What do you plan to do today? Many of us will head to work. Or clean up after yesterday’s big family dinner. Or catch up after a long weekend.
But today isn’t simply Monday. Today is the day after Easter. The day after Jesus rose from the dead.
What do you think the disciples did the day after that first Easter?
On Sunday night, fearful of the Jewish leaders, they had huddled together behind locked doors, (John 20:19), when suddenly Jesus appeared in the room with them. He showed them His hands and feet to relieve all doubt. He helped them understand what the Scriptures taught about Him (Luke 24:40-45). And they were filled with joy!
So, what do you think they did on Monday?
Everything was different. Something miraculous and powerful and life altering had occurred. The whole world had shifted. And they knew it.
The lives of all 11 of the remaining apostles suddenly took off on a different trajectory. Fishermen and tax collectors became pastors and missionaries. They traveled the world and risked their lives to tell the news that Jesus died for our sins and rose to life for our eternity.
If Sunday never happened, Peter, James, and John would have spent the rest of their lives eking out a living on the Sea of Galilee. Matthew may have even gone back to over-taxing his fellow Jews.
Because a dead messiah changes nothing. But a resurrected Messiah changes everything.
Right now I’m reading a book called “The Insanity of God” by Nik Ripken. His real-life story demonstrates what can happen when a Christian takes Jesus’ Great Commission seriously. (By the way, I’m warning you, Ripkin also asks why any believer wouldn’t take it seriously.)
One spiritual experience Ripkin recounts happened during an Easter Sunday church service when he was eleven. The message of the resurrection hit him powerfully, but he wondered why everyone in the pews around him didn’t feel the same:
How in the world was it that these people managed to get so much more excited about what happened at a high school football field on Friday nights than they did about the resurrection of Jesus at church on Easter Sunday morning?
That statement hit me right between the eyes. Why aren’t we all jumping up and down with excitement and joy? We should all be so overcome with the miraculous power of the resurrection and what Jesus has done for us that we leave our jobs and our homes to tell people all around the globe about the resurrected Lord.
Yet most of us don’t even go down the street. Or to the next office.
Look, I’m as guilty as anybody. I get caught up in my day-to-day life, thinking I will go. Tomorrow. But somehow tomorrow rarely comes around.
What difference will Easter make in my life? Right now. This very hour. What will I do differently today because my Savior died for the world and then ROSE FROM THE GRAVE!!?
What about you? How can you respond to the resurrection today?
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