Happy Easter Monday, Dearest Friends,
Do you realize that, for practically every other major world religion, there is a place — a specific place somewhere — that marks the grave of the founder of that particular religion. Christianity doesn’t have that, and I don’t mean for this to sound disrespectful, but Christianity doesn’t need that — because the foundational element of Christianity is the resurrection.
The foundational element in the message of the First Century Christians is the event we celebrated yesterday, that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. The apostle Peter had the courage to look right in the eyes of his accusers (as recorded in the Book of Acts) and say, “You crucified him. But God raised him from the dead, and we saw him.” In the same city where Jesus had been crucified, over 5,000 men and their families, listening to Peter and based on what they had heard and seen, said, “You know what? We believe this man rose from the dead.” Peter said, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
That’s why we gathered in such large numbers yesterday on Easter. This is not a bunch of superstition. We celebrated an event in history. It was the most substantiated event in the entire First Century. The people who wrote about it and who saw it didn’t go on to become rich and famous. They didn’t make the talk show circuit and get written up in all the newspapers. They went on to be beaten, imprisoned, crucified, and burned at the stake, and they didn’t go to their deaths saying, “I believe in the Sermon on the Mount!” They said, “I believe that Jesus is my Savior, and that he rose from the dead.” They went to their deaths, not because of a teaching, or a philosophy, or even a way of life — but because of an event. The resurrection.
Everything we believe hinges on this one event. When you place your faith in Jesus Christ, Jesus said, “I will give you the gift of eternal life.” You can live this life knowing where you will spend eternity, the life after this life. When that happens, the event in Jesus’ life becomes the event of your life. It’s a promise we know Jesus will keep, because he took his life up again, and was resurrected from the dead.
These are the things we know because of Easter,
Bruce Jones, Pastor
Imagine Church
