The Message of Easter

Please enjoy this article by Pastor Darryl Dash of Richview Baptist Church in Toronto Canada. He also runs the Theocentric Preaching website, where this entry originally appears and has graciously granted permission to have it reproduced it here. Pray that we may all take heed of its simple yet powerful message.

I used to subscribe to the tape ministry - remember the days before digital downloads? - of a large church. I remember getting the Easter Sunday message one particular year. The main idea of the sermon was something like, “You’re good, but you could be better.” The preacher used the illustration of Tiger Woods’ golf swing. It was good, but Tiger went back and and learned a new swing to be even better. We can do the same with our lives when we come to Christ, he said.

I remember being shocked. The message of Easter isn’t that we’re good but Christ came to make us a little bit better. Earl Creps has said that Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good, or good people better. He came to make dead people live. I agree. Dead people need the message of Easter, and nothing else will do.

At Easter we get to proclaim the timeless story of God in Christ taking the place of sinners so that we who were dead could live. There are so many riches within this story, so many angles, so much depth, that we don’t have to drift from the meaning of Easter to be relevant.

Let’s stick with the message of Easter. It’s far better than any other message we could offer, and it’s one that people desperately need to hear.

I can't help but get a little naughty here, but if Emergent Pentecostal Earl Creps (of the AOG!) can get that one right, then the rest of us simply have no excuse. No excuse at all. Ooh, yeah!
Grace & Peace --Boms