Spoken
Word no. 152
What
the Resurrection Means to Me
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
April 4,
2010
This morning the Easter Message will be preached from
many a pulpit across the world, and there will be as many different approaches
to this Doctrine as there are pulpits. I am afraid that most of them will
bypass the Truth of the Resurrection and will present a social Gospel version
that will not bring forth any change in those that hear it. For there has been
2,000 years of the preaching of the Cross and the Raising of the Man Christ
Jesus, and yet the world continues to fall further and further into sin, until
the Light of the Glorious Gospel is all but gone out, and darkness, gross
darkness covers the earth.
And why is this? Does not the Word of God and its glorious
revelation of the Risen Christ have power above darkness? Yes, this is true,
and it does, but it is also written, many are called but few are chosen, and great is the way,
but narrow is the path, and few there be that find it.
I believe that the Easter Message in most pulpits this
morning will completely miss the fact that the resurrected Christ is alive
today and is here working in the midst of the people once again showing Himself
to be the same yesterday today and forever. But most will focus on what is to
them a story of something that took place 2,000 years ago, and there will be no
evidence in their sermons of a real presence of the resurrected one in their
midst, but just the same story that has been repeated for 2,000 years now and
the hope of that story has all but faded with the memory of it.
As William Branham always said, “Man is are always looking back, and always
looking forward but he fails to see what God is doing in the age that he
lives.”
Therefore this morning I would like to examine the
resurrection of Christ and ask you what does it mean to you this morning. Is it
just a story that took place according to this Book we call the Bible? Is it
because you have read what some witnesses wrote 2,000 years ago? Then if so,
how do you know today that He’s still alive? Or is it more than just a story to
you. Is it because your life has been affected by the personal presence of the
resurrected Christ Himself, and you have personally become witness to the
Resurrection power and presence in your own life? And thus you have become a
witness yourself of His Personal Presence with us this morning. We are not
talking about the psychological effect of a belief system, and your personal
commitment to that belief system, because the Muslem’s show more commitment tot
heir belief system and they have no hope of a resurrection. Its not even their
language. They simply have a place where they believe they go called heaven
where they will have 72 virgins and a very carnal future awaiting them. That is not what I am talking about. The
world is full of those psychological hopes.. But I am talking to you about an
awareness that comes from personal contact and personal communion with the
resurrected Christ, Himself.
For the question I am presenting to you this morning
is this. What does the resurrection mean to you. Is your answer based on what
it meant to others, or what it personally means to you. Is your answer based on
the experience and witness of others or is it based on your own personal
experience with the resurrected Christ. Now, many talk about what Christ did
do, but what are they saying concerning what He is here now doing? They look forward to the Coming of the Lord
but have failed to recognize the Appearing of the Lord that comes before the
Coming.
And yet I am afraid that most people who claim to
believe in the literal Second coming of Christ do not really look forward to
that time with great anticipation. I have a friend that I would say is a very
good Baptist, and he will admit that he is looking forward to that day, but
just hopes it does not come too soon, because there are still things he wants
to do before he comes. Now, I ask the question, is that then looking forward to
that Great day, or is it dreading that day coming too soon? What does this
world have to offer in its corrupted state that the new heaven and the new
earth will not have even better? Do they even understand that we do not stay in
some elevated place called heaven but that we come back to earth in a
resurrected body that is glorified and young and full of life again?
And so the question then in their mind is, what really
will the resurrection do for me that I can not do now? And so their minds have
become clouded to the hope of our calling. Now, this is not just a 20th
century question, for the Apostle Paul spoke of this question even in his day.
I Corinthians
15:12 ¶ Now if Christ be
preached that he rose from the dead, how
say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead,
then is Christ not risen: (Now,
The resurrection is not just about what took place when God raised up our Lord
Jesus Christ. It’s about how that event is to affect you and me personally. If
God raised up His First Born Son, then He must raise up all His Sons.) 14 And if
Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
Why? Because the hope of mankind is based on the fact
that Jesus was a first fruit of the resurrection, and therefore there is hope
for us. And not only Hope, but the Same God and Father who made a promise to One
Son Jesus to raise Him from the dead has also made the same promise to His
other sons to raise us as well, and to live forever more. That is why Paul
could say, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet it is not I that is living but Christ is living in me, and the Life
I now live in this flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God…Not my faith,
but I live by his faith. We all have the same promise by the same father, yet
it was the firstborn who se faith so entered into that promise that he became
the first fruit showing us the promise is for the taking.)
14 And if
Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.15
Yea, and we are found false witnesses
of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he
raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. 16 For if the dead rise not,
then is not Christ raised: 17 And if
Christ be not raised, your faith [is] vain; ye are yet in your sins.
18 Then
they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
Now, there is the answer to the question I posed to
you. If Christ be not risen than we also have no hope. And then in the next
verse the Apostle Paul answers my friends question.
19 If in this life only we have hope in
Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 20 ¶ But
now is Christ risen from the dead, [and] become the firstfruits of them that
slept. (That means he was just
the beginning, and there is hope because of God’s Own promise that we also will
partake of the resurrection.)
21
For since by man [came] death, by man [came] also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (Now, you may not have caught what Paul was saying here, but let me
read it again to you more slowly.) even so IN Christ shall all be made alive 23 But
every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are
Christ's at his coming.
Now, here is our hope. He said Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his Parousia,
and that is now. We are now experiencing the appearing of the Lord which get’s
us ready for the coming. For Paul continues by saying,
24
Then cometh the end, (after theParousia
takes place, then cometh the end...) when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the
Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 25
For he (God) must reign, till he (God) hath put all enemies under his (the
son of God’s)
feet. 26 The last enemy [that] shall be destroyed [is] death. 27 For he(God) hath put all things
under his (the Son of God’s) feet. But when he (God) saith all things are put under him (The
Son of God), it
is manifest that he (God) is excepted, which did put all things under him (the
Son of God). 28
And when all things shall be subdued unto him (the son of God), then shall the Son
also himself be subject unto him (God) that put all things under him (The
Son of God), that
God may be all in all.
Therefore my question to you remains this. What does
the resurrection mean personally to you? It means that you also have a promise
from God that you will be raised from the dead even as God fulfilled the
raising of His First born Son from the dead.
Now, that leads us to another question. If God is to
raise us up from the dead, then in what form will we be raised up from the
dead? And I believe it is because men do not understand this question is why
they do not really long for the resurrection and catching away. It is because
they are afraid of what they might get for a body. And they are not sure that
they will like that body. God made the earth for us to dwell on the earth
thorough out an eternity future. And to answer this question as to how we come
back the Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
I Corinthians
15:35 ¶ But some [man] will say, How are the dead
raised up? and with what body do they come? (You see, there is that same question.)36 [Thou] fool, that which thou sowest is not
quickened, except it die: (Now, he is talking about sowing a reaping
here and he is talking about the body) 37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may
chance of wheat, or of some other grain: 38 But God giveth it a body as it hath
pleased him, and to every seed his own
body. 39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of
men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
Therefore you do not have to worry about coming back
as a bird of some other animal like the Hindu people do. You go down as a man
you come back as a man.
40
There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the
celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one
glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the
stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. 42 So also [is] the resurrection of the dead.
It is sown in corruption; it is raised
in incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in
glory: it is sown in weakness; it is
raised in power: 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a
spiritual body. There is a natural
body, and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is written, The first man
Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Paul is telling us here that we have a natural Body
and a spirit body. When the seed goes into the ground, it has to lie there and
rot in order for the life that is in it to be released from its natural body or
husk or shell. But once that spirit body is released from its dried up husk,
the life begins to bring forth another body in the same image of the one that
went into the earthly grave, only one that is not all dried out and old, but
one that is new and full of life.
46
Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and
afterward that which is spiritual. 47 The first man [is] of the earth, earthy:
the second man [is] the Lord from heaven. 48
As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the
heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the
image of the earthy, we shall also bear
the image of the heavenly.
Now, Paul tells us that just as we have born the image
of earthly carnage men sold under sin because of the fall in the garden, so too
shall we receive a body that is incorruptible, which is not born by a sexual
desire but from the Spoken Word Promise of God.
50
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
Now, If we were to come up in a body that is old and
worn out, what kind of a life would that be to live in that condition for an
eternity? And He is telling us the body that goes into the grave will come back
but it will be changed. For if we came back with another body, that would not
resurrection, that would be replacement. But we will come back with our own body
that went into the ground, but it will be a changed body, incorruptible, and
immortal, which means it will be of such a nature that it will never grow old
again, nor weaken from any outside influence upon it.
54
So when this corruptible shall have put
on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall
be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in
victory. 55 O death, where [is] thy sting? O grave, where [is] thy victory? 56
The sting of death [is] sin; and the strength of sin [is] the law. 57 But
thanks [be] to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 ¶ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be
ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as
ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
Now, concerning the body that we come back with. We
all know that when Jesus was raised from the dead the brethren did not
recognize Him. And why is that? Because
when Jesus died he was only about 33 years old, but because of the rigor and
strain of the ministry he appeared to be around 50 years old. John 8:57Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years
old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
In the Book of John, we have a witness who had first
hand experience of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And in his
telling us of the happenings surrounding the resurrection from the dead, we
find that no one recognized Him from his looks but it was the things he did and
said that they were able to recognize him from.
John
20:1 ¶ The first [day] of
the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre,
and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. 2 Then she runneth, and
cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith
unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not
where they have laid him. 3 Peter therefore went forth, and that other
disciple, and came to the sepulchre. 4 So they ran both together: and the other
disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. 5 And he stooping
down, [and looking in], saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. 6 Then
cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the
linen clothes lie, 7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with
the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. 8 Then went in
also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and
believed. 9 For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again
from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. 11
¶ But Mary stood without at the
sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, [and looked] into the
sepulchre, 12 And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and
the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13 And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest
thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not
where they have laid him. 14 And when she had thus said, she turned herself
back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus saith
unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me
where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
Now, here lays two clues as to the image that Jesus
was showing here. Number one he appeared to be young like a gardener would be.
And two he appeared to be strong and full of health in order to be able to
carry away the body.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned
herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. 17 Jesus saith
unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I
ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and [to] my God, and your God. 18
Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that
he had spoken these things unto her. 19 ¶
Then the same day at evening,
being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples
were assembled for fear of the Jews, came
Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
Several time more Jesus appeared to them and they did
not recognize him. He appeared to the brethren while they were fishing, and
broke bread with them. He appeared to them on their road to Emmaus, and in all
cases they did not recognize him until he did something or said something that
identified who he was.
Let’s look now for another example of this in the old
Testament, for if we believe that God changes not and that He is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. Then what he did back then, He is obligated to
do the same today.
Joel
1:1 ¶ The word of the
LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. 2 Hear this, ye old men, and give
ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in
the days of your fathers? 3 Tell ye your children of it, and [let] your
children [tell] their children, and their children another generation. 4 That
which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust
hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left
hath the caterpiller eaten.
JOEL
2:25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the
cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent
among you. 26 And ye shall eat in
plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath
dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. 27 And ye
shall know that I [am] in the midst of
Resurrection is not about receiving another body, but
the same body restored back to the fullness of life.
Not only did God restore Abraham and Sarah back to youthful
bodies, but he also gave Sarah ability to receive seed and bring forth from her
womb, life as well. So we are looking at restoration as not only bringing you
back to the age of vitality, and energy, but it also speaks of restoring
everything, including your health. And then in chapter 20 we find Abraham and
Sarah journeying into the
Why do you think the 1st Resurrection took
place in the Spring-time? Because God is the God of the Resurrection, and all
of creation testifies to the resurrecting power of our God and Father. Spring
is when the grass comes up, and the trees come up and the flowers come up and
all life comes back from the shallow grave of the Winter snow. Up, and living,
up and living, up and living pops up every seed that went into the ground and
was buried there for a season.
Brother,
botany doesn’t only mean flowers and things, it means resurrection too. Just as
the springtime, when the Easter flowers are blooming, everything's so pretty, a
very type of nature; resurrection has to come in the spring. That's the reason
the resurrection is in springtime. Resurrection of everything, and surely the
King of nature resurrected, the Creator of nature, resurrected with the rest of
the resurrection of nature.
And if God changes not, then the resurrection we shall
experience in this hour must also come in the spring. Now, I am not limiting
what God can do, but God has shown Himself to be the Same yesterday, today and
forever. Therefore, why would he change what He has already established
throughout all of creation.
And the resurrection doesn’t bring you back in an old
worn-out body? It brings you back at your best. What a cruel god the would be
if he brought you back in this same old worn out body. Could you imagine nature
bringing forth broken old trees with the bark peeling off to begin with, and
the leaves drying up to begin with, and the fruit withering before it has a
chance to come forth? That wouldn’t be a spring time? That would be a time of
horror. But resurrection is to bring up from the dead, into a condition that is
new and youthful and full of expectation, and vitality and energy, and just
brimming full of life.
Psalms
104:29 Thou hidest thy face,
they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their
dust. 30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the
face of the earth. 31 ¶ The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever:
the LORD shall rejoice in his works.
Psalms
51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit
within me.
Isaiah
40:31 31
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint. 41:1
¶ Keep silence before me, O islands; and
let the people renew [their] strength: let them come near; then let them speak:
let us come near together to judgment.
Lamentations 5:21 Turn
thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. That
speaks of bringing us back to the times when we were young again.
Our promise is a change of the body from old to youth
again like Abraham and Sarah and Jesus Himself who appeared to be old and yet
when He rose from the grave they did not recognize Him for he appeared as a
young man to them at the grave.
The outer man is perishing but the inner man is
renewed daily.
He was risen from the dead for our justification. You
say, I thought He died for our justification. NO! he died that your sins might
be covered under his Precious blood, and that your sinful life might be atoned
for. But He rose that you might have justification because to be justified
means as though you never did do it, and when He rose again for our
justification it brought back His Spirit upon the believer and quickened us by
the same spirit that was in Him, and has made us new creatures in Christ Jesus.
Matthew
22:31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not
read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 32 I am the God of Abraham,
and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but
of the living.
Mathhew
27:50 ¶ Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud
voice, yielded up the ghost. 51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in
twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy
city, and appeared unto many.
Psalms
103:2 Bless the LORD, O my
soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; 4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;
who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; 5 Who satisfieth thy
mouth with good [things; so that] thy
youth is renewed like the eagle's.
The Resurrection is a
living hope I Peter 1:3 ¶ Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto
a lively hope (Wuest: a
Hope that has been made alive) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Acts
1:1 ¶ The former treatise
have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2
Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost
had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: 3 To whom also he
shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of
them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
Romans
6:3 Know ye not, that so
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore
we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in
newness of life.
I
John 3:1 ¶
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because
it knew him not. 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet
appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be
like him; for we shall see him as he is.
II
Corinthians 3:12 ¶
Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: 13
And not as Moses, [which] put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel
could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: 14 But their
minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in
the reading of the old testament; which [vail] is done away in Christ. 15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read,
the vail is upon their heart. 16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord,
the vail shall be taken away. 17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the
Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is] liberty. 18 But we all, with open face
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image
from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord.
I Corinthians
13:9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect is come,
then that which is in part shall be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spake
as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a
man, I put away childish things. 12
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I
know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
Colossians
3:1¶ If ye then be risen
with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the
right hand of God. 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the
earth. 3 For ye are dead, and your
life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When
Christ, [who is] our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in
glory.
Ephesians
2:1 ¶ And you [hath he quickened], who were dead in
trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that
now worketh in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts
of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by
nature the children of wrath, even as others. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath
raised [us] up together, and made [us] sit together in heavenly [places] in
Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of
his grace in [his] kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are
ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: 9
Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them.
Colossians
2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with
him through the faith of the operation
of God, who hath raised him from the dead. 13 ¶ And
you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he
quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14 Blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to
us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15 And having spoiled
principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them
in it.
John 11:25 Jesus
said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 26 And
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
Acts 4:33 And
with great power gave the apostles
witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon
them all.
II
Corinthians 4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our
outward man perish, yet the inward [man]
is renewed day by day.
Ephesians
4:22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old
man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in
the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is
created in righteousness and true holiness.
Colossians3:9
Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of him that created him:
Romans
12:1 ¶ I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of
your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect,
will of God.
Titus
3:4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour
toward man appeared, 5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and
renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6 Which he
shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7 That being justified
by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Now
the question is no longer whether there be a resurrection. That was already
proved when God raised up His Son. But the real question now, for each of us
here this morning is what resurrection awaits us?
John 5:26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so
hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; 27 And hath given him authority to execute
judgment also, because he is the Son of man. 28
Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in
the graves shall hear his voice, 29 And shall come forth; they that have done
good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation.
What does Easter mean to you this morning? That God
keeps His Promises? Or is it still just a social tradition. What did
Resurrection mean to Jesus, the Son of God? It meant everything to Him. It meant
that God raise Him up after He went to the cross. It meant that God would not
let one Word of His fall short, but will bring to pass whatsoever He has
promised.
Paul said in Acts 17:28 For in him we live,
and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For
we are also his offspring. 29 Forasmuch
then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is
like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. 30 And the times of this ignorance God winked
at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31Because he hath
appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
[that] man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all
[men], in that he hath raised him from the dead. 32 ¶ And when they heard of the resurrection of
the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
What will you do this morning? What will your decision
be this morning? Will you accept the promise of Eternal Life and a change of
the body? Or will you continue on in your traditions. Let’s just bow our heads and our hearts in word of
prayer...