Dear Family at Christ Community,

     This coming Sunday we will begin a new sermon series for this Easter season in Isaiah 52, 53, and 61.  Through this series, we will engage the passion of Christ in Isaiah’s Suffering Servant prophecies. We will begin with Isaiah 52:1-6 where God calls His people then and now to awake from their stupor, arise to newness of life, rest free from the bondage of sin, and know that He is present in union with Christ. The Lord’s Table will call us to respond to God’s Word and be nourished to live out this resurrected reality in the power of the Spirit. The broken bread will bear witness to our ability to rise from the dust of death and rest from the shameful bondage of sin. The lavish cup will declare that resurrected garments have been uniquely fitted for each of us to live in so that we can take great joy in the presence of God in all of life. The Apostle Paul captures the same heart of Isaiah 52:1-6 in 2 Corinthians 5:1-5:  

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

Though we groan under the weight of the dust of this fallen world and the bondages of sin between the now and the not yet, we have been awakened to the resurrected reality in Christ. He has clothed us with His righteousness setting us free to walk in newness of life now filled with the Holy Spirit as guarantee of God’s presence with us always! Death has been swallowed up by the glorious raiment of life!

     Pray for the Holy Spirit to rouse us from our stupor to come awake to the beauty and glory of the Lord unfolding all around us. Ask the Spirit to help us rise and shake off the cursed dust of death so that we might live life more abundant. Rest in your reconciliation with God through the finished work of Christ on your behalf free from shame and guilt and filled with joy. Celebrate God’s presence and love for us His people inviting others to join this party so glorious and never-ending!

In Christ,
Cameron