Happy Easter my dear friends,
I would like to share with you a letter that was sent to me many years ago from a dear friend Harold Rogers. It inspires me so much, I read it every Easter. I hope you will be similarly blessed and inspired.
I like your alliteration pastor, but have tried going ‘Acrostic?’.
Over 30 years ago I put together the undermentioned outline and have added various substance to it as the need has arisen. I offer my example as much as a testimony as a challenge to readers to use their own word or words for ’Easter’. “Have a go”, as Wilfred Pickles used to say. You will find it stimulating as well as rewarding.
There may be many religions, but there is only one with a cross and a crucified Saviour.
Empty Tomb. The sepulchre was stoned, sealed, and soldiered!
The disciples were depressed, disappointed, and defeated.
But thank God for His messengers. An angel delivered the early morning women visitors to the tomb with “He is risen; He is not here”.
The empty tomb proves Christianity, but an empty church denies it.
Amazing Love. I’ve borrowed these 2 words from the hymn ‘And can it be?’ It is love beyond our understanding and deserving. In Jesus’s’ day the people were fickle, and we are no different. On the first Palm Sunday they cried “Hail Him!” and then on Good Friday, “Nail Him!”.
Someone has rightly observed, “We may go to Hell unsaved, but not unloved”.
Salvation Available. Towards the end of his life, the great Baptist preacher C.H. Spurgeon said, “My brethren, my theology has become very simple. It consists of just 4 words: “Jesus died for me”.
Concerning the death of Christ, a preacher said, “Praise God, the work is finished, the price is paid. The coin of our redemption has been minted in the blood which streamed from Immanuel’s veins. Justice is satisfied; God the Son is crucified; the sinner justified; and thank God the Devil terrified”.
Triumphant Christ. The embalmed remains of Lenin lie in a crystal casket in a tomb in Red Square, Moscow. On the casket it says ‘He was the greatest leader of all peoples, of all countries, of all times. He was the lord of the new humanity. He was the saviour of the world’ Did you notice all was in the past tense for Lenin. How forward looking, by contrast are the triumphant words of Christ: I am he that liveth, I am alive for evermore. When he died, few men mourned, but God hung a black shadow over the sun. Though men did not tremble for their sins, the earth shook under the load. Sin never touched Him. Death could not hold Him. The soil that had been reddened with His blood could not claim His dust! Hallelujah.
Eternal Life. I have read ‘That millions are spent on medicine to keep our bodies from perishing; on sprays and chemicals to keep plants from perishing; on locks to keep our valuables from perishing; on emergency equipment to keep airborne and seaborne passengers from perishing; on coffins to keep us from perishing’. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; And I give them eternal life; and they shall never perish”.
Returning Lord. When Jesus ascended into heaven (Acts 1: 9-11), remember this, we haven’t seen the last of Him. It has been estimated that 1 in every 25 verses in the New Testament refers to the coming again of Jesus. I personally believe He will return suddenly, certainly, and soon. He came the first time in a manger. He will come the second time in majesty.
His Promise: “I go to prepare a place for you . . . . I will come again”.
His Purpose: To receive Christians who will live with Him for ever.
What about our Preparedness? If you can agree with me ‘What Easter means to me’, you are well on your way and properly prepared for that great Day.
Someone has said, ‘Live as if Christ died yesterday, rose this morning, and was coming back tomorrow’.
I close my article with the words of a poem:
What has the empty sepulchre to say to you and me?
It tells us that the Saviour’s death has set his people free;
He died, our sins upon Him laid, He rose, because the debt was paid.