The Resurrection Changes Everything // Easter Sunday [Holy Week]

The Resurrection Changes Everything
Author: Andrew Archer, Student Ministry Director
Day 8: Easter Sunday
Scripture Reading: Matthew 28:1-20
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If you know my family, like really know our story, then you know it can be summed up in one word: death. For almost 30 years, at least one person in my immediate family was battling cancer. While those battles were incredibly well fought, thousands of people prayed for my brother, sister, and mother, and we expended every resource possible, they all eventually lost their fight to cancer. My brother passed away at the age of 19, my sister at the age of five, and my mother at the age of 55. Death held dominion over my family and our story.

Today is Easter Sunday, the day that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Here’s the thing about the resurrection: it changes everything. In fact, Paul even goes as far as to say that our faith is worthless if Christ was not raised from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:14,17). If there was no resurrection, we should live life with the aim of doing whatever feels good because there is no hope beyond the moment in which we're living (1 Corinthians 15:32). Simply put, for Paul, the resurrection changed everything.

It clearly changed everything for the disciples. After the death of Jesus, they were hiding! Terrified for their lives, assuming that they might be next. Biding time and hoping to ensure their safety from those who had just murdered their Master. Then, seemingly overnight, they are on the streets preaching about Jesus and changing the world. Not afraid of anyone or anything, standing firm on the name of Jesus even to the point of death. What changed? Everything. Jesus defeated death and rose from the grave. 

I was incredibly angry at God for many years because He allowed my siblings and mother to die in spite of my family's faithfulness to Him and the incredible amount of prayer that people offered for my family. I couldn’t understand it. Why would God allow that? That’s a question I have wrestled with for most of my life. While this was originally something that kept me far from God, the more I honestly wrestled with the question, the more I realized that God is good and sovereign and He loves my family. I began to see this because of the resurrection of Jesus. All three of my family members who passed had placed their faith in Christ, even my sister Kelley Anne, at the age of five. Because of that, I know that death was just a doorway to eternal and abundant life with Jesus for them.

The resurrection of Jesus changed everything for me and my family. In the same way that because Christ rose from the grave and death no longer had dominion over Him, it no longer has dominion over our family. Because of Jesus, my family's story is no longer death—it is life.

My hope is that you will come to know Christ and know the power of His resurrection. To give your life to Him as I have done so that death may no longer rule over you and can be set free from its chains. Free to live as you were intended to: abounding in love for God and love for neighbor. Abiding in Christ, making your home in Him, not looking anywhere else for shelter, protection, life, meaning, or purpose. Praising Christ with everything He has given you because He is worthy. God has given Him the name above every name so that in the name of Jesus one day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord (Philippians 2:11).

The resurrection can change everything for you.