On Easter Sunday we celebrated the resurrection of Christ. He is the victor, He has defeated sin and Satan and death itself. It's one of the sweetest weekends of the year for the Church. And then Monday morning hits, and many of us return to work, and the reality of sin and Satan and death greet us in the morning.

Pastor John, how do we live out the victory of Easter Sunday on Monday? That's right. I have ringing in my ears kind of the reverse of the famous sermon. Several people have preached it, where you have the refrain over and over, "It's Friday, but Sunday's coming." And now you're asking me the question, "It's Sunday, but Monday's coming." And we need both of those theologies, don't we?

I mean, we need the theology to get us from Friday to Sunday, but we also need, in this age, the theology that helps us realize our Sundays are so often followed by Mondays. And here's what I find the most helpful. We need a clear, biblical picture of what this age is like, and what the expectations are that we can have as redeemed children of God.

And here's a couple of passages that include the word "groaning" that I had not seen before recently. In 2 Corinthians 5, it says, "While we are still in this pit," meaning these fallen bodies that are prone to get sore throats and pneumonia and cancer and wounds, "While we're still in this body, we groan, not that we would be unclothed." In other words, nobody wants to be bodiless, he says.

We want to be super clothed, overclothed, swallowed up by life. And then he says, "God has prepared us for that, who has given us His Spirit now as an," and then it's usually translated "guarantee." The literal word is "downtainment." That's really important. I have a downpayment, which has a double-stored edge, doesn't it?

It means only a downpayment, and it means really a downpayment. The "only" means I'm not all the way redeemed yet, which leads me over there to Romans 8. That's the one I'm more familiar with, where it says, not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits.

Now that's the same as guarantee or downpayment, it's the same idea. First fruits, not the whole harvest, just the first fruits of the Spirit, and we groan inwardly. So over in 2 Corinthians 5, we in this tent are groaning, though we have a downpayment of the Holy Spirit, and in Romans 8, 23-25, we're groaning inwardly, though we have the first fruits of the Spirit.

So the picture there of the era in which we live is the painful reality of the already downpayment, and not yet of the full harvest and the full payment. So getting that straight, that all the struggles of this life, of the Monday mornings after the High Easter, are to be expected.

They're to be expected. This is the way God has set it up, that we groan here. So here's my strategy for Monday morning. Number one, don't forget Good Friday and Easter. Fix your heart as you wake up in the morning, every day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, all the way through, on the fact that whether I feel it or not, and whether the evidence is around me convincing me of it or not, the cross means I'm loved.

And Easter means that love is victorious, and He will not stop loving me because the highest cost has been paid to obtain me for Himself. That's number one. Number two, He really is with me on Monday. Whether I feel it or not, He said so in Matthew 28-20. I will be with you to the end of the age.

So believe that. Whether you're high or low, He's with me because He's risen from the dead and He's alive to help me wherever I am, in whatever situation I am. And then the last thing is, and it kind of gets us back to where we started, like Sunday's coming, savor the final great revelation of what happened.

Jesus said, "When you're persecuted and reviled and slandered, rejoice in that day, for great is your reward in heaven." So I think we Christians should often think about our reward. That is, think about the resurrection. Think about the fact that I'm going to get a new body someday. I won't sin more someday.

I won't have any more pain and depression any more someday. It really is coming. He really will be everything to me someday. Jesus says, "If that's real to you, you'll be able to rejoice now, right in the middle of the Monday morning's affliction." Amen. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast.

Please email your questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. At DesiringGod.org, you will find thousands of other free resources from John Piper. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening.