It's Easter Everyday

This is the Truth Network. The resurrection power of Jesus Christ is absolute, transforming and restoring lives, healing hurt, and making all things new. This power set Michael Bowen free from the captivity, darkness, and hell of addiction, and delivered him back to God. This is Jesus Breaks the Chains. Hello and thank you for tuning in to this podcast, which is a part of the Jesus Breaks the Chains series on Truth Network. I'm evangelist Michael Bowen.

I pray that the Lord blesses you greatly and you receive this word in love and in truth. This podcast is titled, It's Easter Every Day. I hope everyone listening to this podcast has a wonderful Easter weekend and a spirit-filled, power-packed, awesomely incredible Resurrection Sunday. I hope that you can have a nice time with your family and your friends and your church family and that everybody is just blessed on this day that we celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It's a great celebration. And I just remember back when I was growing up, it was my grandmother's favorite holiday was Easter. And we always spent it with her and we'd go to church and then we'd go have a nice brunch afterwards and just a great time.

And she was such a good, strong Christian woman who loved Jesus and taught me a lot about Jesus and my salvation. I want to just start by telling you that as a Christian, every day of your life is an Easter celebration. We celebrate the light and hope of a life lived in Jesus Christ, a life lived in Jesus Christ that mirrors the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior himself.

Thank you so much, Jesus, for your sacrifice and the giving of yourself at the cross at Calvary so that we all have the opportunity to become the children of God, to have everlasting life, eternal life with our Father God. John 1, verse 9 through 13, it's talking about the light. The light is Jesus Christ and it starts in verse nine.

That was the true light, which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own did not receive him, but as many as received him, to them, he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Here they're talking about being born of God, being born again, being born of the Spirit, not of the flesh. And who are those that are born of God?

Those are the ones who believe in the Son's name, his name, Jesus Christ. The name of the light and the hope that came into the world, Jesus Christ. Thank you so much, Jesus, for going to the cross at Calvary and shedding your innocent blood for us so that we can be covered by it and our sins forgiven, redeemed by God because he loves us and he gave you his only begotten son so that we could have eternal life and be with you, Father God, forever. First John one, verse five through eight, they're talking about a message. It says, this is the message which we have heard from him and declare it to you. The message heard from Jesus, the message that Jesus spoke, and then they're declaring it to us in this word, in this letter that is written. This is the message which we have heard from him and declared to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin. The precious blood of the lamb, the precious blood of Jesus shed on the cross for you and me.

First Peter one, verses 18 through 19, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. Because Jesus came in the image and likeness of his father and was obedient to his father's plan for the salvation of our souls unto death, we are able to live this new life of victory in Jesus Christ and celebrate him every day of our lives. John six, verses four through 11, therefore, we are buried with him through baptism into death that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we also shall live with him, knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him, for the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but that life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Our Lord, whom the Son sets free, is free indeed, free from the death of sin. The life, death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is our new identity that we present to the rest of the world as witnesses of God's grace, mercy, unending love and glory. We ourselves are being transformed daily and conformed daily to the image of the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18, but we all with unveiled face beholding us in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Romans 8, 28 through 30, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God.

Everyone listening to this podcast right now, do you love God? If you love God, this scripture is talking about you. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose, for whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren, moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called, whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified. This right here is our Easter celebration that we live out each day of our lives, that we are predestined, we are called, we are justified, and we are glorified children of God. We are called to praise the Lord. And as children of God, we are called to be witnesses of Jesus Christ to the end of the earth, when we are endued with power, when we are filled with his Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to us.

Acts 1, verse 8, it talks about this, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Where is your end of the earth? Is it at a bus stop? Is it in a grocery store? Is it your next door neighbor? Is it in your extended family?

Is it at the workplace? Where is the end of the earth? Where is it that you will be a witness of Jesus Christ, that you will show the new life in you, the death, the old man that was passed away, and the new man that came alive, or the old woman that was passed away, and the new woman that is alive in Christ now with the light and love of Jesus Christ in her heart or in his heart? Where is that place? Where is your end of the earth?

I'm asking you right now, think about it, where that may be. It's anywhere you come into contact with people, and then you can share the gospel with them and the love of Jesus Christ. We celebrate every day the gift of our salvation and the new birth that we received when we came to believe his name and receive Jesus Christ and confess him as the Lord and Savior of our life.

Oh, what a great celebration we get to live each and every day. Glory to God, hallelujah. John three, verse three, Jesus answered and said to him, most assured I'd say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. First Peter one, verse three, blessed be God and Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. When we talked about over in the beginning in John one, where it says he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor the will of flesh, nor the will of man, but of God, they were born of God.

This is what they're talking about. Being born of God is means being born again, being born of the Spirit now, not of the flesh. First you were born of the flesh, then you were born of the Spirit. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

That's the living hope, is being born again like the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This new birth is the starting point of our transformation into the likeness of Jesus Christ and our being conformed to his image, the image of the Father, the image of love. Colossians three, verse 10, is talking about us, talking about those of us who have come to believe in his name and receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. It says, and have put on the new self.

It's talking about us. We have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him. Ephesians 4 24, again about us, those who have come to believe who've been reborn, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. We celebrate Easter every day because we are the righteousness of God. Our own death, burial, and resurrection of the old man or woman, and the birth of the new man or woman in its place in Jesus Christ displays this righteousness of God to the whole world. We are a witness to the whole world of the righteousness of God, celebrating that death, burial, and resurrection, celebrating Easter every day to everyone that we meet. Second Corinthians 5 17 through 21 says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things have passed away, behold, all things become new. Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God, for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Romans three speaks of this righteousness also in verses 21 through 22 said, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. Those who believe in his name and who are born of God, reborn, born again, that's what they're talking about.

Those are the ones that are the righteousness of God. So in the spirit of this Easter weekend, we celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we display that death, burial and resurrection outward to the world every day. As Paul described it, we actually die daily in Jesus Christ to honor his death for us. We do this because we know that through his death, we have been made alive in him.

First Corinthians 15, 31, Paul says this, I affirm by the boasting in you, which I had in Christ Jesus, our Lord, I die daily. We have to die daily. We die to ourselves. We die to this world. We die to the flesh and we are not ruled by those things.

We don't seek selfish ambitions or our own plans. We seek the purpose of God and to do God's will and to be a witness of Jesus Christ. So we die. We lay down those things of this world, those things that are of the flesh, those things that are not spiritual, that are not in the plan and purpose of God. We lay them down and we die daily and we come alive in Christ to do the will of the father. Ephesians 2, one says, and you, he made alive who were dead in your trespasses and sins. First Corinthians 15, 20 to 22 says, but now Christ has risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ, all shall be made alive. All who believe in his name and are born again shall be made alive. Jesus sacrificed himself at Calvary on an old rugged cross.

He chose to give his life up for us and shed his own innocent blood so we could believe in him, so we could die in him, and so we could live in him after we were reborn in him becoming the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God is celebrated throughout Christianity every year beginning on Good Friday and ending on Easter Sunday. These three days represent the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

God raised Jesus from the dead three days after his death. Now I'm doing this recording right now, this podcast, the recording of this podcast on Thursday. Tomorrow is Good Friday. And so this is just, I'm living in this moment, I'm living in this time of celebration and I'm sharing what Easter means to you and how you live this out every single day.

It's not just for this weekend. This weekend is where we all come together corporately as a body and we celebrate and we honor this time for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but I'm here to challenge you, to take the thought of Easter further and bring it into your life, incorporate it into your everyday life. Think about it every day and know that's what you're living out. You're living out the gospel, the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ in your life every single day in front of everybody that you come into contact with, everybody that you meet. So on this day, we're going to go back now in time and read in the scriptures about leading up to when Jesus, when it was his time.

And I'm again in John 12, 23 to 26, Jesus is speaking to his disciples and it's written in these verses, but Jesus answered them saying, the hour has come that the son of man should be glorified. Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, let him follow me and where I am there, my servant will be also.

If anyone serves me, him, my father will honor. So we go back into that and kind of unpack this scripture, it says, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain. So Jesus is that grain of wheat that falls into the ground as he's lowered down from the cross and dies and gives up his spirit on the cross and he goes to the ground. He does not remain alone because he died and it went to the ground and it produced more grain, much grain. We are that grain. Those who came after him, those who came to believe in his name and made him their Lord and savior, you and me, hallelujah.

We are that grain. We are the harvest of God. Good Friday is tomorrow. And on Good Friday, it's traditionally a day of sadness and mourning to commemorate the death of Jesus and his many sufferings. So it is a good time tomorrow to kind of take on that within yourself and read the scriptures and think about what actually he went through on that cross and before, the day that led up before the cross, when he was beaten with the cat of nine tails and the flesh ripped off his back and he put a crown of thorns on his head and his beard was pulled out of his face, plucked out of his face and he was beaten and mocked and ridiculed and all those sufferings he did for you and me. And we can read about this, about his death in Matthew 27, 45 through 50.

So tomorrow I want to challenge you, Good Friday, to take upon these things. Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabatani.

That is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Some of those who stood there when they heard it that said, this man is calling for Elijah. Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and offered it to him to drink.

The rest said, let him alone. Let us see if Elijah will come to save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. That was when he did, when he cried out with a loud voice and said it was finished and yielded up his spirit. That is when that grain of wheat fell to the ground and died, hallelujah, which produced the harvest of God. Holy Saturday commemorates the day that Jesus Christ lay in the tomb after his death.

We can read about that in Matthew 27 verses 57 through 61. Now when the evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock. And he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and departed. And Mary Magdalene was there and the other Mary sitting opposite of the tomb.

That was on Saturday. And Easter Sunday commemorates Jesus Christ's resurrection from the death when he rose from the tomb. Matthew 28 verses one through seven. Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came 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 from the door and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning and his clothing as white as snow.

And the guard shook for fear of him and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the woman, do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who is crucified. He is not here for he is risen as he said, come see the place where the Lord lay and go quickly and tell disciples that he is risen from the dead. And indeed he is going before you in the Galilee. There you will see him behold, I have told you this weekend is Easter weekend.

And it is the weekend that I have recorded this podcast. I'm here to tell you that Jesus lives. I'm here to tell you that he is risen from the grave and he is alive.

And I know that he is alive because he lives inside of me. He changed my whole life. When I surrender my life to him, he changed everything. And I let the old drug addicted man that I used to be die and in his place, he rose again. Jesus rose again in my heart and in my spirit. And I became a disciple of Jesus Christ filled with his spirit reborn. And I'm telling you, he will rise in your hearts as well if you believe in him and make him the Lord and savior of life. And in that you will be reborn. You will become the righteousness of God and you will have eternal life. John 3 16.

We all know this one for those of you that don't remember this one for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life, everlasting life, being reborn, being born of God, being born of the spirit, becoming a child of God. Through this, your old man or woman will die and your new man or woman will be reborn and rise in Jesus Christ. Old things will pass away and all things will become new for those who are in Christ. Just like me, all that old addiction and committing crimes and all that shame and guilt and sin and fortification and all the things that had me dead in my sins, those things will pass away and all things will become new.

I'll be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, the precious blood of the lamb. Just like the old familiar song goes, and because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future and life is worth a living just because he lives.

And then one day I'll cross that river, I'll fight life's final war with pain. And then as death gives way to victory, I'll see the lights of glory and I'll know he reigns. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future and life is worth a living just because he lives.

He lives, he lives. What a beautiful testimony to God, what a beautiful song. Let him reign in your hearts, give your life to him, the king of kings, hallelujah.

The one who came to set you free from the death of sin and give you new life in him so you can be reborn. I encourage every one of you to take this message to heart and realize that Easter celebration is not just to be celebrated on Easter weekend. Easter celebration shall be celebrated every day of our lives as we live our lives in Jesus Christ being renewed, transformed, and conformed to his image, which is the image of the father, the image of love. I love you all and I pray that you too can find the freedom that I've found in Jesus Christ. Jesus breaks the change. He is my Lord and savior and the one I celebrate every day as I live the rest of my life in this world. This is the greatest life I've ever lived, living my life in Jesus Christ. God bless you all in Jesus name I pray, Amen. Thank you for listening. For more information on Michael Bowen's ministry, Sons and Daughters of Thunder, visit sonsanddaughtersoffunder.org. And remember, there is no addiction in Jesus Christ. Jesus breaks the chains.