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| | From:  base301 (Original Message) | Sent: 4/14/2003 4:12 AM |
"He Is Not Here: He Is Risen" 
| | | | | Easter Sunday is the most triumphant day in the calendar of the Christian Church. Yet there is no trace of an Easter celebration, as we know it, anywhere in the New Testament. The celebration of Easter actually began with the early Jewish Christians who continued to celebrate the Passover, regarding Christ as the true Paschal Lamb. The event naturally passed over into a commemoration of the death and Resurrection of our Lord
Down through the years, the actual date of Easter has changed from time to time. Since about the 16th century, Easter has been celebrated on the first Sunday following the full moon after the first day of spring. Thus, the Resurrection of Christ is symbolized by the bright color of laughing daffodils, the fresh green of the countryside breaking forth from the brown death of winter.
But most of all, the wonder of His resurrection is symbolized in the hope that beats in the hearts of believers everywhere as they sing triumphantly: "Christ the Lord is ris'n today" in the Charles Wesley song.
It was that message that lifted Christianity out of the category of dead superstitions and archaic religions and made it the abiding faith of multiplied thousands of searchers after truth. When the glorious truth of the empty tomb and risen Christ was whispered in the streets of Jerusalem, and was spread to the marketplaces of Corinth and Antioch, that glorious truth came as an electric shock. It awakened devout persons in every quarter of the world to the fact that Jesus was indeed the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
The Resurrection quickly became the central theme of the apostles' preaching. Within 50 days of the death of Christ and the seeming collapse of His cause, the city of Jerusalem rang with the cries of those who with all boldness declared that God had raised Jesus Christ from the dead and that they were His witnesses. Craven cowards were changed into courageous confessors, and crude unlettered fishermen from Galilee became royal heralds of the King; all who saw and heard them were compelled to acknowledge that something had utterly transformed their lives. When questioned by their critics, the apostles had no hesitancy in making reply by attributing everything to the risen Christ.
The Resurrection was the dominant theme in all of the Apostle Paul's preaching. Everywhere Paul went, he declared, "God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power" (1 Corinthians 6:14, KJV). This true, earth-shaking fact, proclaimed with heart-piercing conviction, was the axle and wheels of the early Christian Church. To be continued.....
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| | | From: base301 | Sent: 4/16/2003 4:21 AM |
The truth of Easter has more than historical implications. When its truth in all its wonder dawns on us, it is capable of transforming our individual lives and, in turn, our society. On Easter Sunday this year, thousands of people will go to church to hear sermons on the Resurrection; but how many actually believe that Christ is alive? What a difference it would make if they did! What a transformation would take place in our homes! What a difference there would be in our nation's deteriorating morals! What an increase of purpose and power in our lives, if we caught the wonder of the biblical declaration that Christ is alive today!
The greatest news that has ever flashed from heaven to earth is that Christ the Lord is risen. The angel at the tomb delivered the most important message ever to fall on the ears of mankind: "He is not here: for he is risen" (Matthew 28:6, KJV). The power of those words changed the course of history, brought hope to a hopeless world, and gave believers a purpose and a power that they had never known before.
We live in a day of power, when people have developed machines that smash through sound barriers and hurl spheres beyond the pull of earth's gravity. It is a day when people have harnessed the basic power of the universe and have used it to forge weapons of death and destruction.
But such power has made the world no better. It has not solved human evil. It has not dealt with the problems threatening the peace and security of the world's peoples.
We have a feast of mechanical power, but a famine of spiritual dynamics. As a civilization, we stand on the edge of a dark abyss, and we need to recapture the power of Christ's Resurrection.
What relevance has Easter and the Resurrection of Christ for us? Everything! The risen Christ, being alive forevermore, can do today what He did for those who received and believed Him in days gone by.
To Be continued..... |
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Reply
| | | From: pegssis | Sent: 4/5/2004 6:23 PM |
| | | "He Is Not Here: He Is Risen"
| | | | | Easter Sunday is the most triumphant day in the calendar of the Christian Church. Yet there is no trace of an Easter celebration, as we know it, anywhere in the New Testament. The celebration of Easter actually began with the early Jewish Christians who continued to celebrate the Passover, regarding Christ as the true Paschal Lamb. The event naturally passed over into a commemoration of the death and Resurrection of our Lord
Down through the years, the actual date of Easter has changed from time to time. Since about the 16th century, Easter has been celebrated on the first Sunday following the full moon after the first day of spring. Thus, the Resurrection of Christ is symbolized by the bright color of laughing daffodils, the fresh green of the countryside breaking forth from the brown death of winter.
But most of all, the wonder of His resurrection is symbolized in the hope that beats in the hearts of believers everywhere as they sing triumphantly: "Christ the Lord is ris'n today" in the Charles Wesley song.
It was that message that lifted Christianity out of the category of dead superstitions and archaic religions and made it the abiding faith of multiplied thousands of searchers after truth. When the glorious truth of the empty tomb and risen Christ was whispered in the streets of Jerusalem, and was spread to the marketplaces of Corinth and Antioch, that glorious truth came as an electric shock. It awakened devout persons in every quarter of the world to the fact that Jesus was indeed the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
The Resurrection quickly became the central theme of the apostles' preaching. Within 50 days of the death of Christ and the seeming collapse of His cause, the city of Jerusalem rang with the cries of those who with all boldness declared that God had raised Jesus Christ from the dead and that they were His witnesses. Craven cowards were changed into courageous confessors, and crude unlettered fishermen from Galilee became royal heralds of the King; all who saw and heard them were compelled to acknowledge that something had utterly transformed their lives. When questioned by their critics, the apostles had no hesitancy in making reply by attributing everything to the risen Christ.
The Resurrection was the dominant theme in all of the Apostle Paul's preaching. Everywhere Paul went, he declared, "God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power" (1 Corinthians 6:14, KJV). This true, earth-shaking fact, proclaimed with heart-piercing conviction, was the axle and wheels of the early Christian Church. To be continued.....fROM LAST YEAR!!!AMEN! KAT | | | |
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