The Resurrection of Our Lord

John 20:1-9

The Resurrection.

The single most powerful event in our Church History...the single most powerful event of ALL time...past, present, or future.

It is in the RESURRECTION that Christ defeats the power satan has over us; it is in the RESURRECTION that our sins no longer charge us with the death penalty; it is in the RESURRECTION that Christ was officially proclaimed King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

In His Resurrection lies our greatest hope...the hope that we, too, may some day rise from the dead.

I like the way it is put in 1 Corinthians 15:13-14 & 17:

"If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith ... And if Christ has not been raised, your faith if futile; you are still in your sins."

It's an amazing concept, I think...this rising from the dead.  Think about it--if God was able to conquer THAT, then what could possibly exist that He CANNOT overcome???

Yet we live like poor banished children who hold to a "faith" that is POWERLESS...but don't you know that we worship and serve a God who can DO ANYTHING!?!?

Why, then, do we cower to share this faith?  Why, then, do we worry about the idea that we might lose "respect" in other's eyes if we proclaim this Truth?  Moreover, why, then, are we not willing, even to share this LIFESAVING GOSPEL...even to the point of DEATH, like Christ did???

DO WE TRULY BELIEVE THAT HE IS ABLE TO RAISE US FROM THE DEAD???

If so, then why do we fear death at all?

"What, then, shall we say in response to these things?  If God is for us, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?  He who did not spare His own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?  It is God who justifies.  Who, then, is the one who condemns? No one.  Christ Jesus who died--more than that, who was RAISED to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ... No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Romans 8:31-36a; 37-29.

To live in the power of the Resurrection is to live without fear...and with complete and utter abandon to Him who loved us and created us for a purpose.

Go forth and boldly and fearlessly walk out God's will for your life.

-Candice