He is dead.\u00a0 How discouraged and saddened His followers must have been over the events of the past week.\u00a0 They were afraid and in hiding (Matt 26:56).\u00a0 Two of them openly admitted to their feelings of lost hope because of His crucifixion (Luke 23:13-21).\u00a0\u00a0 Those who crucified Him were taking no chances.\u00a0 They sealed His tomb and posted a Roman guard.\u00a0 After all, they believed He was a fraud.\u00a0 They also believed that His followers would come and take His body and then make wild claims (Matt 27:62-66).<\/p>\n
Then on Sunday the news that He was alive began to circulate.\u00a0 Jesus has risen!\u00a0 The eyewitness testimony was quickly coming forward.\u00a0 Even the Roman soldiers who guarded the tomb testified that it was true (Matt 28:11-15).\u00a0 Could this really be true?\u00a0 Did Jesus actually rise from the dead?\u00a0 Peter and John heard that maybe Jesus\u2019 body was stolen.\u00a0\u00a0They did not trust those who had crucified Jesus.\u00a0 They ran to the tomb to see for themselves.\u00a0 John was so full of adrenalin that he left Peter in his dust, getting to the tomb first.\u00a0 After inspecting the evidence, they believed that Jesus\u2019 body was not stolen.\u00a0 He had indeed risen from the dead (John 20:1-9).<\/p>\n
Jesus would present Himself to over 500 witnesses (1 Cor. 15:6).\u00a0 He talked with them (Luke 24:13-27).\u00a0 He let them touch Him (John 20:26-29).\u00a0 He even cooked them a meal and ate with them (John 21:9-14).\u00a0 Over time His disciples remembered that Jesus said He would die and rise again on the third day (Luke 9:22).\u00a0 Why is the truth of Jesus\u2019 resurrection so exciting and important?<\/p>\n
Real hope is found only in a living Savior (1 Cor. 15:16-22).\u00a0 His resurrection proves that Jesus is God (Rom 1:4).\u00a0 It proves that sins are truly forgiven through faith in Christ (1 Cor.15:1-4).\u00a0 It proves that He did usher in peace between God and man (1 Cor. 5:18-19).\u00a0 It proves that His death did secure a new relationship with God for all who believe in Him (1 Peter 3:18).\u00a0 Christ\u2019s resurrection is why sinners have hope.\u00a0 A dead man accomplishes nothing for humanity.\u00a0 But Jesus Christ is alive!\u00a0 There is hope for all who place their faith in Jesus Christ, the living Savior.<\/p>\n
This Easter Sunday, remember that Jesus did not just die on a cross.\u00a0 He also rose from the dead.\u00a0 He offers genuine hope for those who believe in Him.\u00a0 If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, take the time to reflect on all that He has accomplished by His death and resurrection.\u00a0 Then ask yourself a couple of questions:\u00a0 How can He use me to make this \u201cGood News\u201d known?\u00a0 Am I willing to be used by Him to reach my neighbor, a co-worker and even someone living in the remotest parts of this world (Matt 28:18-20)?\u00a0 If you are not a believer in Jesus, then take the time to consider Him who died and rose for you.\u00a0 Acknowledge that you are a hopeless sinner and then trust in Jesus who died and rose again.\u00a0 Trust only in Him as your living hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He is dead.\u00a0 How discouraged and saddened His followers must have been over the events of the past week.\u00a0 They were afraid and in hiding (Matt 26:56).\u00a0 Two of them openly admitted to their feelings of lost hope because of His crucifixion (Luke 23:13-21).\u00a0\u00a0 Those who crucified Him were taking no chances.\u00a0 They sealed His […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":617,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1774],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-bible-messages","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/todd-nelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/todd-nelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/todd-nelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/todd-nelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/617"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/todd-nelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/todd-nelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/todd-nelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/todd-nelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/todd-nelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}