April 4, 2020 AND BE NOT UNBELIEVING, BUT BELIEVING
Matthew 28:7-8 “And go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going before you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.”
John 20:27-29 “Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach here your fingers, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing.’”
The crucifixion of Jesus, the very Son of God who came to save, was the darkest days in all of history. BUT, the resurrection of Jesus, was the greatest and most wonderful day in all of history. In less than a week, we had the darkest of days and the greatest of days. As I read the account of the resurrection of Jesus, two things stands out; Jesus wanted to see His disciples, and there was a sense of an awesome, indescribable joy among the followers of Jesus. At is death on the cross, it seemed that all dreams and hopes were crushed-BUT His death meant that a resurrection would follow just three days later. They thought they would not see Him again, BUY they did! The good news is that Jesus sought out His followers after He rose from the dead-and He seeks us out as well and He desires to be with us. When we embrace the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead, joy will fill our hearts just as it did the disciples; can you visualize it-life came back into dead flesh and bones; the heart began to beat and the blood began to flow through His veins, breath came back into His lungs, muscles began to move-then He stood up and walked out of the tomb-death was conquered! We may doubt as Thomas did, but even so, Jesus, the Son of God, comes to us to reassure us that though He was dead, He now lives again. To believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus makes all the difference. He is alive today and He loves us and He desires to fellowship with you and I. It may be difficult to grasp the full meaning of this, but we died to our old self when Jesus was crucified, and we share in His resurrection, raised and given new life, enabling us to walk and live in newness of life. What a blessing-to be able to live in newness. As Jesus said to doubting Thomas, let us not be unbelieving, BUT believing when it comes to the fact of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. HE IS ALIVE!
Romans 6:8-11 “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Blessings,
Buddy