WHAT DO YOU CELEBRATE....EVERY SUNDAY?

I am grateful for The Cross.  However, anyone back then could have died in this manner.  The difference is our faith in the person and their life that is hanging on the cross.  Therefore, my faith in the person, life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ is validated in The Resurrection.

I am thankful for the torture and death by crucifixion that Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, took upon Himself in my place. "In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." - Hebrews 9:22  

However, "...if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead." - 1 Corinthians 15:14-15  

"But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive." - 1 Corinthians 15:20-22

Even more-so His resurrection declares He is the Son of God.  "...regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord." - Romans 1:3-4

You see, I can't be like the Sadducees, "the Sadducess say there is no resurrection" - Acts 23:8.  That's why they are Sadd - u - cee (Sad you see). According to Luke 20:36 I am a "child of the resurrection".  Romans 6:5 supports this by saying, "If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection."  

It is pretty hard for me not to believe in Jesus when He says about Himself, "I am the resurrection and the Life..." (John 11:25), proceeds to raise Lazarus from a four-day stay in the grips of death and the grave, then walks out of His own tomb three days removed from the worst death you could imagine.

Allow me to tinker with my Favorite quote of all time, [my words in the brackets]

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said [and performed the kind of miracles He performed] would not be [just] a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg [because He did equate Himself with God] — or else he would be the Devil of Hell [the ultimate deceiver]. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God [I vote for this one, the proof is all there], or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God [I call Him Lord and God], but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being [just] a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

At my church, every Sunday we celebrate the fact that the tomb is empty!  Christ Jesus has defeated death, hell, and the grave!  Because He lives I live also (and can face tomorrow).  He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed! What Do You Celebrate Every Sunday?

Comments