I have been thinking about recovery and what it looks like in comparison to Easter. As I look around at all the brightly colored eggs, chocolate bunnies, Peeps and little plush rabbits, sheep, chicks and ducks I came to the conclusion that Easter is a very strange holiday. Unless of course we dig into what Easter is all about. Easter is another day that has become very commercialized and is driven by retailers, greed and making a quick dollar. At a close glimpse we see very little to do with the real reason that Easter came to be. Never mind that it is a pagan celebration of the goddess Eastre, the goddess of fertility, which is represented by the rabbit. Hence the Easter Bunny has become a part of the day, as we now know it.
Many people celebrate Easter as a Christian holiday. They will spend the entire week before Easter dwelling on the crucifixion of Jesus, the Christ. Most church services you will attend Easter week are very solemn, sober and some, very sad. They will spend the entire week reflecting on the pain and persecution that Jesus endured on the day He was crucified. Then on Easter Sunday they will all go to Church and once again they will probably hear the story of the crucifixion one more time and then they will be told that three days later He arose from the grave.
The resurrection actually happened, just as Jesus had promised, and gave all of mankind a reason to celebrate. That glorious and joyous day that should always be remembered, not just on Easter, but everyday by those who believe in Him. It should always be Resurrection Day. A day to celebrate new life, a new beginning, a fresh start.
If the resurrection had never happened then what are we to believe? Jesus would have just been a great man, a great teacher and maybe a prophet. A man who shared with everyone he came in contact with a philosophy of love, caring and sharing. A man who taught us that we should love our brothers and sisters as we would want to be loved. A man with great powers to heal others and raise the dead. Pretty miraculous things for a mortal man. But Jesus was not a mere mortal man. He was the Son of God and He was sent to give us a way to live life free of the bondage that this world offers. A life free of all the evil desires of our hearts and our minds.
In recovery, we learn in Step Three, that we must make a decision to turn our life and our will over to the care of God, as we understand Him. In our recovery group, Steps to Freedom, we have changed it slightly. We use this version: Made a decision to turn our life and our will over to the care of God through Jesus Christ. Why? Because Jesus tells us in John:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:6
Jesus tells us that the only way to God, to the Father, is through Jesus himself. Jesus also promises us a new way to live. He promises us a way to live in truth. He promises us a way to experience life to the fullest.
The same way Jesus was resurrected and lives again, still today, He offers us a new life through a relationship with Him. We can have a new life, a fresh start, a new beginning. Let’s look at a man in Jesus day that was told about receiving and new life and how Jesus explained it to him.
There was a man named Nicodemus who was one of the Pharisees and an important Jewish leader. One night Nicodemus came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we know you are a teacher sent from God, because no one can do the miracles you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot be in God’s kingdom.” Nicodemus said, “But if a person is already old, how can he be born again? He cannot enter his mother’s womb again. So how can a person be born a second time?” But Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born from water and the Spirit, you cannot enter God’s kingdom. 6 Human life comes from human parents, but spiritual life comes from the Spirit. Don’t be surprised when I tell you, ‘You must all be born again.’ The wind blows where it wants to and you hear the sound of it, but you don’t know where the wind comes from or where it is going. It is the same with every person who is born from the Spirit.” John 3:1-8
This man, Nicodemus, found it hard to believe what Jesus was telling him. Just like many of us, we find it hard to believe in something we cannot see. This talk about being ‘born again’, Nicodemus just couldn’t grasp the idea. Once again, it is hard for us to understand the concept of being born a second time. However, Jesus stated that unless we are born again we can not be a part of God’s kingdom. If we do not accept Jesus, that is, to believe that He died for our sins and on the third day He was resurrected, we cannot enter into a relationship with Him or God. As Jesus put it, ‘you cannot enter God’s kingdom’.
Now, if we must be ‘born again’, how does this happen? Jesus told Nicodemus that we must be ‘born of water and the Spirit’. The Apostle John used the word ‘born’ throughout his writings. Twenty two times he uses the word to refer of the gracious act of God in imparting upon those who believe in Jesus, the nature and disposition of “children,” imparting to them spiritual life. He also uses water to refer to the setting aside of all that the believer was according to the flesh. In other words, once we accept Jesus our old ways are forgotten. They are buried to never again be remembered by God and were given entirely new beginning, a new life. The Spirit then imparts upon our heart, our inward man, the moral qualities that bring us into a new life. A life free of the evil desires and actions, (i.e. sin) that we so easily fell into in the past.
That isn’t the only time Jesus refers to the Spirit that God gives us. He goes on to give us several more examples of the Spirit that is given to us when we choose to enter in to a relationship with Him.
“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever — the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. John 14:15-18
“These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:25-27
Jesus tells us if we love Him and keep His commandments God, the Father, will send us a helper, the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit. Jesus also tells us the world cannot receive the Spirit because it can nether see Him or knows Him. However to those who believe in Jesus as the Son of God, in His death and in His resurrection, Jesus says they will know Him, for He will dwell with you and through the Spirit Jesus will live through us.
Jesus also tells us that the Spirit will teach us all things and bring to mind all those things that Jesus taught and did while He was alive on this earth. Jesus also says that He will give us peace, not peace as the world gives but a true peace and understanding of all things that are right for us. He will give us the Spirit of truth and He will show us the way to live a right life.
So, how do we get this new life? How do we have this spiritual experience? Once again Jesus tells us.
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. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:16-18
All we have to do is believe in Jesus as the Son of God, and once again that He died for us and He arose three days later. This is a gift from God and all we must do is make the choice to receive God’s gift. When we accept the gift and ask God to come into our hearts then we receive His Spirit. Then the changes begin in us and we rise up as a new person. We then receive a life free of the bondage of this world. We begin to change into the creatures that God intended us to be. We receive a new life, an everlasting life, that starts the moment we make the choice to accept the relationship that God, Jesus and His Spirit wants to have with us. It’s a life of freedom for today, tomorrow and forever.
We are also told that God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn us. Those that believe in Him are not condemned, our past is forgotten and we begin our new life with His Spirit inside of to lead us to the right way of living, to the truth that we need to hear, and to a new life. We don’t have to fix ourselves first. Jesus accepts us just the way we are. God accepts us just the way we are. They have a unconditional acceptance, and unconditional love for everyone who seeks to know them. They know we are broken and in bondage to many different things in our lives. They are just waiting for us to reach out and ask for help.
However, we are also told that those who reject Jesus, those who choose not to believe that He came to save us from this world and it’s ways are condemned already. Condemned to a life of eternal death. Some believe that is hell but one thing we can know for sure is that to be condemned is to stop living, die and be buried or burned to ashes. Given a choice between life for today, tomorrow and forever, heaven or an eternal death, which would surely be hell, what are we going to choose?
Step Twelve speaks of having had a spiritual experience we are to practice these principles in all our affairs. Step Eleven says through prayer and meditation we are to improve our conscience contact with God, seeking His wisdom, seeking His Spirit. We could go through each of the Twelve Steps and find God and Jesus having something to say to us about each. By seeking His Spirit, His wisdom, we receive His help with all of the steps and His help to live the life that was meant for us. A resurrection life that we celebrate on this Sunday, every Sunday, and every other day of the week.
An Everyday Freedom 