My Chains Are Gone

Easter Tract written by Joel Hawthorne. Sold In Bundles of 100. Wording below.

The Death of the Messiah
In the first and second centuries, several ‘messianic’ movements emerged in Israel. Most of these self-proclaimed messiahs were killed, either in battle or by execution. When they died, their movements ended with them. Only one name is still remembered—Jesus of Nazareth. Like the others, He was put to death by the Roman authorities. Yet, unlike them, His movement did not die with Him.
Why?
Death is Not the End
The key difference between Jesus and these other figures is what happened after He died. Three days after His crucifixion, a small group of women went to His tomb to anoint His body.
What they found changed everything.
“Entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe … and they were alarmed. But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him’” (Mark 16:5-6).
Subsequent encounters and eyewitness testimony confirmed this astonishing claim—Jesus really had risen from the dead.
Follow the Evidence
The bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is what
authenticates the Christian gospel. The early Christians did
not shy away from this. The apostle Paul declared, “If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1
Corinthians 15:17).
The birth of the church was rooted in this belief. How else could thousands of devout, monotheistic Jews suddenly  begin worshipping a man as God—someone they had seen publicly crucified? These believers were so convinced that they were willing to die for their faith, and many did.
Reasonable Faith
They believed because of the evidence. Individuals like Thomas and Paul were deeply sceptical of, or openly hostile to, the belief in the resurrection. Yet, that changed when they personally encountered the risen Christ (see John 20:24-29; Acts 8:1-3; 9:1-6).
A New Beginning
So, the death of Jesus, leading to the resurrection of Jesus, was not the end, but the beginning of the gospel. It was the proof that He had triumphed over sin, death and hell. On the cross, the Son cried, “it is finished” (John 19:30), in the resurrection, the Father confirmed this victory.
Not just His victory
The good news is that this victory was not for Him alone—it can by enjoyed by all who come to Him in faith. His mission was “that through death He might destroy … the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14-15).

My Chains are Gone
In Mark’s Gospel, the Lord encountered a man who was in chains—“with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him” (Mark 5:2-4).
Though human power could not restrain him, he was in spiritual chains. When Jesus rose from the dead, He showed that no power, human or spiritual, could keep Him in the grave.
You may not see yourself in that man, but your condition is not so different. The Lord taught that “whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34). Just as He freed the man in Mark 5, He has the power to set you free from sin’s chains.
The resurrection is more than history—it is the proof that Jesus can bring new life to all who trust in Him.