4-1-2018

Good Morning All,

           John 20: 30-31; “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

    It is always fascinating to me when I read some of the “newer” thoughts about Jesus.  Jesus is portrayed as a revolutionary, an anti-capitalistic provocateur, who spoke against the powerful and mighty, who stood against the overbearing rich elite or how he gave us some moral advice.  I suppose you can make some of these arguments.  We get glimpses of this once in a while but when you focus on the sideline stories, you miss the main event.  When you emphasize one event, like the cleansing of the Temple, you miss the real event.  It is kind of like going to a World Series game because they have good popcorn.  It might be true but so what?

   The real event is what most of what the Gospels speak about.  The four Gospels have 89 chapters collectively.  Matthew has 28, Mark has 16, Luke has 24 and John has 21.  Over a third of the chapters deal with Jesus’ Passion; the last week of his life through his resurrection.  That is the real event.  Jesus came to this earth to bring healing, to preach hope and to restore God’s kingdom but most of all he came to die for your sins.  That is the real event, not moralizing or reviving a flagging nation, but to die.  He came to die an agonizing death in order to free you from the debt of your sins.  That is the main event.

    Jesus took your sins upon himself, died and took those sins to the grave and left them there.  Then he took his life back up.  When he took his life back up, he gave you new life.  Paul says it like this, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:5) This is the promise, that we have new life, new hope, a new existence that is not based on our failures but upon Jesus’ success.  That what we need, we receive from God’s loving hand.  We now are the people we were created to be, God’s eternal family.  We now have eternal life and the joy of knowing that our victory is assured.  Jesus rose again to show his defeat of sin, the devil and our final enemy which is death. 

    The one truth the devil forced onto man was that we all die but now that death is only the doorway to God’s glory.  We who die in faith, will rise again to the perfected body in the perfected creation to live with Jesus in perfect union.  Never take your eye from the real event.  Jesus came to be your savior, not a role model, not a mentor, not a philosopher but your Savior.

    So today and every day we proclaim that Christ is risen; he is risen indeed!  This simple phrase gives us the true hope.  We who were once dead in our sins are now alive in Christ because of his mercy.  Live your new life in hope for our eternal salvation.

Lord Jesus, on this day you opened the tomb forevermore.  Strengthen us by your Spirit that we may live our new life ever to your service.  Keep us in your loving arms always confident of the only true love we know.  In your precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret