resurrection day

"I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said." (1 corinthians 15:3-4, NLT)

this is a day for TRUE celebration!

i shared a little this week with our fusion choir about what we celebrate on "easter" as followers of Jesus. i had read 1 corinthians 15 this past week and was struck by verses 12-58; that as "gentiles" our faith and hope rests on Jesus victory over sin and death. if Christ did not rise from the dead we would have no hope of the resurrection!

"And if Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless" (vs. 14).

our faith hangs on the resurrection! it is our only hope to be forgiven and adopted Children of God. without Jesus' victory over the grave we would still stand condemned in our sins (vs. 17) and could be considered the most miserable of all people because our hope ends in this life (vs. 19). if Christ did not rise from the dead then our 70+ years on this earth are everything, and we might as well "feast and get drunk, for tomorrow we die!" (vs. 32).

"But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again" (vs. 20).

the Good News is that Jesus humbled himself and came to earth, lived a perfect life, shed His blood and died an undeserved death in our place, and was victorious over sin and death! more than 500 of His followers can testify to this (vs. 6) and because of that we can experience fellowship with a Holy God on this earth and the hope to spend eternity together with Him!

that is a reason to celebrate!

"It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you..." (vs. 2)

amen.