attending services together, giving to each other so that none had a need. It was a constant celebration of the good news they had received in Christ Jesus. Can you image how amazing that would be to witness? Clearly, people who hadn’t known Christ were apart of this because, it’s the witness of these believers that caused the unbelievers to want to join them. I can see why people saw it and wanted to be apart of it.
That same Holy Spirit is in us when we surrender our lives to Christ! We are filled not only with Jesus Christ but with the power of the Holy Spirit! Friends, we have been given what they were given! We share in the same purpose and passion when we are in Christ! Too many exclamations? I think not! If we forget whose we are, then we may not feel that passion and purpose but that’s because our focus is not correct. If we do not understand the value of the gift that we have been given and the life that we have after our days here are over, we missed it completely. We may not all be called to travel to foreign nations or live as traveling missionaries but we are more than able in, Christ Jesus, to live like the early church. We can invite others over to a meal (once restrictions let up) and share what God has done in our lives. We can give to those who are less fortunate, showering them with the love that Jesus showered us with in His death and resurrection. We can gather with other believers to celebrate what our Jesus has done. Our lives can be marked by joyful, exuberant praise to God each and every day.
The early church had many difficulties, many similar to ours, and maybe many worse than ours. They faced death for saying they followed Jesus Christ. They were forced out of relational circles for leaving Judaism. They suffered through famines and persecution and all the while, continued to celebrate Jesus and His amazing gift, looking forward to life after death. When we are tempted to take our focus off Christ, we can forget what Jesus has done for us. It can make us weary and tired of our work day in and day out. We can feel like we don’t have time or energy to be like the early church. These are times that we can see that we are finding value in things and people and not in our God alone. We need these things, we must have the approval, we can’t let people down, what will they think… we don’t have time to go into this in depth but it’s a good self test. And because of our current situation, affording us more time at home, we can spend more time evaluating our priorities. If you are a follower of Jesus and you have made Him Lord of your life, do you have joy? Are you passionate about telling people how the resurrected Lord has transformed you? If you say no to the first question, I would love to have a conversation with you more about the importance of knowing Jesus. If you say no to the second question, what holds you back? That’s a great place to start asking God to search your heart and help you remove areas or things in your life that have stolen your joy. We are a people of joyful, exuberant praise. May it be so in your life and mine today and each day that we have breath.
