Encouragement Email – Resurrection Sunday!

What a happy morning! A few women scurried to the garden where your Lord was laid in a tomb three days ago after being crucified. They were in such a hurry they forgot to make plans on how to roll away the massive stone covering the entrance into it (Mark 16:2-3).

What a happy surprise awaited them as a young man dressed in brilliant white, telling them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him” (Mark 16:6, NKJV). Only, he wasn’t a man. He was an angel (Matthew 28:5)!

Well, that’s revealing.

Yesterday your Lord had preached His victory to the demonic spirits already in prison (1 Peter 3:19). It may have continued in assembly of the great ranks of demons, whose only perspective is slander and hatred of God’s holy Son, and our human race. They delight in human sin.

But what they can’t understand, because they are blinded by hate, is the glory of the sacrifice of Jesus. He came to earth from heaven and disrobed Himself of all dignity, becoming a man. Then He disrobed Himself of the dignity of a man, and took the cross. All of this was Jesus making Himself a sacrifice. His holy soul, for your sinful soul. He did this in order to redeem a vast multitude and one day present them all as a love gift to the Father.

The demons can’t enjoy the resurrection, so why follow them in their promotion of sin? They hate everyone, Jesus, the cross, and the resurrection. They only want to think of themselves, but the resurrection not only redeems us from our sins and death, but also seals their fate in the worst pain and shame and misery, without hope for relief, for all eternity.

The holy angel at Jesus’ empty tomb bridged the two worlds of heaven and earth. One day both shall be one in perpetuity, as holy angels and redeemed men and women made holy unite in worship and service to Jesus, His Father, and their Spirit.

Hope is the rib cage of Christianity that protects the heart of faith. Like faith, it is not a wished-for outcome of good circumstances. Hope is the certainty that God unwinds evil and makes all things new and good. Hope is the cheerful confidence that if there’s no food in the cabinet, God will provide one way or another. It needs to be especially strong as the days wind down, hopeful that He is good to His promises. Even in death.

Jesus Christ defeated death, my beloved Christian friends. Unless he returns soon, most of us shall taste it, I’m sorry to say. But the glories on the other side of death are so great, that the experience will be like nothing compared to the glories to follow.

Had I preached today, I think I would have made much of the Corona virus, because it puts people in touch with the pain of death. We despise it so much we’ll stay inside and avoid social functions, work, and handshakes. But I’m pretty sure I would have stayed away from saying, “There’s a worse virus, and it’s called sin!” I’m sorry, I find that a bit confusing. A lot of people survive the virus, but no one survives sin.

How about this instead? The wages of the Corona Virus might be death for you. And if it’s not this virus, it might be another virus or something else. A car crash, an unforeseen circumstance.

Now if death for you means entrance into Life, then it’s a servant of the God who makes promises about such Life after death. Death then has lost its sting, because Christ took away its power to kill. Christian hope is certain of this.

On the other hand, if death for you is an entrance into the demonic realm, the abode of the dead where you suffer in agony with demons forever and without any hope of relief, won’t you repent of living in your sins and preferring them to the love of Christ for you?

He wants to rescue you, so please, call upon Jesus to save you.

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Sent on April 12, 2020 by the Pastoral Staff (Ted Bigelow, Pastor of Preaching and Development and Steve Ridge, Executive Pastor) of Grace Bible Church of Colorado Springs.