Blessings for Easter and a message from our Pastor (thought for April 2021)

April 2, 2021

in Monthly comment

The resurrection and the life. John 11: 25

This Easter, I was drawn to passages in the Scriptures where I was made to reflect on the effect the hope of the resurrection brings: the man on his deathbed in Job 33:19-28, Martha meeting Jesus after the death of her brother, Lazarus (John 11:17-27), and the disciples on what we now call Easter Sunday evening (John 20:19-23). By the time you read this, you may have heard my sermons on these. So I’ll try to be not too repetitive here. Really, just a thought.

The Resurrection is our faith.

This hope embodies our faith in God that we belong to the new order of things that Jesus is going to usher in after “the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4) Specifically, this hope rests on our faith in Jesus, Who is the resurrection and the life. I believe in Jesus = I believe in the resurrection. Because He is the resurrection. As I have recently heard it said, we believe in a person, not so much in an event (hence note my spelling above).

I cannot but be raised if I belong to Him, for it was impossible for death to hold Him (Acts 2:24), so it will be impossible for death to hold me. He is my forerunner into God’s presence (Hebrews 6:20), the firstborn from the dead (Colossians 1:18), of those who died believing in Him, “those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20-23). Because I am united to Christ by faith, I will be raised to life when all this is over. When He comes.

This is the hope of the believer on his or her deathbed, and every forerunner of death, be it illness, frustration, troubles at home, work; the old order of things. It is the truth that mixes hope into our sorrows when we grieve somebody dear to us who has fallen asleep in Jesus. It is why we gather on the first day of the week: to meet the Resurrection.

So: the Resurrection is our faith, for Christ is Who we trust, and so we live, even when we die. “Do you believe this?” (John 11:26)

Calix Furus

Pastor

April 2021

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