April 12, 2020
HAPPY RESURRECTION SUNDAY!!!! Today is the day we celebrate what Jesus did for us at the cross. This year Resurrection Sunday is different and being celebrated differently around the world. Churches are closed. People have to stay home. No big family gatherings or sunrise services. We are very blessed to be able to watch services from around the world on our computers. It hasn’t been too many years ago that this wouldn’t be happening. Was thinking lately, could our individual relationships with the Lord get us through these times if we didn’t have television and computers? Could I or could you be strong in Him during this world crisis if we couldn’t get on Facebook and read all the encouraging words and hear the sermons? Something to ponder in our hearts. Each of us can and are to be in a place that our personal relationship with our heavenly Father is so intimate that we don’t waver in difficult times. We get used to depending on others to do the studying, to having the relationship and then we just piggy back off of them. Just a thought, it’s time we all are close enough to Him that we could make it through a hard time with just ourselves and Him if we had to. That’s the reason Jesus came to earth to die for us, so we could have this close, intimate relationship with our heavenly Father.
Most of us know about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and that He was buried and 3 days later rose again. That is what Easter is all about. We believe that when He died and rose again He paid for our sins so that we could have eternal life in heaven with Him. All that is true but I also believe that it is deeper and even more relational. Jesus came to earth as a man. He lived on earth for 33 years. He knew that He came to die for the sins of the world so that man and God could have the relationship that God had created them to have. In the beginning man and God were intimate. Then when sin happened there became a bridge between God and man. The heavenly Father could no longer have a close relationship with His children that He longed to have. After the fall man could still be close to God, speak to God and hear from God but God could not be in them. There were laws made that let man know what was acceptable and unacceptable to God. It was through the keeping of the laws that you earned your relationship with Him. A relationship that is built through doing good deeds is never as close and intimate as a relationship built on oneness. “You live fully in me and now I live fully in them so that they will experience perfect unity, and the world will be convinced that you have sent me, for they will see that you love each one of them with the same passionate love that you have for me.” John 17:23 Jesus is talking to God about Their love for each other and man.
I always like reading the life story of Jesus this time of year. Jesus knew that the cross was before Him. He knew He would die a horrible death. How could He do that? Some may say it is because He was Jesus, He was God’s Son. It is true that He was the Son of God but when Jesus came to earth He gave up His place in heaven and became a man. The Bible says that Jesus was tempted in every way as we are. He had no more power than we have available to us. The difference was that He never
gave in to any of the temptation and because He lived a sinless life He could become our sin. He
was the Lamb without blemish that shed His innocent blood for our redemption of sins. God sent
His Son, Jesus, to take our punishment and pay the price we owed for all we had done in unbelief – which is sin. Jesus actually became all the sins of the world, past, present and future. Jesus, the perfect, unblemished Lamb of God had to become our sin and then shed His innocent blood for
us to have an intimate relationship with God, our heavenly Father. Jesus could endure the shame
and pain of the cross because He saw the other side of the cross. He didn’t look at the pain of that
day but saw the purpose and goal of the cross. His power came from knowing He would get through.
“Since we are now joined to Christ, we have been given the treasures of redemption by his blood—the total cancellation of our sins—all because of the cascading riches of his grace. This superabundant grace is already powerfully working in us, releasing within us all forms of wisdom and practical understanding.” Ephesians 1:7-8 When we talk about Jesus dying so that we could have eternal life, we are usually thinking about life eternally with Him in heaven. That is true but listen to this verse. “And this is eternal life; it means to know, perceive, recognize, become acquainted with and understand You, the only true and real God and likewise to know Him, Jesus as the Messiah, Whom You have sent.” John 17:2 Eternal life is more than just living forever. It is knowing Him deeply right now – here on earth – TODAY! As I seek the Lord on the power of His resurrection, I am seeing there is a foundation. Part of that foundation is to know and believe that we are a new creation in Him when Jesus becomes the Lord of our life. We aren’t a fixed up person but totally new in Him. “Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of all power, honor, and authority! Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm.” Colossians 3:1-2
None of us will ever have to do what Jesus did for us. Yet, all of us go through problems and
situations that are hard to endure. The whole world is in that situation now. How can we know
that we will have victory in those situations? By seeing the other side. We must learn to look
beyond the circumstances and see what God has promised us. Any problem we have we can get through when we see the victory at the end. You may ask, “How can we know it will be victory?”
We will have victory if we believe in our heart God’s love and purpose. If we believe in failure
and that there is no hope that is what we will experience. There is no real power in unbelief. The
power comes from believing that with God all things are possible and that without Him we can do nothing.
Another great part of that foundation is His love. His agape love never fails. If our life is built on the foundation of His love, we will stand strong through any storm. One of the greatest things about knowing and walking in His resurrection power is knowing His love. Most of us aren’t accustomed to handling most of our situations by the power of His love that we have because of His resurrection. We don’t see ourselves and others as the Lord sees and then we walk things through by our own logic instead of His unfailing love.
Jesus died on the cross for us because of that unfailing love that He had for His Father and us. God gave up His Son to die for us because of that same love. Jesus didn’t go to the cross full of bitterness doing a duty He was told to do. He could only have done what He did for us through the love and power of God. “I have revealed to them who you are and I will continue to make you even more real to them, so that they may experience the same endless love that you have for me, for your love will now live in them, even as I live in them!”
John 17:26 These are the words Jesus prayed to God, His Father, right before He went to the cross for us. There is so much to know and understand in our hearts about what happened when Jesus gave His life for us and then rose again and conquered death. Ask the Lord to continue to show you the power of His resurrection and how you can have a foundation built on who you are because of what He did. His love will never fail.
On this day that we have set aside to remember what Jesus did for each of us, take time to search your heart and see what you really believe about Jesus and His resurrection power. If you have
doubt or fear about the world situation we are dealing with now or any situations, surrender that to Him and let Him show you the other side of it. Let the Lord show you in your heart that His salvation includes love, joy, peace, prosperity, deliverance, healing now not someday down the road. He
wants you to experience “On earth as it is in heaven” today and every day. That is His will for you.
Don’t let His love for you be in vain. Believe that God truly is a good God and “so loves the
World that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him, shall not
perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 Have a beautiful week reflecting on His power –
His love and desire for you. You will see the power of His resurrection in your life and never see
your life and situations the same. You are blessed!!!