Tuesday 10 April 2018

A Midweek Message: No Sting, Just Sweetness (An Easter Message)

On Easter Sunday, we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ during our family service.  The children stayed in for the whole service rather than going out to Sunday school, so I split the message in three and involved and interacted with the children during the first two parts, hence only recording the third part of the message.

In the first part, we considered how to test Jesus' claim (Matthew 17) that he would die and rise from the dead.  We recognised that we could do this by comparing the "before-and-after" pictures.  We examined the evidence in the Bible, and concluded that Jesus' death had been witnessed and confirmed, and his life after his death had also been witnessed and confirmed.  His claim had been verified.

In the second part, we examined the lives of the people around him.  If Jesus had risen from the dead, then this would have changed the lives of his followers - in other words, they would have their own "before-and-after" pictures that we could examine.  We noticed how Peter had changed - before the resurrection, he lied about knowing Jesus (Luke 22), but after the resurrection he openly proclaimed his faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 4).  We also noticed the dramatic change in the lives of people who were convinced of the resurrection even though they hadn't seen the risen Christ (Acts 2) and how lives continue to be changed today by the message of Christ.

In the third part, we considered two reasons why we still celebrate the resurrection: it teaches me something about the death of Christ, and it teaches me something about my own death.

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