As you all know, we meet together every Lord’s Day. We do this in joyful recognition that Jesus rose from the dead. In this sense, every week contains an Easter. We declare this by our actions. And of course, all of the story of Christ must be present in order for us to understand any of it—from the Incarnation through to the Ascension.
But in this narrative, one element of this story is always to be emphasized and placed in high relief. The apostle Paul once said that he had resolved to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified. One of the things we do, and we do it every week, is break the bread which is the body of Christ, and drink the wine, which is the cup of His blood. Every week, we declare the Lord’s death until He comes (1 Cor. 11:26). This proclamation of His death is most necessary, because it is this which will draw all men to Himself.
This is the heart of any robust evangelicalism. The evangel is the good news of the death of Jesus, a death in which He suffered so that we could die to our old way of life in Him. Of course, we assume the resurrection. Without the resurrection, we never would have heard of His death. Without the resurrection, His death would have been meaningless. But precisely because He rose, we are liberated to gather on the weekly anniversary of His resurrection in order to commemorate . . . His death. And so that is what we do.
Would you be free? Come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.