Rejoice! Rejoice that Christ is alive. He lives! He lives! Sunday is the day that He left the dead.
His first words to His disciples was the traditional greeting: "Shalom--Peace". He could have rebuked them for their unfaithfulness and cowardice the previous weekend, but He didn't.
When Jesus saw their fear had turned to joy, He commissioned them to spread the Gospel.
John 20:21 Then said Jesus to them again, "Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
In spite of their failures, The Lord was entrusting them with His Word and His work. They had forsaken Him and fled, but now He was sending them out and empowering them to represent Him and His Gospel.
Jesus died for us. He arose from the dead in victory, and now He lives for us. In our fears, we cannot lock Him out. He comes to us in grace and reassures us through His Word.
When Jesus died on the cross, there were earthquakes, rocks shattered, graves burst open, and long dead saints got up and walked about the city. But there was a greater miracle.
Mark 15:38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
The veil in Solomon's Temple hung between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. Only the High Priest could go behind it one day each year. God met him there.
That veil stood as a barrier between man and God. It was so thick it was said that a team of horses could not tear it apart.
The moment Jesus died, that massive veil ripped down the middle, ending the Jewish sacrificial system and proclaiming that the only way to God was open for all who came to Jesus. They would be saved by His grace.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man commeth unto the Father but by me.
The Apostle Thomas didn't believe Jesus had risen.
John 20:25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, "We have seen The Lord." But he said unto them, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side, I sill not believe."
Eight days later Jesus showed him.
John 20:27,28 Then saith he to Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing." And Thomas answered and said unto him, "My Lord and my God."
Jesus said blessed are those who believe and have not seen.
I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
And redeemed by His side I shall stand,
I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
By the print of the nails in His hand.
Fanny Crosby
John 20:1 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
Mary loved Jesus for what He had done in her life. She wept.
"Why are you weeping?" an angel at the tomb asked.
"Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they laid him."
"He is not here, for He is risen!"
Then she turned around and saw Jesus, but thought He might be the gardener.
"Why weepest thou? Who are you seeking among the dead?"
When Mary doesn't respond, The Lord tenderly says, "Mary." She immediately calls Him Master and worships Him.
In all the years of recorded human history, the most important message that has ever been heard is:
"He is not here, for He is risen!"
PRAISE GOD, HE IS RISEN INDEED!
Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychiatry, wrote: "And finally there is the painful riddle of death, for which no remedy at all has yet been found nor probably ever will be."
The good news is that the resurrection of Jesus Christ takes the sting out of death because we will be resurrected and become like Him.
1 Corinthians 15:54,55 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Born again Christians have victory in death and over death because of the victory of Jesus Christ in His own resurrection.
The immediate future may be uncertain, but if you have entrusted your eternal destiny to the One who rose from the dead, you don't have to fear death.
All other religions of the world can point to a founder's grave. Only Christians can point to an empty tomb and say, "Our Founder was buried there, and on the third day He came out of the tomb alive.!"
The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest doctrine of the Christian faith.
1 Corinthians 15:17,20 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
The same power that resurrected Jesus from the grave is the same power that guarantees that you and I will also be resurrected.
1 Corinthians 6:14 And God hath both raised up The Lord and will also raise up us by His own power.
Because He lives, I can fact tomorrow.
Jesus was quietly spending His last evening on earth with His Apostles in an Upper Room. Within less than fifteen hours our Lord will be hanging, bleeding, and dying on the cross.
Jesus wanted His churches to remember Him for His cross, His shed blood, His broken body, and His sacrificial death. this is why we have Communion at my church -- to remember.
Luke 22:19 And he took bread and gave thanks and brake it and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.
20. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you.
When we accept the broken body and blood sacrifice of Christ for our sins, we are redeemed -- forgiven. Because He rose from the grave three days later we will live forever with Him.
Mercy there was great and grace was free
Pardon there was multiplied to me
There my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary
