April 2011 Baptist Light Newsletter

Dear Friends, Life-changing. There are many, many words that can be used to describe what Easter means for us, words such as transformative, redemptive,and so forth. But the word that comes to mind for me today is “Life-changing.” We as Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead. On Good Friday he died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. On the evening of Good Friday, on Saturday, and on early Sunday morning, He lay in the tomb. He was dead. No one believed that would change. Yet early in the morning on the day we call Easter Sunday, Jesus rose from the dead. The apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 these words: I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. Unbelievable! Can we even begin to grasp that fact? Jesus who died, rose again from the dead! Now it could very well be that the resurrection no longer impresses us, for we know all about it. But think of it this way – who do you know that has risen from the dead? After Jesus rose from the dead, he went to visit his disciples. It took awhile for some of them to believe, like Thomas, who wanted to place his fingers and hands in Jesus’ wounds first. But once they believed that Jesus had risen from the dead, they were changed. Jesus’ resurrection was Life-changing for them! The scriptures tell a few of the stories of what happened with the disciples. For example, Peter preached a tremendous sermon at Pentecost some fifty days later, that lead to the conversion of over 3000 people. He also became a leader in the early church, and was imprisoned for his faith in Christ. This doesn’t sound at all like the Peter we read about in the gospels. Philip went about sharing the Good News of Jesus, despite the threat of persecution that many were facing. James, we’re told, was killed with a sword by King Herod, because he was a follower of Jesus. Other stories of the disciples, not in the Bible, inform us that all but John were murdered for their faith in Jesus. Life-changing? You bet! Why else would anyone go to foreign lands (as many of them did), put up with being persecuted for their faith, and even be willing to die for their faith in Jesus? Life-changing. That’s what faith in Jesus is all about. It’s not just about the resurrection, as important as that is. It’s about what the truth of the resurrection does in us. It has the power to be Life-changing for us – to be something that affects the ways we live, the values we choose. Let us allow the fact of the resurrection, and the hope of our own future resurrection, be Life-changing. Happy Easter, Pastor Jim