What Do You Want for Easter?

Follow Along with the Message

When Christ rose from the dead, so did believers!

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused US to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3).

Like a chain reaction!  Fire-crackers on the 4th!

"Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so WE too might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4).

He changes what we WANT. 

"You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart."  Heart=affections, goals, ambitions, desires.  HE LIVES in what I WANT.

We ask it of children at Christmas.  We should ask it of adults at Easter.

"What do you want Me to do for you?" (Mark 10:51).

What I want is the very thing that must be HEALED.  Athletes hunger for the right kind of food.  Path to health and proof of it.

"Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. . .but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I ascend to My Father and your Father' "(John 20:17).

Paul on the Damascus road encountered the Resurrected Christ.  Glorious.  Radiant.  Strong.

Later he tells the story in terms of LOSS and GAIN.

New goals.  New ambitions.

     I WANT TO KNOW CHRIST--v. 10.   Hunger for His friendship, intimacy.

     I WANT TO KNOW THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION--v. 10.  Moral, Spiritual resurrection power.  Raising the Titanic.

     I WANT TO KNOW THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS--v. 10.  Plural.  All the insults, the costs and the crosses.  "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom" (Acts 14:22).

     "Do not pray for easy lives.  Pray to be stronger men" (Phillips Brooks).

     I WANT TO BE CONFORMED TO HIS DEATH--v. 10.  To Dream The Impossible Dream

     TO ATTAIN TO THE RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD--v. 11.

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Are people saved who have no change of heart?  The first-born of MANY brothers!

"Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13).