He is risen! And I'm bored...

I don't know if you grew up in church, but I did, and so we celebrated Easter every year. And that's appropriate. But it wasn't a fun time of year for me: our family wasn't characterized by the character of Christ - his love - but by fear and dysfunction. So, to be honest, I don't really have good memories of Easter.

There's a huge upside to that, though. The cultural hang-ups of holidays - gifts, certain songs, food, family - were never in competition with my focus being on Christ. Those things are good, for sure, but our idols are very seldom intrinsically evil - it's that we, in our evil, replace God as the object of our delight with them.

And what was nice for me growing up - I didn't have those things to distract me from Jesus.

Unfortunately, that vacuum wasn't really filled with God and what he said about Easter when I was a child. I mean, I knew Jesus had risen. But so what? Maybe it was because I wasn't paying attention, but I had no idea why it was significant that Jesus had come back to life after dying.

Maybe you can connect with some of this. Maybe things you associate with the Easter holiday distract you from what the Bible says about it. Maybe bad experiences with family have left you emotionless in the face of the holiday. Maybe you just don't know what the Bible says about Jesus' resurrection.

But we should be happy about it, and we should worship God as a result.

Let me summarize a few reasons - then we'll look at some Scripture to really hammer them home.
1) Has your love for God got... emotionless? The resurrection shows off Jesus' glory.
2) Do you feel like your world - your family, relationships, finances - our out of control? The resurrection shows off Jesus' position and role and activity as Ruler.
3) Are you just living day to day? Maybe not really enjoying life? Hoping for things that may or may not happen - and that ultimately won't result in lasting happiness? The resurrection guarantees a future for us where we'll enjoy Jesus forever without hindrance.
4) Do you feel like you just can't live for Jesus at all? The resurrection has resulted in our having a new nature which obeys Jesus.
5) Do you feel guilty before God? Condemned? Like he's angry at you? The resurrection secures all of this previously mentioned goodness - because it shows that our rebellion has already been punished and can never be punished again.

Let's delve into this stuff about the resurrection.

1) It demonstrated the glory of Jesus' authority. He told Martha, "I am the resurrection"(John 11:25) - meaning that resurrection from the dead for all people was completely tied to himself. He also said, "I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again"(John 10:18).

Jesus is he who has authority over life and death - and he deserves to be worshiped for it. We don't, governments don't, armies don't, doctors don't - Jesus does.

2) Jesus' right to govern the universe for his pleasure was sealed by his resurrection. In other words, Jesus got a new title - a new position. He didn't 'become a god' or something weird like that - but his actions and role changed. God had this written: "[Jesus] was declared to be THE SON OF GOD IN POWER, according to the Spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead."

His new title is 'The Son of God in Power.' That means that he has begun to reign - to do all his will. That's why the Scriptures make such a big deal about Jesus sitting down at God's 'right hand' after he rose.

But Jesus has a new role as of his resurrection - and he has begun a new era - remaking the world into what it's supposed to be.

Look around. The world's broken. Heck, your world is broken. Jesus has begun to fix this broken world by his resurrection. We need to credit him as such. He's the sovereign fixer - both in title and action. And he'll finish the job.

3) Not only is Jesus the Divine Fixer of the world - but his resurrection itself is what is fixing the world. God has it written: "He (Jesus) is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead"(Col. 1:18).

'Firstborn' indicates the happening that secures the rest. Or in other words, if there's a 'firstborn,' the couple isn't infertile. They can have more kids. Here, that means that Jesus was the one whose resurrection from the dead secured the resurrection from the dead of those who are connected to him through trusting him.

This might seem a little bit vague. Let me get specific. Jesus' resurrection did two things. First, it secured the physical resurrection of all who obey him. Death is certainly not the end. When Jesus comes back, every Christian will physically rise from the dead in a new, immortal body.

Second, when that happens, this world will be released from its bondage to sin and resulting suffering.

In sum - new bodies without any remnant or iota of rebellion against God or its effects. New universe that bears no stain of the effects of our sins.

No suffering, no pain, no sin - but all creation governed by the glorious love of God. Christ's resurrection secured that. See Romans 8 and 1 Corinthians 15.

And by the way, don't skim Scripture. It's God's words. Every last one. Treat it as such.

4) Now that's all future, right? Seems like it in a way - but it's really not all future. Jesus' bringing new life has already begun. He's given us new hearts and minds and souls - a new nature. God said through the Apostle Peter, "[God] has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead"(1 Peter 1:3).

And in Ephesians 2:5, Paul speaks from God, writing that He "made us alive together with Christ."

What's the result of that? He tells us a few verses later in v. 10: "For we are his workmanship, created (catch that! we're new creations! we're part of the new world!) in Christ Jesus for good works..."

A lot of times people read that and say, "Aha! See! You're forgiven as a gift - but now you should do works!" That is completely missing the point - and actually, contradicting the point. The point is that God recreated us - resurrected us - so that we'd do good works. Or in other words, he had an end in mind when he raised us spiritually - obedience to him.

He's not sitting up in heaven, wringing his hands, just HOPING that we'll actually obey for once. No. He's reprogrammed us TO obey. Yeah, our obedience isn't perfect. But it's present. And it's present because Jesus rose from the dead and brought our souls from the grave with him. He gave us faith and gave us the desire and ability to obey him. And so we do, imperfectly now, perfectly when he returns.

We need to thank him for that and grab a hold of the fact that he's the one at work in our lives. We obey because he's at work. If we obey because we think it depends on us - we're acting like Jesus didn't rise. But he did. And so did we. And so we do obey. So let's obey.

5) Jesus' resurrection shows that he's dealt with our guilt - and we'll never have to. Romans 4:25 says this: "[Jesus] was delivered up (killed) on account of our trespasses and raised for our justification."

Because we disobeyed - and continue to disobey - what God's commanded - Jesus took our death penalty. He stood in for us. He died in our places. He was punished instead of us. You deserve to suffer the infinite wrath, anger, fury of your Creator; and Jesus, who never sinned, did it in your stead.

But if he'd stayed dead, he'd have continued to bear the penalty for your sins. It wouldn't have been finished. But it was - and so death backfired. Death died. Death happened completely, and so its existence was completed - and over. And Jesus rose.

His resurrection shows that the punishment for sin is over. None awaits us. None. The entirety of your guilt, if you are a Christian, is GONE. Jesus lived a perfect life in your place - he died by God's wrath in your place - and he lives because your justification - your acquittal in his law court - has been completely, unalterably, unchangeably, irrevocably, permanently, eternally, gloriously secured.

And so because Jesus rose from the dead - you stand in God's sight - as if you'd obeyed. As if you'd lived Jesus' life and earned Jesus' reward.

When you feel guilty - and if you can't believe any of this stuff - look to the resurrected Jesus. All of this is yours - because he rose from the dead.