I don't think it's necessary to explain why Easter Sunday is the most glorious of all Christian holidays. If you don't know the story of Easter, perhaps you've been living under a rock, in which case, you probably don't really care anyway. Spoiler Alert: Jesus was resurrected. Yup, you heard it here, folks: not even the grave could hold Jesus in.
What I really want to talk about is not the events of that day, but the significance of those events. In order to even scratch the surface - which, to be honest, is all I can really do - you have to come to the table with a certain amount of pure faith. It's hard to believe that a man, even a man who is also God, could die a physical death and yet be seen alive again. Science can't possibly explain it, and so we must first have faith even "as small as a mustard seed" (Matthew 17:20).
The resurrection of Jesus Christ showed all of mankind that God is not just a theory. God is real. God came in the form of a man and performed miracles, died a painful physical death, and was given new life. It requires a great leap of faith to believe in this story, but we are given 66 separate accounts of God in the form of the Bible - some are prophecy, some are first-hand accounts, and some testify of God in the flesh. Nonetheless, we have sufficient evidence to suggest that God is real.
Let's take a break for one moment and touch on this idea of evidence. What does that mean in terms of spirituality? Let me break it down. We believe that gravity exists because we can show gravity in action. Pick up an object and hold it at shoulder-level. Now, let go of the object. What happened? It fell down to the ground. If you repeat this experiment a million times, a million times you will get the same result: the object will fall to the ground. So our basis for believing in gravity is that we have seen gravity at work constantly all around us. Now let's apply the same logic to God. How can we believe God is real? Experiment. Pray and see Him work in your life. Faithfully, continuously, honestly pray and you will see Him at work. Look into His word and see prophecy fulfilled. See account after account of Him working miracles and rescuing those He loves. How can we believe in God? You can see God at work constantly all around us. It isn't "proof" of God, because only when we see His face will we have absolute and indisputable proof, but the evidence is all around us.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled program:
The resurrection showed us all that death is not the end, but rather a beginning. For reasons mortal man cannot comprehend fully, we are given a specific number of days on this earth with which we must perform good deeds and spread truth to those who may not know or understand. Once those days are up, and at a time when only the Father chooses, we surrender our physical bodies and part from this earthly life. We are then taken to a place Jesus called "paradise", where our life with our Heavenly Father truly begins. Jesus, by example, showed us how this works.
This is really just a starting point. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is what the entire Christian faith is based on - the idea that a man born of a poor virgin could live purely and love fearlessly, die, and live again. Hard to believe? Maybe. But I think it beats the alternative...
What I really want to talk about is not the events of that day, but the significance of those events. In order to even scratch the surface - which, to be honest, is all I can really do - you have to come to the table with a certain amount of pure faith. It's hard to believe that a man, even a man who is also God, could die a physical death and yet be seen alive again. Science can't possibly explain it, and so we must first have faith even "as small as a mustard seed" (Matthew 17:20).
The resurrection of Jesus Christ showed all of mankind that God is not just a theory. God is real. God came in the form of a man and performed miracles, died a painful physical death, and was given new life. It requires a great leap of faith to believe in this story, but we are given 66 separate accounts of God in the form of the Bible - some are prophecy, some are first-hand accounts, and some testify of God in the flesh. Nonetheless, we have sufficient evidence to suggest that God is real.
Let's take a break for one moment and touch on this idea of evidence. What does that mean in terms of spirituality? Let me break it down. We believe that gravity exists because we can show gravity in action. Pick up an object and hold it at shoulder-level. Now, let go of the object. What happened? It fell down to the ground. If you repeat this experiment a million times, a million times you will get the same result: the object will fall to the ground. So our basis for believing in gravity is that we have seen gravity at work constantly all around us. Now let's apply the same logic to God. How can we believe God is real? Experiment. Pray and see Him work in your life. Faithfully, continuously, honestly pray and you will see Him at work. Look into His word and see prophecy fulfilled. See account after account of Him working miracles and rescuing those He loves. How can we believe in God? You can see God at work constantly all around us. It isn't "proof" of God, because only when we see His face will we have absolute and indisputable proof, but the evidence is all around us.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled program:
The resurrection showed us all that death is not the end, but rather a beginning. For reasons mortal man cannot comprehend fully, we are given a specific number of days on this earth with which we must perform good deeds and spread truth to those who may not know or understand. Once those days are up, and at a time when only the Father chooses, we surrender our physical bodies and part from this earthly life. We are then taken to a place Jesus called "paradise", where our life with our Heavenly Father truly begins. Jesus, by example, showed us how this works.
This is really just a starting point. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is what the entire Christian faith is based on - the idea that a man born of a poor virgin could live purely and love fearlessly, die, and live again. Hard to believe? Maybe. But I think it beats the alternative...
No comments:
Post a Comment