I love the church. I love going to church and I love new people coming to church but Easter church attendance scares me. It is possible to come to church and be worse off than when you came. The Apostle Paul told some Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11:17 that when they came to church is was not for the better but for the worse. God, through the prophet Malachi in Malachi 1:10 said that he wished someone would just shut the doors rather than people coming to worship in an empty way. This was spoken to people who came to church but didn’t treat God as someone “great among the nations”. They came to church and said nice things about Him but when they were out among the nations they didn’t act like He was great. God said, “I wish someone would just shut the doors.” God, through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 1 and Isaiah 58, told a group of people that pretended to be righteous and acted like they wanted to know God that their coming to worship made Him sick and He couldn’t take anymore of it.

I hope you will come to church on Easter because you love the Savior and see Him as the greatest treasure and pleasure of all. I hope you will come to church tomorrow to seek to know and understand who this risen Jesus is that died on the cross taking the punishment your and my sins deserved and offering us His righteous life and eternal joy as His beloved bride. I hope you will come.

BUT – if you come to make yourself feel better or more religious … if you come to make a show that you are righteous… if you come to be seen by men … if you come with no intention of doing what this great risen Savior says … THEN I WOULD SUGGEST TO YOU NOT TO COME. You will only build up self-deception further in your heart. God is not a god to be played with. He is jealous for ALL of your affections and WORTHY of them.