What does the celebration of Easter mean to you? What should this celebration mean to you? Before you answer these questions, look at what some of the churches in America are doing and how they are celebrating Easter this year. Some churches will have Easter Bunny or Easter Rabbit rituals with Easter egg hunts and group photos with the Easter Bunny. Some may end up having paganistic and demonically influenced Easter plays and skits that have nothing to do with the gospel message of Christ in hopes of becoming more entertaining and worldly. Some may have proclaimed that they will leave out the message of ‘Christ’s resurrection,’ in order to make their doors more attractive and their Easter service more inviting to non-believers.
These churches may have good intentions on attracting new people to their services but are withholding the true gospel message by diming their light for Christ or extinguishing it out all together in the name of creating new church memberships. How can a church be an affective witness for Christ without the true gospel message? If Jesus is not the center of the message, then He will NOT show up (Matthew 18:20). If Jesus is NOT welcome in His own house, His Holy Spirit will be deeply offended (Revelation 3:14-22) and quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22). God’s Spirit must be present in order to convict sinners’ hearts and draw them to His altar of repentance, salvation, and redemption in Christ alone.
Paul prophesied how this would happen in the last days when apostacy would infiltrate the church to where the teachings and messages would be demonically converted to doctrines of demons in order to tickle the ears of many as unveiled in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (AMP), “For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine and accurate instruction [that challenges them with God’s truth]; but wanting to have their ears tickled [with something pleasing], they will accumulate for themselves [many] teachers [one after another, chosen] to satisfy their own desires and to support the errors they hold, 4 and will turn their ears away from the truth and will wander off into myths and man-made fictions [and will accept the unacceptable].”
On the surface, some of these evangelism tactics appear to be somewhat tolerable approaches until they are tested according to the Scriptures. These bizarre strategies are in direct opposition to the teaching of Jesus as stated in Matthew 5:14-16 (AMP), “you are the light of [Christ to] the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good deeds and moral excellence, and [recognize and honor and] glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
Jesus continues this teaching by stating that we are to spread the good news to the ends of the earth. He did not say to sugar-coat the message or to water it down as expressed in Matthew 28:18-20 (AMP), “…all authority (all power of absolute rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—regardless of circumstance, and on every occasion], even to the end of the age.”
Also, by the work of the enemy of darkness and his wicked influence, some outside the church are trying to replace the Easter celebration day by declaring it the Transgender Day! The rainbow, (God’s sign in the sky and covenant with Noah), has already been taking over and depraved by this evil generation that is demonically influenced by the enemy. This will continue to happen in the last days because of the spiritual battle that is going on behind the scenes! The spread of blasphemy will increase even in the church like in the recent church message by a pastor at the Common Good Church, that stated ‘God worships us’ and that ‘we are good enough.’
The good news is this that as the days get darker, we draw closer to the return of Jesus! The late pastor Adrian Rogers quoted it like this, “the world is growing gloriously dark!” Also, more good news, it that there are many, numerous remanent churches all across the globe who are truly devoted to God in Christ and continue to promote true praise / worship, preach the true gospel message, create disciples for Christ, and recognize the true meaning of Easter!
So, what does Easter mean to you? Is it getting together with family to indulge in Easter candy treats or enjoying children having Easter egg hunts? Or is it a day of exchanging gifts in honor of the “Easter Bunny?” If this is your Easter celebration, how did these Easter traditions take precedence over and above the true meaning of Easter? The Easter egg hunt tradition and Easter Bunny became a pagan holiday tradition in Germany back in the late 16th century and has spread throughout the world.
The true meaning of Easter should, first and foremost, represent the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! This is the only hope that we have in a future promise of eternal life with our Creator in Christ! As Christians, we must be careful NOT to put other traditions or pagan rituals in front of or in place of God’s truth and His word. These can become idols in our life through self-centeredness and self-ambitions and will prevent us from our daily devotion and walk with God in Christ. This is exactly how the enemy sets up false and deceptive traps for us to fall into by getting us to take his bait of sin, chaos, and destruction! (John 10:10, 1 Peter 5:8).
God is a very jealous God and when we put idols before Him, we commit spiritual adultery against Him. This is an abomination against God as we read in Ezekiel 6:9 (NKJV), “Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations.”
The Bible tells us that we are NOT to love the world but to love and worship God through our Redeemer, Jesus. God says if we love the world then we hate Him as stated in 1 John 2:15-17 (NKJV), “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” Friendship with the world makes us enemies of God as revealed in James 4:4 (NKJV), “…Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Other religions claim to have a prophet or a god, or many gods that they declare to know, serve, and worship by believing they will one day be redeemed, but these are pagan and false gods invented by Satan and his evil forces. These are NOT alive like the true Son of God, Jesus. These false gods are spiritually dead and profit nothing – Isaiah 41:29. Jesus is the true salvation and the only way to heaven. Jesus tells us there is no other access to God the Father but through Him as explained in John 14:6 (NKJV), “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the chief cornerstone and head over the church.
God’s word tells us that Jesus alone saved us, and this was NOT accomplished by our so-called good works or based on who we are or where we came from – Ephesians 2:4-10. We cannot buy our way into heaven, nor can a priest or pastor accept our salvation for us or pray a prayer over us to where we will become redeemed. It is all up to us to choose to let Jesus transform our heart! We must take that first step in repentance and turning to Him and upon believing that He is the only Lord and Savior, Messiah, and true Son of God!
For we were once sinners, and after being saved are a new creation by His Holy Spirit as revealed in Titus 3:3-7, “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
Even though Jesus was rejected, persecuted, and crucified 2,000 years ago, He defeated death, hell, and the grave and was Risen according to God’s sovereign plan as the disciple Peter states in Acts 4:10-12, “let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by Him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
The prophet Isaiah foretold of Jesus, the Messiah, where He would be wounded for our sins and that by His stripes we would be healed as he discloses in Isaiah 53:5-6 (NKJV), “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
We are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God – Romans 3:23. No matter what good deeds we have done in this world, they do not add up to God’s glory nor gain us access to His presence in heaven. Because we are all sinners in the flesh, we are desperately and hopeless in need of a true Savior, Jesus Christ. We cannot have communion and fellowship with God the Father unless our debts, the wages of our sins, were paid in full by Christ. The apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:22 (NKJV), “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”
The past repetitive animal sacrifices for sins and atonement were always insufficient. We needed a true redeemer, a new spiritual covenant from God. A new covenant that only required one death from His Only Son, Jesus, where He now sits on the throne at God’s right side for our behalf as stated in Hebrews 10:12-18 (NKJV), “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering, He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,’ then he adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’ Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”
We did not deserve this grace of God and His free gift, but because of God’s unconditional and unfailing love and mercy for us, He freely gave us salvation in His Son, Jesus as explained in Hebrews 9:24-28 (NKJV), “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”
Because of Jesus, we are made alive by His Holy Spirit that dwells within us as we read in 1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” Three days after Jesus was crucified, He was NOT in the tomb for He defeated death, hell, and the grave! An angel of the Lord rolled away the large stone for Jesus had Risen! Amen!
Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, went to the tomb to bring spices for Jesus’s body but found the stone rolled away with the tomb empty. Jesus had Risen as explained in Matthew 28:1-8 (NKJV), “Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.’ So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples.”
Paul gives us several eyewitness accounts of how Jesus had risen from the grave and was seen alive by making Himself known to many before ascending into heaven. He tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:3-11 (NKJV), “…that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.”
The Bible tells us that if we are saved, we will be raptured when Jesus returns for us prior to or during the tribulation period. All the signs appearing today are converging to the end times just as the Bible predicted over 2,000 years ago. We are fast approaching the tribulation period or the time of Jacob’s trouble. Jesus is coming back soon for His true sheep! We can clearly see the supernatural division that is currently taking place. Jesus is fast at work by the Power of His Holy Spirit and is separating His sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:32-33), the wheat from the chaff/tares/weeds (Matthew 3:12, Matthew 13:24-30), the good fish from the bad fish (Matthew 13:47-50), the righteous from the wicked, and so on… Jesus explained it in the Parable of the Dragnet as stated in Matthew 13:47-50 (AMP):
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet which was lowered into the sea, and gathered fish of every kind, and when it was full, they dragged it up on the beach; and they sat down and sorted out the good fish into baskets, but the worthless ones they threw away. So, it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw the wicked into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping [over sorrow and pain] and grinding of teeth [over distress and anger].
Is your heart right with God in Christ? Will you go to heaven if you died today? You cannot simply believe that Jesus is the Son of God with your mind. You must have a transformed heart through Jesus, by His Holy Spirit!!! Your heart must know without any doubts, recognize, and declare that Jesus is your Lord and Savior! The prophet Ezekiel prophesied of the new covenant on how Jesus would reconcile us back to God with a new Spirit and a new heart as unveiled in Ezekiel 11:19-20 (AMP), “and I will give them one heart [a new heart], and put a new spirit within them. I will take from them the heart of stone, and will give them a heart of flesh [that is responsive to My touch], that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.”
The prophet Joel tells us that in the last days, God will pour out His Spirit on all mankind. Not just on the saints, but on all people as expressed in Joel 2:28-29 (AMP), “…I shall pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” The real question is, will you hear the supernatural voice of God? Will you hear His final cry for you to repent and that its time to turn to Him in Christ before it’s too late? Or will you be too drunk on the world by being blinded by the enemy (1 John 5:19) where you will NOT hear anything as detailed in 2 Corinthians 4:4 (AMP), “among them the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving to prevent them from seeing the illuminating light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
We must have a genuine relationship with Him built on His grace combined with our faith in Him from our new transformed heart while confessing Him as our Lord and Savior. Not a belief built on foolish works and self-righteous thinking, but by true faith in being doers of His word! Jesus stated that we would love Him if we obeyed Him as worthy sheep as disclosed in John 14:21 (AMP), “The person who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him [I will make Myself real to him].” John stated it this way in John 10:27-28 (AMP), “The sheep that are My own hear My voice and listen to Me; I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they will never, ever [by any means] perish; and no one will ever snatch them out of My hand.”
Jesus knows when we are ashamed of Him. He looks at our hearts! (1 Samuel 16:7). He knows our thoughts before we speak them! (Psalms 94:11, 1 Corinthians 3:20). If we are ashamed of Him, He will be ashamed of us (2 Timothy 2:11-13) as revealed in Mark 8:38 (AMP), “For whoever is ashamed [here and now] of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
We cannot fellowship with both God in Christ and the world. Being a friend of the world makes us an enemy of God (James 4:4, 1 John 2:15-17). We cannot serve two masters as disclosed by Jesus in Matthew 6:24 (AMP), “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [money, possessions, fame, status, or whatever is valued more than the Lord].” If we say, ‘we know Him and have a relationship with Him,’ but walk in darkness, we are greatly deceived.
The Bible expresses it this way in 1 John 1:6-7 (AMP), “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness [of sin], we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we [really] walk in the Light [that is, live each and every day in conformity with the precepts of God], as He Himself is in the Light, we have [true, unbroken] fellowship with one another [He with us, and we with Him], and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin [by erasing the stain of sin, keeping us cleansed from sin in all its forms and manifestations].”
Being a simple believer in Christ, does NOT give us a license to sin. If we are still sinning just like the other non-believers in the world then our confession of faith in Christ was not genuine. It’s extremely important to get your heart right with God immediately! There is no time to wait (Romans 13:11) since you are not promised another day of life remaining on earth. You could die tonight and stand before judgement tomorrow!
Even the demons believe and tremble at the name of Jesus but will spend eternity in the lake of fire! (James 2:19). We must examine our own hearts to ensure we have a genuine relationship with Christ! We must test our own faith in Him as Paul reveals in 2 Corinthians 13:5-6 (AMP), “Test and evaluate yourselves to see whether you are in the faith and living your lives as [committed] believers. Examine yourselves [not me]! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves [by an ongoing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test and are rejected as counterfeit? But I hope you will acknowledge that we do not fail the test nor are we to be rejected.”
Following these simple Biblical instructions (although may not be as easy as it sounds) as stated above will prevent these harsh words from being spoken of by Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23 (AMP), “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day [when I judge them], ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and driven out demons in Your name, and done many miracles in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them publicly, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME [you are banished from My presence], YOU WHO ACT WICKEDLY [disregarding My commands].” His kingdom come and His will must be done on earth as in heaven (Matthew 6:10), NOT our will but His will!!!
Not all will choose to get saved where many will experience eternal condemnation in the lake of fire (Matthew 7:13-14). We must call upon the Lord and believe in our heart with faith that Jesus died for us and confess with our lips that Jesus is our Risen Savior! – Romans 10:9-13. If you are not a believer, you can be saved with true salvation as illustrated in John 3:15-21 (NKJV), “…that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
Choose this Easter to repent and turn to Jesus! Let Him transform your heart to live with Him forever! For your eternal soul depends on it!
Once we are saved, we have His guarantee, sanctification, and protection as a true child of God as expressed in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (AMP), “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [that is, separate you from profane and vulgar things, make you pure and whole and undamaged—consecrated to Him—set apart for His purpose]; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept complete and [be found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful and absolutely trustworthy is He who is calling you [to Himself for your salvation], and He will do it [He will fulfill His call by making you holy, guarding you, watching over you, and protecting you as His own].”
As we are no longer citizens of this world, we are now glorified citizens of Heaven in Christ where our corruptible bodies will one day, SOON, be replaced with new incorruptible, immortality, and eternal bodies to dwell with the Lord forever in Heaven as stated in 1 Corinthians 15:50-57 (NKJV), “I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Watch this inspiring video by Servants for Jesus Christ – Jesus Fulfilled All OT Prophecies. Watch another inspiring video by Servants for Jesus Christ – God Has Always Been. Watch another inspiring video by Servants for Jesus Christ – Be Filled With The Holy Spirit.
Do you know where you will spend eternity after you die on earth? Will Jesus be your Lord and Savior or your eternal judge – John 3:15-21, Romans 2:16, 2 Timothy 4:1? Jesus says He is the narrow gate to heaven where it is difficult to find and only a few will enter by it where many will enter the easy, wide and broad gate that leads to Hell and destruction – Matthew 7:13-14. Will you experience the second eternal death (spiritual death) – Revelation 2:11, Revelation 20:6, Revelation 21:8? Do you know for sure that you are written in the eternal Lamb’s Book of Life – Revelation 3:5, Revelation 20:12-15? The place called Hell is NOT a myth and is very real and an extremely awful place – Watch this Video about HELL!
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