Easter Sunday
Jesus Christ is alive! He was crucified died and was buried, but he rose again triumphantly on the third day. That’s the glorious news of Easter.
Easter is God’s answer to the age-old question that has haunted man down through the corridors of time,” if a man die shall you live again. ” Not “ if a man die ,” we know all men die; but shall he live again;”
Even in a free thinking day and age like ours, how men fear death, how they hate death. Many don’t even want to talk about it. Doctors so often will not warn their patients that death is coming. Relatives try to deceive their loved ones that death is near. Krupp, the great German industrialist was so afraid of death that he refused to let anyone mention the word in his presence, and ran away in fear when his own relatives were dying.
But why, why is it that men keep asking this age-old question; why will a not leave it alone?” If a man dies shall he live again?” Why do men insist in asking a question that they hate to even think about? I’ll tell you why; because death will not leave men alone. It is no respect or of persons. It is the King of terrors and the terror of Kings. It constantly gapes at our footsteps. Oh yes, we may ignore it, laugh at it, live as if it is never going to come our way; but it always does. It climbs the stairs, it knocks on the door, it enters the room even when not invited, and claims the soul for its own. No one can escape its hour of visitation; all drop at its touch. Its icy hand cannot be ignored or delayed.
Some people try to tell us that young people do not worry about this question; but I tell you that they do! And before death finally puts its cold hand upon their body; 10,000 times they will ask the same age-old question, “if a man dies shall deliver again?”
On this Easter Sunday I want you to consider these words that fell from the lips of him whom God has raised from the dead. He says; “whoever lives and believes in me shall never die,“ that is, shall never be eternally separated from God, banished into outer darkness; for that is what death is.
Can you say on this Easter Sunday that if I die, I shall never be eternally separated from God? Millions of people can, but can you? Everyone who has put their complete faith in the resurrected Christ can but can you?
How strange it is that men so often reverse things in the Bible. Men fear the death of the body, when Jesus tells of the fear the death of the soul. Men fear the Judgments of one another, when Jesus tells them the fear the judgment of God. Men prepare for life, when God tells them to prepare for death, because nothing is more inevitable, more inescapable.
“If a man dies shall he live again?” The answer is Yes, absolutely Yes, because the soul is immortal, it never dies. It will spend eternity with God or without God. It all depends upon what we do with Jesus; whether we accept him as Savior and Lord or rejection as Savior and Lord. Where our soul lives in eternity is a matter of choice not a chance.
And that is what the Resurrection, what Easter Sunday is all about. That is why Jesus rose from the dead; to give us a hope beyond the grave; to deliver us from the sting and fear of death; to give us eternal life with God beyond this life. If you have not, up to this moment, accepted Jesus as your own personal savior from sin, do so on this Easter Sunday and make it the happiest most meaningful Easter of your entire life.
Jesus Christ is alive and wants to live in your heart. Death is an enemy that need not be feared because of Christ’s resurrection. David the Psalmist said, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me, Your rod and staff comfort me.”
The best is yet to be for the child of God and it’s all because of Easter.
He Is Only a Prayer Away!
In His Great Love,
Pastor Bob