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Easter Greetings & Blessings to all SBOI-Group members

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We are heading for Easter! This is the day we celebrate the rising of Jesus

Christ from the dead! Easter is so central to Christian faith that it is the

one item of belief that we cannot jettison without ceasing to be Christian

altogether. When Paul writes to the Corinthians his conclusion is clear. “If He

is not risen, then our faith is a fake. We have been going around telling lies.

Christianity is a hoax.” But he is risen, indeed! So we celebrate Easter — but

not just one. We get to celebrate five Easters. The Easter of History 1970

years ago, Jesus of Nazareth was executed as a criminal. Less than 48 hours

later the tomb was empty. An Angel announced he had risen from the dead, and

over the next six weeks more than 500 people would see him and speak with him.

This was no ghost, though the disciples were prone to think that when they

first saw him. He ate food with them, showed them his wounded hands and side,

and gave evidence that he was in fact risen, not simply in their hopes or

imaginations, but in reality. It was the world's first Easter.

The Easter we celebrate annuallyThere was no day like that first Easter, but

every year, a day has been set apart that we call Easter Sunday. It is to be a

day that eclipses all other days of the year. The Old Testament had its feast

days that commemorated God's great activity in their early history and the

church of Jesus Christ understood the wisdom of these great festivals. So the

church established its own festivals to underscore what God has done in Christ.

Christmas reminds us of the incarnation of God in Christ, Good Friday reminds us

of His atoning for our sins, while Easter tells us of His triumph over sin and

death and hell.

The Easter we celebrate weeklyThere is, however, a third Easter. It is the

Easter that recurs once each week for every Sunday is Easter! Up until the

Resurrection of Jesus, the seventh day of the week was the day for public

worship. The people of Israel would meet for worship on Friday evenings at

sunset, and celebrate with a day of rest until sunset on Saturday evening. Each

Sabbath day Israel celebrated God's great act of creation. In six days he made

the world and on the seventh day he rested. So after six days of work we too

could rest on the seventh.But when that first Easter took place, the early

church knew that they had encountered a reality just as wonderful as the

creation of the world. It was an event that brought about the re-creation of

humanity. It had given the world a brand new start. It was the beginning of a

new age of the world. So how were we to celebrate it?The earliest Christians

met in the Jewish Synagogue on the evening of Sabbath to worship, but as

tensions increased they found themselves meeting together for their own

services for worship. Sometime during that first century they began to worship

together on the first day of the week in the early morning. Why the first day?

Because that was the day of resurrection. Why early morning? Because He was

raised in the early morning of the world's first Easter!The Epistle of

Barnabas, written at the end of that first century, reads, “We keep the eighth

day with joyfulness, the day on which Jesus rose from the dead.” But even

before that in Acts 20:7 the church is breaking bread together on the first day

of the week, and Paul is calling for offerings to be set aside on the first day

of the week, and John is in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, the first day of the

week. The church made this great change in the calendar to give honor to Jesus

who rose from the dead on a Sunday morning. Every Sunday then is a celebration

of resurrection day.

 

The Easter we shall celebrate one dayThere is another Easter, however, that we

shall celebrate one day. It is not the one that occurred in the distant past,

or one that recurs annually or weekly. It is the Easter that awaits us all at

the end of our life here. Many within Ancient Judaism presumed either that

death was the end of life or that what happened after death was absolutely

unknowable. Death brought dread or doubt, but little hope and no certainty.

With the teachings of Jesus, however, the mists began to dwindle. He taught

with certainty about life beyond. Then one day all the proof we needed was

provided. On Friday he died. On Sunday he had been raised from the grave. The

doubt disappeared. The question was resolved, once for all. There is life

beyond death — and not just for him, but for all who are his followers. A

personal Resurrection Morning is promised to all who are in Christ. There is an

Easter in our future!

 

The Easter that is ever presentThere is, on top of all of the previous good

news, a fifth Easter. Easter is more than memory and more than hope. Easter is

the continued presence of Jesus Christ in our lives, moment by moment, day in

and day out. On Easter day the great church of God does not simply shout, “He

was raised”. It declares, “He is risen”. He is living among us and continues to

be involved in our lives. That is why the Easter story contains the words of

Jesus, “Look around you, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Down the centuries the words repeat, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

And throughout the moments of all our days, the Resurrected Jesus is with us in

the presence of the Holy Spirit. Every day we live in the glorious aftermath of

the resurrection. So let us, as we wake up each morning, proclaim the good

news, “He is risen indeed!”

Attachment: (image/jpeg) easter_card_sai_baba_6.jpg [not stored]

Attachment: (image/gif) easter_bar.gif [not stored]

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