Sunday evening, after all the services, after visiting my mother for dinner, Saundra and I came back to the parsonage and sat down and binged on a favorite television show. After a week of continuous services, we were just tired and zoned out for a bit. And then we slept for almost ten hours. And when we awoke, it was still Easter.
Click here for Audio Sermon
Yes, it is still Easter, for Easter is not just a day, but an entire season for the church. Easter continues until the Day of Pentecost, which is June 9th this year. Easter celebrates the time between the Resurrection and the return of Jesus to Heaven 40 days later, known as the Ascension. Easter is a time for understanding the Resurrection. It is a time to understand why the Resurrection happened, what Resurrection means for us, and what the Resurrection should lead to in our lives.
The disciples gathered together that Sunday evening, most likely in the upper room of the same house they had met for the Passover Supper on Thursday evening. John tells us that they had locked the doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities.
Then Jesus came, stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!”
Having said this, He showed them His hands and His side. So the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
It is not clear how Jesus came into the room. Did He just appear? Did He come through the closed door? Was He in the house before the doors were locked? We don’t know. But we need to notice that Jesus is not a ghost – He speaks to them. And He shows them His hands with the nail holes and His side where the spear had pierced Him.
Luke adds some more detail about this visit to the disciples in Chapter 24 of Luke's Gospel account.
But they were startled and terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost. “Why are you troubled?” He asked them. “And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself! Touch Me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” Having said this, He showed them His hands and feet. But while they still were amazed and unbelieving because of their joy, He asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and He took it and ate in their presence.
It is clear that Jesus was in a physical body – He was not a ghost or spirit. And this has been the conclusion of all of the great church councils of ancient times and more modern respected church theologians such as Luther, Calvin, and Wesley. Jesus’ resurrected body was the same body, repaired and healed – but having the holes from the nails and spear. He wanted them to know that He was real and substantial, with a newly repaired body - what we call a "glorified" body. That’s why he asked for fish – spirits and ghosts don’t get hungry!
John continues with his version of events:
Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
And here we get the first sense of our mission as followers of Jesus, a mission that will be more fully explained over the next forty days.
After saying this, He breathed on them and said,
“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Remember that the original Greek word for Spirit is pneuma, which is the root of our word pneumonia. Pneuma also means breath and wind. So Jesus says to them to “Receive the Holy Breath” when He breathes upon them. The Holy Spirit and the Holy Breath are one and the same. And the disciples have new life from this point onward, for God breathed into Adam’s nostrils and gave Him life back in Genesis. The disciples also now have new life – and the power and guidance that comes from the Holy Spirit.
Yes, it is still Easter, for Easter is not just a day, but an entire season for the church. Easter continues until the Day of Pentecost, which is June 9th this year. Easter celebrates the time between the Resurrection and the return of Jesus to Heaven 40 days later, known as the Ascension. Easter is a time for understanding the Resurrection. It is a time to understand why the Resurrection happened, what Resurrection means for us, and what the Resurrection should lead to in our lives.
Isaiah 65:17-25; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26; John 20:1-18 (Audio Gospel)
On Good Friday we talked of the death of Jesus. Nicodemus, the man who came to talk to Him one night about being born again, brought many pounds of spices and linen, while Joseph of Arimethea donated his own tomb for Jesus’ burial. And Jesus was laid to rest and the tomb sealed.
Last week, we talked about the women going to the tomb, supposedly to remove the temporary linen wraps that had been placed on Jesus’ body in haste Friday afternoon. The women planned to remove the wraps, wash and clean His body, and then re-wrap the body with new linen soaked in spices such as myrrh. Nicodemus had used between 75 and a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes Friday afternoon – which was about a hundred times the amount commonly used, which was a pound or so. Even the highly respected Rabbi Gamaliel, the famous teacher of Saul/Paul, was buried using only about 40 pounds of the very expensive spices, according to the Jewish historian Josephus. But the women brought more on Sunday morning. Such was their respect and Nicodemus' respect for Jesus.
As we know, they found the tomb open and empty. Mary ran and got Peter and John, and they all three ran to the tomb. Peter and John looked in and saw just the linen lying there and went home. Mary hung around, weeping, and finally looked inside to find two angels who asked her why she was crying. “They’ve taken his body!” Turning around, she had a similar exchange with the cemetery gardener, who turned out to be Jesus, healthy, whole, and happy. He gave her a message for the disciples and she ran and told them that she "had seen the Lord! "
In I Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul repeats a very early Christian formula that speaks of the post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus. Paul tells us that after the women, Jesus then appeared to Peter, but we have no details of this appearance. We know from Luke that two disciples walked to the village of Emmaus with Jesus that afternoon. He was strong, healthy, and walked about 6 miles with them. And they didn’t recognize Him until he blessed and broke bread with them towards evening.
John 20:1-18 (Audio Gospel)
On Good Friday we talked of the death of Jesus. Nicodemus, the man who came to talk to Him one night about being born again, brought many pounds of spices and linen, while Joseph of Arimethea donated his own tomb for Jesus’ burial. And Jesus was laid to rest and the tomb sealed.
Last week, we talked about the women going to the tomb, supposedly to remove the temporary linen wraps that had been placed on Jesus’ body in haste Friday afternoon. The women planned to remove the wraps, wash and clean His body, and then re-wrap the body with new linen soaked in spices such as myrrh. Nicodemus had used between 75 and a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes Friday afternoon – which was about a hundred times the amount commonly used, which was a pound or so. Even the highly respected Rabbi Gamaliel, the famous teacher of Saul/Paul, was buried using only about 40 pounds of the very expensive spices, according to the Jewish historian Josephus. But the women brought more on Sunday morning. Such was their respect and Nicodemus' respect for Jesus.
As we know, they found the tomb open and empty. Mary ran and got Peter and John, and they all three ran to the tomb. Peter and John looked in and saw just the linen lying there and went home. Mary hung around, weeping, and finally looked inside to find two angels who asked her why she was crying. “They’ve taken his body!” Turning around, she had a similar exchange with the cemetery gardener, who turned out to be Jesus, healthy, whole, and happy. He gave her a message for the disciples and she ran and told them that she "had seen the Lord! "
In I Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul repeats a very early Christian formula that speaks of the post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus. Paul tells us that after the women, Jesus then appeared to Peter, but we have no details of this appearance. We know from Luke that two disciples walked to the village of Emmaus with Jesus that afternoon. He was strong, healthy, and walked about 6 miles with them. And they didn’t recognize Him until he blessed and broke bread with them towards evening.
John 20:1-18 (Audio Gospel)
The disciples gathered together that Sunday evening, most likely in the upper room of the same house they had met for the Passover Supper on Thursday evening. John tells us that they had locked the doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities.
Then Jesus came, stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!”
Having said this, He showed them His hands and His side. So the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
It is not clear how Jesus came into the room. Did He just appear? Did He come through the closed door? Was He in the house before the doors were locked? We don’t know. But we need to notice that Jesus is not a ghost – He speaks to them. And He shows them His hands with the nail holes and His side where the spear had pierced Him.
Luke adds some more detail about this visit to the disciples in Chapter 24 of Luke's Gospel account.
But they were startled and terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost. “Why are you troubled?” He asked them. “And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself! Touch Me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” Having said this, He showed them His hands and feet. But while they still were amazed and unbelieving because of their joy, He asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and He took it and ate in their presence.
It is clear that Jesus was in a physical body – He was not a ghost or spirit. And this has been the conclusion of all of the great church councils of ancient times and more modern respected church theologians such as Luther, Calvin, and Wesley. Jesus’ resurrected body was the same body, repaired and healed – but having the holes from the nails and spear. He wanted them to know that He was real and substantial, with a newly repaired body - what we call a "glorified" body. That’s why he asked for fish – spirits and ghosts don’t get hungry!
John continues with his version of events:
Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
And here we get the first sense of our mission as followers of Jesus, a mission that will be more fully explained over the next forty days.
After saying this, He breathed on them and said,
“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Remember that the original Greek word for Spirit is pneuma, which is the root of our word pneumonia. Pneuma also means breath and wind. So Jesus says to them to “Receive the Holy Breath” when He breathes upon them. The Holy Spirit and the Holy Breath are one and the same. And the disciples have new life from this point onward, for God breathed into Adam’s nostrils and gave Him life back in Genesis. The disciples also now have new life – and the power and guidance that comes from the Holy Spirit.
Additionally, Jesus tells them they have been delegated the power to forgive sins, crimes that have been committed against God. They have the ability to give grace to people on earth on behalf of God. We have the ability to give grace to people on earth on behalf of God.
Folks, this is an awesome power. Christ gave His disciples – and therefore us, who follow in the disciples’ footsteps, the ability to forgive people of sin, the ability to speak on behalf of God and keep people from hellfire. You and I both have that power if you are a baptized believer. Consider what that means - we have been entrusted by Christ the power to make people right with God, to rescue them from the fire, to grant them the eternal life which is given by Christ.
You will notice that during Holy Communion, the first step in Communion is that we confess our sins before God in a group prayer. And then, I forgive you of your sins in the name of Jesus – and then you forgive me in the name of Jesus. And then we both give glory to God because we have been forgiven. Every time we have Communion, we forgive each other of our sins, we are made right with God once again.
Notice that Jesus also tells the disciples that “if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” That is also an awesome power, not to be misused. For in the Lord’s Prayer, we ask God to “forgive our trespasses as we forgive others.” God wants us to forgive others that all may be saved.
Such tremendous power conferred to people in just a couple of minutes! The ability to help people get right with God. WE have that power! Is it any wonder that the people of the early church were excited about what God and Christ had done?
John continues:
But one of the Twelve, Thomas (called “Twin”), was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples kept telling him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “If I don’t see the mark of the nails in His hands, put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will never believe!”
Poor Thomas. His skepticism has marked him throughout eternity as “doubting Thomas”. But to be fair to him, consider the crowd he’d been with – a group of young men. Could it be possible that these young men had played jokes on each other, had teased each other, had set up each other as young men often do? And if so, wasn’t it awfully easy for Thomas to go with common sense and assume the other disciples were playing him, having a sick prank, pretending that they had all seen Jesus just to have a joke at Thomas’ expense?
Folks, this is an awesome power. Christ gave His disciples – and therefore us, who follow in the disciples’ footsteps, the ability to forgive people of sin, the ability to speak on behalf of God and keep people from hellfire. You and I both have that power if you are a baptized believer. Consider what that means - we have been entrusted by Christ the power to make people right with God, to rescue them from the fire, to grant them the eternal life which is given by Christ.
You will notice that during Holy Communion, the first step in Communion is that we confess our sins before God in a group prayer. And then, I forgive you of your sins in the name of Jesus – and then you forgive me in the name of Jesus. And then we both give glory to God because we have been forgiven. Every time we have Communion, we forgive each other of our sins, we are made right with God once again.
Notice that Jesus also tells the disciples that “if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” That is also an awesome power, not to be misused. For in the Lord’s Prayer, we ask God to “forgive our trespasses as we forgive others.” God wants us to forgive others that all may be saved.
Such tremendous power conferred to people in just a couple of minutes! The ability to help people get right with God. WE have that power! Is it any wonder that the people of the early church were excited about what God and Christ had done?
John continues:
But one of the Twelve, Thomas (called “Twin”), was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples kept telling him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “If I don’t see the mark of the nails in His hands, put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will never believe!”
Poor Thomas. His skepticism has marked him throughout eternity as “doubting Thomas”. But to be fair to him, consider the crowd he’d been with – a group of young men. Could it be possible that these young men had played jokes on each other, had teased each other, had set up each other as young men often do? And if so, wasn’t it awfully easy for Thomas to go with common sense and assume the other disciples were playing him, having a sick prank, pretending that they had all seen Jesus just to have a joke at Thomas’ expense?
After all, what would you think if your friends told you that a mutual friend that you had seen die and buried had come back to life? Wouldn’t it be easier to think your friends were playing a sick prank than to believe without any other proof? Be careful which jokes you pull on your friends – you may keep them from eternal salvation! Imagine if Thomas had decided not to come back to be with the other disciples a week later because of what he thought was a sick prank! Imagine if your friends decide they cannot trust you!
After eight days His disciples were indoors again, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace to you!”
Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and observe My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Don’t be an unbeliever, but a believer.”
Thomas responded to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed? Those who believe without seeing are blessed.”
And so Thomas got his proof. Jesus was alive – not a ghost, not a prank, not a spirit, but a truly alive man with a real body. In Luke’s gospel, between the morning and the evening appearances, Jesus takes a walk to the nearby village of Emmaus, walking with Cleopus and another disciple – and they don’t recognize Him until they sit down to have dinner with Him and He breaks bread with them and disappears. Clearly, our new body is somehow changed in appearance from our old body – could it be that we are younger, stronger, cleaned up, having that body that we’ve always dreamed of? Or could it be that all the stress had been removed from Jesus that day, that He had showered, washed His hair, put on clean clothes? You've seen how your friends' appearances change when stress is removed. Jesus looked different that day.
I used to think – "Wow! I could have a twenty-year old body again!" Now, I’d be wonderfully happy with a forty year old body.
We know this fact from the Book of Revelation – when Jesus returns, His hair will be white, but he will be in fit and trim condition, riding a horse. So is white hair merely a mark of old age, the gradual deterioration of the body? Or is white hair a marker of great wisdom? It is something to consider.
John concludes:
Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name.
John wrote his gospel so we "might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God." It is interesting that John apparently had already read Mark and Matthew and Luke, but felt it necessary to write his own account of Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection, an account that is organized differently, an account that almost assumes you have read one of the other three Gospels. But perhaps the key is when John identifies himself as “the disciple Jesus loved”.
It is clear that John felt that he was Jesus’ best friend. And most people think that John’s gospel is the deepest of the four gospels, the most well constructed from a literary standpoint, the most heart felt. Matthew wrote for a Jewish audience, people who already understood the Old Testament. Mark wrote for the Romans – emphasizing action and power. Luke prepared the thoughtful, comprehensive complete account after carefully interviewing disciples and Jesus’ mother Mary - if they had existed in Luke's day, he might have received a Pulitzer Prize. But John wrote as a close friend speaking directly to us, clearly with help from the Holy Spirit, with a strong purpose in mind, “by believing you may have life in His name.”
Jesus’ Resurrection is the pattern for our future resurrections. It shows us how we will have life again. We see that we have a body, we do not turn into angels with harps, we don’t flit about Heaven as spirits. Those are heresies, false teachings that were settled over 1500 years ago by the ancient church councils, but they keep appearing in our movies, in non-Christian writings, in science fiction, in the writings of the Christian Scientists and the Scientologists, the Hindu religion, the Buddhist views. They are not Christian belief – but they make good visuals, good CGI, in movies. Movies made by people who are not yet Christians. Our destiny is much better than becoming a spirit or an angel. For we will not be ghosts, but real people, living in a solid world – but living for eternity.
For the apostle Paul, and John writing again in Revelation makes clear that we are not destined for Heaven where God is today, because the old Heaven and the old earth will pass away. We end up on the new earth that God recreates, living in the wonderful city of New Jerusalem in our new bodies - like our old bodies but strong, healthy, and “incorruptible”. We don’t wear out, we don’t have weak hearts, bad kidneys, leathery wrinkled skin, bad knees. We have bodies that last forever instead of deteriorating and die. We shall walk in a physical body beside the tree of life, pick from its fruit which grows twelve crops a year, drinking the water of life, getting our light directly from God the Father and the Son who rules directly in New Jerusalem as king of the entire earth.
The Apostle John wrote in Revelation 21 these words:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea no longer existed. I also saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
“Then I heard a loud voice from the throne:
Look! God’s dwelling is with humanity, and He will live with them.
They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer,
because the previous things have passed away.
Then the One seated on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give water as a gift to the thirsty from the spring of life. The victor will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.”
I urge you to read the end of the Bible this week, beginning with Revelation Chapter 20.
Where before we believed that stuff was critically important, we now realize that nothing is important, nothing at all, except that we and the people we love come to know and follow Jesus Christ, for in a few hundred years nothing else will matter.
Friends, there are many times in our life here on earth when all seems lost, when the bills stack up, when the doctor’s reports are poor, when relationships fall apart, when people are just plain mean and nasty to us, when it seems like we have nothing left to live for.
But the Resurrection of Jesus Christ tells us that we have hope:
After eight days His disciples were indoors again, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace to you!”
Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and observe My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Don’t be an unbeliever, but a believer.”
Thomas responded to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed? Those who believe without seeing are blessed.”
And so Thomas got his proof. Jesus was alive – not a ghost, not a prank, not a spirit, but a truly alive man with a real body. In Luke’s gospel, between the morning and the evening appearances, Jesus takes a walk to the nearby village of Emmaus, walking with Cleopus and another disciple – and they don’t recognize Him until they sit down to have dinner with Him and He breaks bread with them and disappears. Clearly, our new body is somehow changed in appearance from our old body – could it be that we are younger, stronger, cleaned up, having that body that we’ve always dreamed of? Or could it be that all the stress had been removed from Jesus that day, that He had showered, washed His hair, put on clean clothes? You've seen how your friends' appearances change when stress is removed. Jesus looked different that day.
I used to think – "Wow! I could have a twenty-year old body again!" Now, I’d be wonderfully happy with a forty year old body.
We know this fact from the Book of Revelation – when Jesus returns, His hair will be white, but he will be in fit and trim condition, riding a horse. So is white hair merely a mark of old age, the gradual deterioration of the body? Or is white hair a marker of great wisdom? It is something to consider.
John concludes:
Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name.
John wrote his gospel so we "might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God." It is interesting that John apparently had already read Mark and Matthew and Luke, but felt it necessary to write his own account of Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection, an account that is organized differently, an account that almost assumes you have read one of the other three Gospels. But perhaps the key is when John identifies himself as “the disciple Jesus loved”.
It is clear that John felt that he was Jesus’ best friend. And most people think that John’s gospel is the deepest of the four gospels, the most well constructed from a literary standpoint, the most heart felt. Matthew wrote for a Jewish audience, people who already understood the Old Testament. Mark wrote for the Romans – emphasizing action and power. Luke prepared the thoughtful, comprehensive complete account after carefully interviewing disciples and Jesus’ mother Mary - if they had existed in Luke's day, he might have received a Pulitzer Prize. But John wrote as a close friend speaking directly to us, clearly with help from the Holy Spirit, with a strong purpose in mind, “by believing you may have life in His name.”
Jesus’ Resurrection is the pattern for our future resurrections. It shows us how we will have life again. We see that we have a body, we do not turn into angels with harps, we don’t flit about Heaven as spirits. Those are heresies, false teachings that were settled over 1500 years ago by the ancient church councils, but they keep appearing in our movies, in non-Christian writings, in science fiction, in the writings of the Christian Scientists and the Scientologists, the Hindu religion, the Buddhist views. They are not Christian belief – but they make good visuals, good CGI, in movies. Movies made by people who are not yet Christians. Our destiny is much better than becoming a spirit or an angel. For we will not be ghosts, but real people, living in a solid world – but living for eternity.
For the apostle Paul, and John writing again in Revelation makes clear that we are not destined for Heaven where God is today, because the old Heaven and the old earth will pass away. We end up on the new earth that God recreates, living in the wonderful city of New Jerusalem in our new bodies - like our old bodies but strong, healthy, and “incorruptible”. We don’t wear out, we don’t have weak hearts, bad kidneys, leathery wrinkled skin, bad knees. We have bodies that last forever instead of deteriorating and die. We shall walk in a physical body beside the tree of life, pick from its fruit which grows twelve crops a year, drinking the water of life, getting our light directly from God the Father and the Son who rules directly in New Jerusalem as king of the entire earth.
The Apostle John wrote in Revelation 21 these words:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea no longer existed. I also saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
“Then I heard a loud voice from the throne:
Look! God’s dwelling is with humanity, and He will live with them.
They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer,
because the previous things have passed away.
Then the One seated on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give water as a gift to the thirsty from the spring of life. The victor will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.”
I urge you to read the end of the Bible this week, beginning with Revelation Chapter 20.
Where before we believed that stuff was critically important, we now realize that nothing is important, nothing at all, except that we and the people we love come to know and follow Jesus Christ, for in a few hundred years nothing else will matter.
Friends, there are many times in our life here on earth when all seems lost, when the bills stack up, when the doctor’s reports are poor, when relationships fall apart, when people are just plain mean and nasty to us, when it seems like we have nothing left to live for.
But the Resurrection of Jesus Christ tells us that we have hope:
- Where before we thought that we live a few years and then we die – now we know that we shall live forever.
- Where before we thought that everything that happens to us on a daily basis is so very important, the traffic jam is so frustrating, the details of what our employer pays us and how he makes us work are so very important, the actions of our Congress and our legislature are so earth shattering important – now we realize that nothing they do will really be important in ten thousand years, and so we can relax.
- Where before we believed that stuff was critically important, we now realize that nothing is important, nothing at all, except that we and the people we love come to know and follow Jesus Christ, for in a few hundred years nothing else will matter.
You see, when we know we can live forever, nothing that happens this week, this month, this year, even this decade or this century has any lasting importance, except whether or not we have helped ourselves and others find the key to eternal life.
This body we have will gradually fail us or quickly be destroyed, and then it will turn to dust. But at our resurrection, we will gain a new, glorified body that will never fail us and will never be destroyed. It is a difficult thing for us to understand, but we are not spirit beings – our spirit is what gives life to our bodies. And our natural spirit cannot give life for long – a hundred years or so. But the Holy Spirit of God has existed since the beginning, and can give life to our bodies for eternity, endlessly repairing them, removing the problems of age, clearing the cobwebs that form in our minds, giving us the energy that will allow us to walk miles every day, to personally build mansions, to take the time to learn anything we want to learn, to spend a year binge-watching Bonanza if we want – and recognizing that we have not wasted any time, any time at all, for there is still just as much time to come as there ever was.
It is still Easter. Easter isn’t a day as the world thinks. Easter isn’t even an entire seven-week season as most of the church believes. Easter is something that started almost 2000 years ago and will continue until the end of time, for when Jesus was Resurrected, Easter began. And one day, even though pastors and people often move about, even though friends drift apart, even though death may temporarily come between us – we will walk together by the tree of life in New Jerusalem as if it were a warm summer’s evening, talking about old times, the people we’ve know, and the great sacrifice that Jesus made that allows us to be together once more. Hallelujah! Christ is Risen!
- Does it matter eternally if your child succeeds at baseball or mathematics? No, but it does matter if they choose to follow Christ.
- Does it matter eternally if your husband or wife gets the promotion at work? No, but it does matter if they are followers of Christ.
- Does it matter eternally if you see the latest ballgame or the newest movie or the next episode of a television show? Does it matter eternally who is elected in the next election? Does it make any difference eternally whether or not you die at age 40 or at age 90? It only matters for your ability and time to lead yourself and others to follow Christ, for the single most important thing a person can do for another is to lead them to follow Christ.
This body we have will gradually fail us or quickly be destroyed, and then it will turn to dust. But at our resurrection, we will gain a new, glorified body that will never fail us and will never be destroyed. It is a difficult thing for us to understand, but we are not spirit beings – our spirit is what gives life to our bodies. And our natural spirit cannot give life for long – a hundred years or so. But the Holy Spirit of God has existed since the beginning, and can give life to our bodies for eternity, endlessly repairing them, removing the problems of age, clearing the cobwebs that form in our minds, giving us the energy that will allow us to walk miles every day, to personally build mansions, to take the time to learn anything we want to learn, to spend a year binge-watching Bonanza if we want – and recognizing that we have not wasted any time, any time at all, for there is still just as much time to come as there ever was.
It is still Easter. Easter isn’t a day as the world thinks. Easter isn’t even an entire seven-week season as most of the church believes. Easter is something that started almost 2000 years ago and will continue until the end of time, for when Jesus was Resurrected, Easter began. And one day, even though pastors and people often move about, even though friends drift apart, even though death may temporarily come between us – we will walk together by the tree of life in New Jerusalem as if it were a warm summer’s evening, talking about old times, the people we’ve know, and the great sacrifice that Jesus made that allows us to be together once more. Hallelujah! Christ is Risen!
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