Easter 2020

I have spent the most unusual Easter Sunday in my life.



We had a Sunrise Service but it was in our parking lot and it was a drive-in service. The people came and parked in our parking lot and listened to my teaching on their radios. I broadcast the teaching on the resurrection on my cell phone over the radio.



Then Jan and I went home. We worshipped and listened to my teaching on our church’s website and then listened to my son, Andy, teach on Facebook.



As I thought about the unusualness of this Resurrection Sunday, I thought about three things.



I thought about the Church. That is the big “C” church. The reality is that today more than any other Easter or regular Sunday the church may have come together.



Revelation 7:9-10

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes, and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”



This is the church! I love my faith family at Church at the Butte, but we are only a small portion of the Church, the Family of God. The church of Jesus is all believers of all ages. God makes no divisions among people based on income, social standing, race, language, gender, or past life actions. He views us as those who surrendered their lives to Him as our Savior and Lord and those who have not yet surrender their lives to Him.



The desire of God is for all to come to repentance and not to miss the gift of salvation that He offers.



The Church is the redeemed people of God no matter who they were, but now defining themselves only as His people and living to give Him praise and worship.



That is what I experienced today. A Church that was physically scattered, but was one in spirit because of our shared love for Jesus and our shared experience of salvation.



Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is the Church gathered in one spirit.



The second thing that God bought to my mind today was our persecuted brothers and sisters across the world.



When I heard last night that our governor had removed the exception for places of worship about no more than five gathering together, I realized we had reached a new reality in our nation. That reality was the government can and will try to restrict the ability of the church to meet together. I am not necessarily criticizing the governor nor I am I complimenting her either. What I am saying is that when the government sees what the church is doing as being harmful to society it can and will attempt to stop it.



That has been an awakening to me. It has also made me realize for the first time that I could see a time when we as Christians in this country may have to make a decision of obeying Jesus or the government. This time I understand the reason, but next time I might not.



Acts 4:19-20 says that Peter and John answered the religious leaders when they were told not to speak in the name of Jesus anymore, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”



Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is speaking of what we have seen and heard.



The third thing is the power and complete foreknowledge of God.



God knew before creation that on April 12, 2020 there would be a worldwide pandemic that Satan would try and use to hinder the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection and the proclamation of the Gospel. God did in 2020 exactly what He did at the first resurrection Sunday. He overcame Satan’s plans and used what looked like a hinderance to enable the celebration to be deeper and more intense than any I can remember. God also used this seeming hinderance to spread the Gospel even more and farther, enabling it to reach even more people.



Isaiah 46:8-10

Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors; remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all My purpose.”



God’s purpose is to proclaim the truth of who He is and nothing will stop that.



Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing and experiencing God as being all-powerful.



Hallelujah! Jesus is Risen!

Have a Great Easter!



With the Risen One Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                           Joe