FROM THE PULPIT: HAVE A HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY

What?

What day is that?

Is this something new to celebrate?

Well, not exactly. You see, I am writing about Easter. Oh, why didn't you say so in the first place?

Well, Easter can mean different things to different people. Easter can bring ideas of bunnies, chocolate candy, Easter egg hunts, baskets with fake grass and marshmallow treats.

To others it is a time for family get-togethers, time off of work and traveling to grandma's house.

For stores, it is a time to make some extra money selling Easter cards and gifts.

There are some of the things that Easter means to us. However, when you use the word Resurrection that means only one thing-Jesus Christ rose from the grave.

Following a gruesome death on a Roman cross, shedding His blood for the sins of mankind and suffering humiliation in our place, He was placed in a borrowed tomb.

Then at dawn on the first day of the week, according to Luke, some women went to the tomb expecting to anoint His body, found and empty tomb and encountered two angels who asked, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, He has risen! Remember how He told you...the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again."(24:5-7)

This is the heart of the Gospel message. This is the center of the true Christian preaching and teaching.

The Apostle Paul wrote in I Corinthians 15 that the matter of first importance is "that Christ died for our sins, was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that He appeared to Peter and then to the twelve. After that, He appeared to more than 500 brethren at the same time...to James, then to all the apostles and last of all to me..." (vs 3-8)

All of this means little to someone unless they can say "the Lord has come into my heart and has come to me."

For the Christian, the most important aspect of Easter is The Resurrection.