Thoughts on Easter

Dear Friends,

I trust Easter was for you a day of hope, rejoicing, re-visiting the empty tomb, and worshipping God for His redeeming grace. I know that in our culture “moving on to the next thing” as soon as a particular day or celebration has passed, is normal. Yet, today (before too much time passes) I wanted to share some true and beautiful thoughts on the resurrection.

Easter has passed, but in the Christian faith the Lord’s Day (each and every Sunday, being the first day of the week, or the day Jesus rose) is a mini celebration of the resurrection. With that in mind, I offer you these thoughts. I trust you will find some of them encouraging. Enjoy

“Resurrection means endless hope. No resurrection means a hopeless end.” 
David Garland

“If you don’t believe in the Resurrection, you can go on living your life while perhaps admiring Jesus the man, appreciating his example, and even putting into practice some of his teachings. But if you believe that Jesus rose from the dead, everything changes. You cannot set aside any of his teachings.” James Martin

“The entire Bible pivots on one weekend in Jerusalem about two thousand years ago.” 
D.A. Carson

“Perhaps the reason the risen Jesus wasn’t recognized on sight, was because those who saw him weren’t used to seeing bodies as they ought to be - whole, undistorted, complete, and glorified.” Madeline L’Engle

“If Christ has not risen, we have no proof that the crucifixion of Jesus differed from that of the two thieves who suffered on his right and left with Him. If Christ has not risen, it is impossible to believe His atoning death was accepted [as the sacrifice which purchased our pardon and forgiveness].” D. L. Moody

“The Resurrection, in the full Jewish and early Christian sense, is the ultimate affirmation that creation matters and the new creation has begun!” N.T. Wright

“The early Christians did not believe in the resurrection of Christ because they could not find His dead body; they believed in the resurrection because they did find a living Christ.” C.T. Craig

“Our Easter faith is that we really do encounter Jesus Himself. Not a message from Him, or a doctrine inspired by Him, or an ethic of love, or a new idea of human destiny, or a picture of Him – but Jesus Himself.” Herbert McCabe

“This is the most important issue you will ever have to decide. Did Jesus rise from the dead or not?” 
Michael Green

“Once you get the resurrection straight, everything else eventually falls into place.” 
N.T. Wright

“When Jesus tasted death, hell rejoiced. But hell’s party was cancelled after only three days.” 
Joseph Stowell

“The simplest meaning of Easter is that we are living in a world in which God has the last word.”
Anonymous

“If Jesus had not been raised from the dead, we would never have heard of him… The resurrection is not just the reappearance of a dead person. It is the mighty act of God to vindicate One whose very right to exist was thought to have been negated by the worldly powers that nailed Him to a cross.” Fleming Rutledge

“The only possible reason why early Christianity began, and took the shape that it did, is that the tomb really was empty and that people really did encounter Jesus alive again.” N.T. Wright

“The gospels do not explain the resurrection; the resurrection explains the gospels. Belief in the resurrection is not an appendage to the Christian faith; it is the Christian faith.” John S. Whale 

“Following Jesus doesn’t get us to where we want to go. It gets us to where Jesus goes, where we meet Him in Resurrection surprise: ‘My Lord and my God!’” Eugene Peterson

“The crucifixion of Jesus was the love of God on display. The resurrection of Jesus was the power of God on display.” 
H. B. Charles Jr.

“The church did not create the resurrection stories; the resurrection stories created the church.” 
Adrian Warnock

This past Sunday (Easter morning) I preached from Matthew 28:1-10 on “The Four Verbs of Easter: Come! See! Go! Tell!” That’s the commission the angel gave the two Mary’s; the first people blessed and honored with the task of preaching the Gospel of the Resurrected Jesus to all the other disciples (Mt. 28:5-7). It was a commission Jesus himself also gave them, when he appeared to them as they carried out the task the angel had assigned them (Mt. 28:8-10)!

Another commission, the “Great Commission” soon follows, and the same verbs are used. All the disciples CAME to meet Jesus in Galilee, SAW and worshiped Jesus, and were given the same commission to GO and make disciples of all nations, teaching (or TELLING) them all that Christ has commanded them (Mt. 28:16-20).

Same verbs. Same message. Same task, given first to the two Marys, then to all the rest, including us. It's a commission that leaves us—those who went to the Scriptures Sunday, saw the empty tomb, and saw that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead – to now go and tell.

With Prayers on this Day for our World, Pastor Jeff