Welcome to the Weekend Sermon for Easter weekend. I hope that everyone has a wonderful resurrection Sunday praising the risen Lord Jesus. Thank you for reading the blog this week. My prayers are always with you.
I hope that everyone had a chance to read some of the posts for Holy Week the last few days. When I realize all that Jesus experienced during this week, I am overwhelmed by His great love for me. He was willing to endure the cross for the sake of His love for us. Praise be unto His name.
During your prayer time in the upcoming week, please be in prayer for those Christians around the world who are suffering great persecution. I heard a church official from Baghdad on the radio this morning discussing the persecution of Christians in Iraq and Syria. Please pray for an end to persecution, and thank the Lord daily if you live in an area of the world where Christians are free to worship the Lord without fear of persecution.
Please continue to pray this week for peace in the troubled areas of the world. Also, continue to pray about the Ebola situation. I heard that the disease is still causing much trouble in Sierra Leone.
I would ask that you continue to pray for me. I am well on my way to getting the house ready for sale. I plan to sell things out of the house this Summer. My job is very difficult, and I do not enjoy going to work each day. Please pray that the Lord will give me the strength to keep going. I am grateful to the Lord for this job, it is just hard to go to work when the clients cuss you out everyday and people are extremely rude and mean. It starts to wear you down.
Last week, we took a break from our series in I Peter to focus on Palm Sunday. Today we focus on the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter morning.
I have been reflecting this week on the feelings of Jesus' followers just before that first Easter morning. We look at the events of Holy Week from an entirely different perspective than the one available to Jesus' first followers. We know what happened. They didn't no what was going to happen. The Bible is clear that Jesus' followers did not understand when Jesus told them that He would rise again from the dead. When they saw what happened on Good Friday, they thought that that was it. All of their hopes were placed on Jesus. They thought that they were following the one who would free Israel. This feeling is clearly expressed by the two men that the Risen Lord encountered on the road to Emmaus. Now He was dead, and I imagine that they were filled with sorrow and a deep sense of failure.
Just try to imagine the feeling of exhilaration that Jesus' followers felt when they saw Jesus alive. Their hearts must have been overflowing. Mary Magdalene when she spoke with Jesus was so moved with joy that she held on to Jesus and wouldn't let Him go until Jesus told her to stop clinging to Him. The one who had delivered her was alive again.
This same Easter joy that filled the hearts of Jesus' first followers should fill our hearts too on this Easter Sunday. Jesus is alive. He is seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven where He is our advocate with the Father always making intercession for us as the great High Priest touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
We can have Easter joy in our hearts because of what Easter means. Because Jesus rose again from the dead, the power of sin, death, hell and the grave is completely and totally defeated. Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross. On the cross He paid the penalty for sin that we could not pay. On the cross, Jesus took care of the problem of sin. By His resurrection, Jesus defeated the consequences of sin. Sin brought death. The Bible says in the book of Romans that "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Because Jesus rose from the dead, death is nothing to fear for those who put their faith and trust in Jesus. I don't have very good health. I've had problems with fluid in my lungs the last few mornings. But I know that I do not have to fear death because of what Jesus has accomplished for me through His death and resurrection. I put my faith and trust in Jesus when I was a boy in Sunday School. I know that when I die, I will immediately go to be with Jesus in the place that He has prepared for me. This fills my heart with great joy because I know that being with Jesus forever is what waits for me. I have a hopeful future.
Easter also fills the heart with joy because if we know someone who was in Christ, we will never truly be parted from that individual. My parents, as well as other friends and family members, have passed away in the last few years. These individuals were all followers of the Lord Jesus. Because Jesus is the resurrection and the life, my family and friends are with Jesus right now. One day, I will be reunited with them, and we will enjoy fellowship with one another in Jesus' presence forever and forever.
One other thing that fills my heart with Easter joy is the fact that one day, those who are in Christ will receive a glorified body like unto Jesus' glorified body. The Bible speaks about this in the great chapter on the resurrection in I Corinthians 15. I urge everyone to read this important chapter this week if at all possible.
When Jesus rose again, He had an identifiable body. His disciples recognized who He was. However, Jesus had a glorified body. He could pass right through a locked door. He could appear one moment and be gone the next as we read about in the account of the two men on the road to Emmaus.
The Bible makes is quite clear, that when we go to be with Jesus, we will receive a glorified body on the day when Jesus comes again and the resurrection of the dead occurs. Our new glorified bodies will no longer get sick or experience pain and hurt. I look forward to this, and I know many others who are trapped in bodies that don't work right look forward to this too. This is possible because Jesus conquered death and rose again on Easter morning.
Easter is a time of great joy. Let your heart be filled with Easter gladness because Jesus is alive and Jesus loves us.
If you do not have the Easter joy in your heart, turn to the Lord in repentance and faith. Believe that Jesus died for you and that He rose again. Ask Him to be your Savior and Lord.
Christian, make sure to thank the Lord today for saving you from sin and for conquering death, hell and the grave through His glorious resurrection.
Next week, we will return to a more regular schedule here on the blog. I will post the verses on Monday. I am pretty sure that I will have a review on Wednesday. For the Weekend Sermon, we will return to our series on I Peter. Happy Easter to all. Amen.
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