Easter Sunday, 4/8/12

Here we go - Easter Sunday tomorrow and a very significant morning to celebrate as a church body! Jordan and I and some of the staff guys were talking through things earlier this week, and we decided against a big "production" for a special day of worship. We'll definitely have visitors and folks returning to worship with our church who have been away for whatever reason, and the last thing we would want to do is give anybody a false impression of what goes on at Grace Brethren Church on any normal week.

But that said, we WILL celebrate the glorious resurrection of our Savior, and we'll proclaim loudly that "He is risen, He is risen indeed!" The resurrection means that not only Christ's death and payment for sin, but his resurrected, glorified, perfect life is substituted to us too, by faith. Our Savior lives, and intercedes without ceasing before God for all of His people. That is reason to celebrate.

Here are a couple of Scripture passages for reflection and worship as you prepare to gather with the church family tomorrow morning:

    "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
    For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
    Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."

Romans 6:1-14 ESV

    "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death."

1 Corinthians 15:20-26 ESV

Jordan's sermon is titled "The People Who Missed Easter," and will take us through the people in the Gospel accounts who experienced the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, but still missed what actually happened, even to the point of rejecting Jesus.

We'll sing the following songs, with a special surprise thrown in here or there:
1. Christ The Lord Is Risen Today
2. Happy Day
3. Christ is Risen
4. In Christ Alone
5. You Are My King
6. The Glories of Calvary

Services are at 9:00 and 10:45. See you there!