APRIL 2023
It's All About JESUS
What a joy it has been to celebrate Easter, and remind ourselves once again, about the greatest sacrifice of love that God made for us. We are told in John 3 v 16, that God so loved and dearly prized the world, that He gave His only begotten and unique Son, Jesus Christ so that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life. How loved and highly prized do you feel?
Easter can be said to be the most important season in the Christian calendar. Our being able to stand in the assurance of our Father's amazing, extravagant, unconditional love for us, is because of the love and obedience of Jesus to go to die on the Cross, and to trust His Father to raise Him up on the third day.
Thus resurrection is at the centre of the redemption story. Without Jesus rising from the dead, Jesus's death would have ended in defeat and despair. Good Friday would have been a disaster.
Jesus's resurrection is Father God's clear signal that Jesus is the powerful Son of God who conquered death and now reigns as Lord of all (Romans 1 v 4).
1 Corinthians 15 v 21 tells us that .." For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man."
The crucifixion was the worst possible form of death that anyone could be put through. Jesus suffered and bled, bearing the shame, the torture, the beating, the nails, the crown of thorns and all that was thrown at Him, because of His love for His Father, and for you and I. Jesus Christ thus granted us Salvation, and eternal life and our Heavenly Father sent us the Holy Spirit, as our Comforter, Helper, and Enabler to guide us.
Inspite of all our Heavenly Father has put in place for us, the world seems to be going through very challenging times. There seems to be so much stress, anxiety and trauma. Many are going through pain from emotional heartache. Relationships are breaking down, and many are losing hope. Everywhere you turn you hear of wars and rumours of wars. We know that Jesus spoke about this in Matthew 24, so we need to stand at this time knowing that we may not know all what's going on, but we know the One who knows, and that is enough to stand on.
Jesus also gave words to encourage us in Matthew 11: 28-30. "Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. For My Yoke is wholesome (useful, good, not harsh, hard, sharp or pressing, but comfortable, gracious and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne".
Jesus is inviting us to Himself. I love this. A lot of times, when people want to help us, they tell us to go to do one thing or the other, but Jesus is telling us that all we need is His Presence, so we should come to Him. He tells us that He is good, and the way He does things is perfect. He is promising here to also give us the power and strength to serve Him. His ways are not harsh, or stressful, but produce perfect results.
He simply wants us to trust and listen to Him, and then be obedient to what Father has called us to do just like Jesus did. We need to make time to spend in His Presence even during our busy days. We can go to Him, and just worship and lift our eyes and hearts to Him.
Jesus's ability to respond to the love of His Father and to be obedient and go to the Cross is what has blessed you and I with the gift of resurrection. We thus need to learn to be obedient, so we enter into the fullness of all that the Almighty has prepared for us.
Jesus's resurrection is what causes Christianity to stand apart from every other religion because it has our Lord Jesus alive and loving you and guiding you so we can stay close to Him. Where would we be without Him. We also have the gift of the person of the Holy Spirit to guide us.
The resurrection shows that the blood of the new covenant does save us from our sins and unrighteousness. Jesus took His blood on our behalf into heaven to atone for our sins. Wow….what a mighty Saviour rescuing us and reconciling us back to our Heavenly Father.
Also the resurrection shows that you can trust Jesus because He did say that He would rise and He did it..(Matthew 12 v 40; 16 v 21; 17 v 9). This was His most amazing promise, and it came true. This means we can rely fully on all He has promised us, including our resurrection. This means that when we give our lives to God, death is no longer the end. Death doesn't have the sting it once did.
The resurrection provides an Apostolic foundation for the church (Mathew 28 v 7). Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church and is alive and well. Jesus said that He would build His church, and the gates of hell would not prevail. The church of Christ is still marching on. The resurrection power is thus still powerful to transform doubters into disciples.
Above all, as we spend more time in the Presence of Jesus, enjoying our relationship with Him, and getting to know Him, you and I can stand in awe of the exalted Messiah, who gave His life as a ransom for us. You and I can stand on the rock, Jesus Christ, knowing that He is the Hope of glory. We can thus learn to fully depend on the resurrection power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, that is on the inside of us so we walk in the fullness of all that is available for us. We can yield our hearts to Jesus, who will fill us with His love, peace and resurrection power.
