2023 Sermon Series: Eastertide

Dear Renewal Church:

We enter into the season of Eastertide, one of the notable milestones of the year (the other being the season of Christmas). The Christian worship calendar (or also called the liturgical calendar) is a way of living together into greater awareness of the reality revealed by Jesus Christ by organizing our time around the Gospel story: the Triune God invites us to know Him, to enter into a divine friendship with Him and to experience the fullness of life we see in Jesus Christ.

In Eastertide, we are drawn again into the central reality of His Resurrection. Jesus’ resurrection means our resurrection is certain. Jesus is alive means life-everlasting is certain. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is of central importance to disciples of Jesus Christ the Apostle Paul remind us in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:3-20). All of life is anchored securely in the living God who secures our life with Him forever. It is the lens in which the world functions and operates: God is alive and making all things new!

Each time we enter into Eastertide we are reminded of seeing the resurrected reality and cultivating a “lively sense of Jesus’ resurrection”, as Eugene Peterson notes:

The resurrection of Jesus establishes the conditions in which we live and mature in the Christian life…Jesus is alive and present…When we practice resurrection we keep company with Jesus, alive and present, who knows where are going better than we do, which is always “from glory to glory.”

The resurrection of Jesus Christ, is the sure promise of eternal life worked out now into eternity: that we might grow into the fullness of Jesus Christ and His relationship with the Triune God.

Grace and peace,

The Elders and Pastor Josh