Easter Is All About New Life

Speaker: Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines

April 01, 2024

in Spritual Growth

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Easter Sunday

Readings: Isaiah 25:6-9
Colossians 3:1-4
Mark 16: 1-8

Today, we are reminded of the Parable of the Vine growers. There was a man who planted a vineyard, put a wall around it, and dug a vat under the wine press and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. When harvest time came, he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard. The vine growers took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again, he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others.

God created everything in perfection. But as a people, we have not given honor to Him. He said He would come back and destroy evil. The Son came and who killed him? It is those who are supposed to take care of the vineyard. God’s mercy and grace are available to us. Are we going to receive it or reject it? The world system is one of failure but God’s love is everlasting. His promises are being fulfilled. If we have accepted His life, it would be life that is eternal. We should proclaim to the world that we have been redeemed. We have been given new life. If we reject this, we would be living a life of failure, darkness and fear. The power of God has destroyed the powers of the enemy. It is time for is to proclaim this new life. We are to be the witnesses, to show forth the image of God and to live out Christ’s life. We should be bringing honor and glory to God.

Why do we worship the enemy? We put so much emphasis on death. We have things like “life insurance,” we spend a lot for coffins, we have the crying and the groaning. But God has given us eternal life and we should be rejoicing.

Easter is all about new life. God owns the vineyard. We should not destroy it but take good care of it. Christ was crucified on Good Friday. He died naturally. Joseph of Arimathea asks for his body, took it, wrapped it in linen cloth with spices, and brought it to his tomb. He had to do this before the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a day of rest. Christ had now completed the work and was now resting. The disciples were sad because they thought it was all over. When the Sabbath was over, it was a new day and the women arose early and went to the tomb. On their way, they were questioning among themselves as to how they were going to roll the large stone. Bringing spices with them, they saw that the stone had been roller out. They ran to the tomb and did not see Christ’s body. A young man dressed in white sitting nearby told them, “Jesus is not here, He has risen.” He told the women to tell the disciples and Peter. They were so afraid and ran out to the disciples to tell them what happened. Before they were even able to minister to Christ’s body with spices, Christ had already resurrected. Christ was crucified but has now risen. The Lamb that was slain but now is alive. His resurrection was a proof of everything He had said and promised. When Judas betrayed Christ, he was actually fulfilling the will of God.

The Lord is a Lord of Grace. The church should be shouting out about the love of God. We’ve been given the power and authority. Jesus had conquered death so that we can do greater things today. “He who believes in Me will not die.” Physical death should be our graduation to a better life. Revelation 1:18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. May we not be silent. May our church bells ring loudly. The enemy is like a leech, trying to draw out blood from us. He wants the world to turn away from God and we need to stop that.