This past Sunday we celebrated Easter, which I call Resurrection Day. This is the day that Christians refocus on the cornerstone of our faith, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus was killed by crucifixion on a cross. Three days later He was resurrected as He said.
Matthew 16:21 NLTFrom then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.
John 2:19-22 NLT “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.
It's often easy to forget the significance of the resurrection as we celebrate with baskets, eggs, and bunnies. This year with the healthcare and economic crises caused by the Coronavirus Pandemic, it’s especially hard to live in the hope of His resurrection as life brings inevitable challenges because of Coronavirus and all of the other difficulties that come from life in a fallen world.
When Jesus told Martha, before resurrecting he brother Lazarus who had died four days earlier, "I am the resurrection and the life", He wasn’t talking about his future resurrection of Lazarus’ future resurrection at the end of time. He wanted Martha and all of us, to understand that when we place our lives in His hands, He will raise them up again to live a fulfilled life now.
John 11:23-26 NLT Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”
Let’s look at 5 reasons the resurrection is important for the life you’re living right now:
Editor's Note: Edited content from 5 Reasons the Resurrection Is Important for Your Life Today. Scriptures added by me.
Matthew 16:21 NLTFrom then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.
John 2:19-22 NLT “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.
It's often easy to forget the significance of the resurrection as we celebrate with baskets, eggs, and bunnies. This year with the healthcare and economic crises caused by the Coronavirus Pandemic, it’s especially hard to live in the hope of His resurrection as life brings inevitable challenges because of Coronavirus and all of the other difficulties that come from life in a fallen world.
When Jesus told Martha, before resurrecting he brother Lazarus who had died four days earlier, "I am the resurrection and the life", He wasn’t talking about his future resurrection of Lazarus’ future resurrection at the end of time. He wanted Martha and all of us, to understand that when we place our lives in His hands, He will raise them up again to live a fulfilled life now.
John 11:23-26 NLT Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”
Let’s look at 5 reasons the resurrection is important for the life you’re living right now:
Editor's Note: Edited content from 5 Reasons the Resurrection Is Important for Your Life Today. Scriptures added by me.
Reasons the Resurrection Is Important for Your Life Today
Leah Lively
1. Jesus Came to Resurrect Your Hope
Maybe your life right now is deflating the hope out of you. Unexpected illnesses, relationship struggles, or the daily grind can make a life of hope more like misery. Everyone reaches a point where you become aware of how your life has become drastically different from where you imagined it would be.
It’s easy to grow depressed and even make life-altering decisions to change your circumstances. God knew we would need the hope of Jesus.
When sin entered the garden of Eden in Genesis 3, the coming of Christ became the answer to our lost hope.
Genesis 3:14-15 NLT Then the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
2. Jesus Came to Resurrect Your Calling
Jesus resurrected a calling in the hearts of some fishermen. In Jewish cultural tradition, the children are sent to school to learn the scriptures and memorize the Torah (Old Testament). Once they reach a certain age, the girls come home to help with household duties. The boys continue with their studies if they excel as students of the scriptures and eventually ask a rabbi (teacher) to follow him as an apprentice. If the boys do not do well or are rejected by a rabbi, the return home to learn the family business. The fishermen were rejected as apprentices and now worked with their fathers.
Instead of these rejected students approaching this rabbi (Jesus), he approached them. They didn’t ask to follow Him, he commanded they follow Him. They dropped everything, their livelihood and their family business, to take hold of the second chance to be an apprentice to a rabbi.
Matthew 4:18-22 NLT One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him. A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.
When life throws curveballs, your dream and calling can get laid aside or even forgotten. God has called each one of us to live a life that would glorify Him.
1 Peter 4:11 NLT Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
Jesus is calling you to follow Him, now. Thanks to what you know about his resurrection, you can follow the dream He has for you.
3. Jesus Came to Resurrect Your Faith
Throughout the gospels, Jesus heals and brings to life those who have faith in Him. There are countless stories where Jesus proclaims, “Get up!” after He has healed a person who had been proclaimed dead or paralyzed.
Luke 7:11-17 NLT Soon afterward Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, and a large crowd followed him. A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate. The young man who had died was a widow’s only son, and a large crowd from the village was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. “Don’t cry!” he said. Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” he said, “I tell you, get up.” Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother. Great fear swept the crowd, and they praised God, saying, “A mighty prophet has risen among us,” and “God has visited his people today.” And the news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding countryside.
Luke 5:22-26 NLT Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!” And immediately, as everyone watched, the man jumped up, picked up his mat, and went home praising God. Everyone was gripped with great wonder and awe, and they praised God, exclaiming, “We have seen amazing things today!”
He resurrects the faith of those who are ill as well as onlookers who rejoice after witnessing the miracle.
Mark 5:24-34 NLT Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him. A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition. Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?” His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”
Long-term suffering can diminish your faith. Your faith can be resurrected by reaching out to Jesus through prayer, worship, and reading the Bible. He may begin by healing your grieving heart through your resurrected faith.
4. Jesus Came to Resurrect Your Joy
A lifetime of pain and rejection, or even this current season of turmoil, can take a toll on your joy.
One day Jesus met a woman who has been the object of ridicule for her race, religion, and lifestyle choices. She is a Samaritan and while she doesn’t fit in with Jewish society, she also doesn’t fit in with her own people. Yet, Jesus sits down in this town of outcasts to wait for and speak with this woman.
Jesus’ conversation with her changed her life and resurrected her joy.
John 4:13-14, 28-30, 39-42 NLT Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?” So the people came streaming from the village to see him. Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!” When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Jesus didn’t change her past or her current circumstances, but He resurrected her hope which affected her outlook on life. You may have a past you are ashamed of or struggles you wish to change. Jesus can resurrect your joy and change your perspective. Joy that can help you overcome the challenges you face.
5. Jesus Came to Resurrect Your Life
The prophet Ezekiel had a vision of a valley of dry bones. This was a representation of the people of Israel. There were no signs of life or any possibility of resurrection until God breathed life into the bones.
Ezekiel 37:1-9 NLT The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?” “O Sovereign Lord ,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.” Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord ! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord .’” So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’”
This was a prophecy of Christ coming to breathe life into all who believe in Him.
First, he had to represent us in that valley of dry bones. He had to be convicted, tortured, and killed with no sign of life or possibility of a resurrection.
Jesus had been in the tomb for three days. His friends and followers were hiding together for fear of arrest due to their connection with Him. They were also grieving together at the tragic loss of the One who had once resurrected their hope, calling, faith, and joy.
Ezekiel 37:1-9 NLT The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?” “O Sovereign Lord ,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.” Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord ! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord .’” So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’”
Jesus would reappear to his followers and friends, resurrecting their hope, calling, faith, and joy repeatedly.
Acts of the Apostles 1:3 NLT During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.
The breath of life breathed into Him by God, breathed life into the grieving hearts of His people.
Acts of the Apostles 1:4-5 NLT Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus was sent to this earth to resurrect you. He had to endure more torture and pain than any innocent man should so that each of us could live a resurrected life.
You may have lost your hope, calling, faith, and joy due to the struggles of life, but you have a God who has the power to breathe life into your dry bones. Pray and ask God to resurrect your life. Ask God to breathe life into you. Ask Him to help you live a resurrected life with hope, calling, faith, and joy.
The prophet Ezekiel had a vision of a valley of dry bones. This was a representation of the people of Israel. There were no signs of life or any possibility of resurrection until God breathed life into the bones.
Ezekiel 37:1-9 NLT The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?” “O Sovereign Lord ,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.” Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord ! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord .’” So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’”
This was a prophecy of Christ coming to breathe life into all who believe in Him.
First, he had to represent us in that valley of dry bones. He had to be convicted, tortured, and killed with no sign of life or possibility of a resurrection.
Jesus had been in the tomb for three days. His friends and followers were hiding together for fear of arrest due to their connection with Him. They were also grieving together at the tragic loss of the One who had once resurrected their hope, calling, faith, and joy.
Ezekiel 37:1-9 NLT The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?” “O Sovereign Lord ,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.” Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord ! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord .’” So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’”
Jesus would reappear to his followers and friends, resurrecting their hope, calling, faith, and joy repeatedly.
Acts of the Apostles 1:3 NLT During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.
The breath of life breathed into Him by God, breathed life into the grieving hearts of His people.
Acts of the Apostles 1:4-5 NLT Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus was sent to this earth to resurrect you. He had to endure more torture and pain than any innocent man should so that each of us could live a resurrected life.
You may have lost your hope, calling, faith, and joy due to the struggles of life, but you have a God who has the power to breathe life into your dry bones. Pray and ask God to resurrect your life. Ask God to breathe life into you. Ask Him to help you live a resurrected life with hope, calling, faith, and joy.
|
|
|
RSS Feed