He Is Risen!

He is Risen! 

Hello Everyone. Tony here. I managed to wrench the keyboard away from Marsha when she wasn’t looking, and she has graciously let me send out this week’s blog. I think she feels sorry for me, because I had just finished a smokin’ Easter message and was planning to share it with three different churches when the lockdown order came. Now I only have an audience of one, so she has suggested I share the gist – not the entire truckload -  of that message with you.

It centers around those “Aha!” moments we experience once in awhile, when all the dots connect and understanding comes flooding in. For example (and I’d love to have seen the guy’s expression) the morning when he stepped outside, coffee in hand and admired the newly-completed Tower of Pisa. Pausing in mid sip, he looked again and asked out loud, “Is that thing leaning?”

Aha.

Jesus is the Master of orchestrating life’s “Aha!” moments for the sake of the Kingdom. We might wonder why He seemed so secretive at the beginning of His ministry. Just a couple of examples: Matthew 8:4, “Don’t tell anyone, but go straight to the priest and let him examine you.” and again in Matthew 9:30, “Don’t tell anyone.”

The reason is given clearly in John 16:12, where Jesus declares to His disciples, “There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now.”

But unbeknownst to the disciples, they were being prepared, one step at a time, for the moment when they would stand before the Risen Lord, and like Thomas, declare, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

“Aha!”

I often wonder what God is up to all around me, but I haven’t been made privy to it because my system just couldn’t take it in. In the case of the disciples, they had to be led, ever so gently, from miracle to miracle, each one more profound than the last, until finally Jesus could chide them, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

Easter. The greatest “Aha!” moment of all time. As we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection, let’s remember the path that brought us to this point, where we can understand not only the reality of the event but the meaning behind it and the implication it carries for us. Now we are freed from the curse of sin. Now we have a home in God’s Kingdom. Now Satan has no more power over us, neither in this life nor in the next.

Perhaps the best Easter sermon of all time was given in four words by an angel as he sat on a rock outside the empty tomb. You’ve probably noticed from all the accounts of angels throughout Scripture this one truth: angels do not sit in the Presence of God. And yet, here’s this angel, moving the stone away from the tomb entrance (not for Christ’s sake, by the way, but for ours), then he sits on it and declares, “He is not here” (Matthew 28:6).

“Aha!” Indeed. He is Risen. Halleluiah!

And just a note from me, Marsha.  We’ve had a wonderful Easter Thanks to the internet, we are just about to join in our 4th service of the day!  What a blessing in such a time as we’re all in at the moment.  Can’t wait to visit with you again next week.  Happy Easter!!

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