The Reason

April 11, 2022

This is the beginning of Easter week. Sunday was Palm Sunday, the day Jesus entered Jerusalem to shouts of “Hosanna!”, and only He knew how quickly they would turn to shouts of “Crucify Him!” He still loved and cared for people all week, knowing He soon would die for the sins of the world. Thursday night He shared His last supper with His disciples and was arrested in the Garden. Friday He hung on the cross and died. They had to get His body as early as they could because Saturday was the Sabbath, and no Jews were able to work. Saturday was the bleakest day in history for them, but then on Sunday morning He wakened from the dead and arose in power!

Since that first Easter morning, Jesus followers have been gathering on Sunday to celebrate! That is why we choose to have church on the first day of the week. Though many people think that Sunday is a part of the weekend, it really isn’t. It’s the start of a brand-new week. Every Sunday when we get together we are celebrating the price that has been paid for our sins, and the resurrection of Jesus empowers us to live life with joy and certainty. Paul David Tripp rightly says, “Corporate worship is designed to confront you with a view of life that has as its center a dead man’s cross and a living man’s empty tomb.”

The apostle Paul says that the gospel of Jesus Christ, which looks like foolishness to men without God, is the only way to make sense of life. It is the only way to see life accurately. It is the only kind of wisdom that gives a reliable answer to the questions of life. At the center of this wisdom is not a set of ideas, but a real and living person—God Himself in Jesus Christ—who offers you more than wisdom. He offers you grace and full power for everything you face in life and to be everything you were designed to be.

That is why it is so important to make sure that you gather to celebrate the resurrection every week. God has given us this designated time to gather with others in His family to refocus, re-align, and re-charge. This is the way to a life that is full and abundant, as Jesus promised.

I encourage you to invite your family and friends to come to the celebration this Easter Sunday. They can share with you and hear in the most positive way about the most important event that has ever happened in all of history. They can discover how Jesus can be real to them too.

At each of our campuses the services are at 9 & 11 a.m. Be a bringer!