Hello, Dear Friends,
Today marks the beginning of Holy Week, which includes the events in the Upper Room and the Garden of Gethsemane during Maundy Thursday, and the passion and crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ on Good Friday. I hope you will be with us during our Maundy Thursday worship on April 2 at 7:00 p.m., and then your choice of two glorious services of worship on Easter morning, April 5, at 9:00 or 11:00 a.m.
I’ve come to believe that the gospel writers, in their accounts of the death and resurrection of Jesus, were trying to say two things. First, this one named Jesus was different. Who would deny that? Here is just one example: Did you know that you could read in just two-and-a-half-hours all that we have recorded from the lips of Jesus? Yet those two-and-a-half hours contain the most important words ever uttered on this planet. Even the most skeptical non-Christian must admit that.
The other things the gospel writers intended to say is that Jesus is alive and remains undefeated by any foe. History records that Peter was brought before the Roman emperor on charges of inciting the people to riot. When Peter confessed his allegiance to Jesus, the emperor demanded that Peter say that Christ was dead. And Peter replied, “That I cannot do. He is alive in the world where neither Roman nor Jew can stop him” (Acts 12).
Jesus said that God is like a shepherd who looks after his sheep. If one is lost God never gives up the search for it. He tells us that God is a loving parent who loves his children, and hears what we ask of him. He tells us that God looks after the lilies of the field, the birds of the air, and that God cares for us. Not even a sparrow falls but that God attends its funeral. God is no less careful with us.
All of these teachings are important; all are basic to our faith. But the message of Easter is even greater. Easter persuades us that, as our lives are linked to Jesus, God will no more let us die than he let Jesus die. No matter how hard the road, how dark the valley, or how long the night, when your life is linked to Jesus, you will find a life more exhilarating and thrilling than you have ever known. The day we begin in our own limited way to follow him, we no longer feel lost, and we find a peace that abides.
We have much to thank God for this week. Let our prayer be one of thanksgiving for the thrilling news of Easter and for the salvation that Jesus brings. Because at Easter, we know we are saved: from fear, from anxiety, from meaninglessness, from loneliness, despair, self-centeredness, saved from our brokenness and our lostness.
Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!
Bruce Jones, Pastor
Imagine Church
