Pastor's Passage

Pastor's Passage

April 2021

Happy Resurrection Day everybody! I am rejoicing  in this rather early spring.

Many of us will all spend some amount of time during this Holy Season of the Year reading some of the historical accounts of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead in one or more of the four Gospels. Simply reading those historical narratives of the actual miracle itself is so amazingly enjoyable and fruitful in so many ways. But as we are remembering the pain and suffering of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the Cross and celebrating the Messiah conquering sin and death and the grave through His resurrection from the dead, I think it is such a good thing to ask this question; ‘How exactly does the resurrection effect my life today? What does it do for me now? Please prayerfully read 1 Peter 1:3–5 & Romans 6:3-4, asking Jesus to help you see just how awesome His resurrection from the dead is for us here and now.

Peter is writing to Christians who are spread out all over a rather huge geographical region when He says, “³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, ⁵who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Peter is giving our God and father all the praise and glory because God has caused us who are born again to be born again “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” How often, if ever, do you think about the fact that you being born again is directly connected to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead?

The Apostle Paul, in Romans 6:3–4, helps us to understand what Peter is talking about; “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” These two apostles are making some absolutely crucial points for us who want to live for God today.

First of all I hope and pray that you realize that you being born again is only possible and is only as real as Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Praise be to God, that believing in Jesus is believing in Who He is and all He taught as well as all He did in living, dying and, rising from the dead. He is risen! Hallelujah! He is risen indeed.  But I was saved _____years ago. [You fill in the blank.] What about today?

Romans 6:4 incudes these words, “we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Paul makes it so clear. Today because Jesus is risen from the dead and because I am in Him as a child of God, when I was born again, I was buried with Christ in His death. My sins were all punished in His body on the Cross of Calvary and I died. And this is the great resurrection reality; everyone in Him is, right now at this moment in time, alive, raised up from the dead, to walk in the power of His resurrection, fully empowered by His Life in us to love God with all we are and to love people with His love in our hearts. This is the great resurrection joy for all who know Jesus! Hallelujah?

Let us rejoice all day long in this great resurrection joy!

Pastor Mike