Easter: Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Old Testament Lesson

Exodus 12:28-39

They left on the Exodus in great haste. They left quickly. God had told them to be ready, and they were, for when His time comes, you have to be ready to move. God’s time is different than our time, God works in ways that are sometimes different that the way we’d work. But, when we buy into God’s plan and say that we will do things the way that God does, we have to be ready to go when God wants us to.

If the people would have not been ready, Pharaoh may have changed his mind, as he did in the past. If they had waited, the Egyptian army may have caught them. If they were not ready to go, it could have greatly changed things.

So, today, are you ready to go where God sends? Are you ready to go when God tells you to go? He is at work in a mighty way in the world, in the church, and in your life, if you well let him. The Israelites where ready to God when God said go. Are you?

New Testament Lesson

1 Corinthians 15:12-28

Jesus Christ was not merely a good man. He was not merely an ethical teacher. He was the Son of God, the one, as the Nicene Creed says, that is the very substance of God, God from God, light from light. He is God.

And if what we celebrate on Easter is not true, then we are, as Paul said, to be pitied among people. We believe that Jesus was resurrected. That is what we Christians believe. Today, do you believe that? Sometimes we believe things in our minds, but they don’t come through into our lives. Christ was raised from the dead. Do you believe?

Does your life show that belief? It is not just enough to have a belief of something in our minds, but it must show its’ self in our lives. Does the fact that Christ rose from the dead have any affect on the way you live your life? Does it have any affect on the day to day living of your life? He won that victory over sin, death and the grave. Today, does your life show signs of victory? He was resurrected. That should change our lives.

Gospel Lesson

Mark 16:9-20

In this text, we see Jesus appear to several people, and they would go and tell others, but those others did not believe. It wasn’t until many of them actually saw Jesus for themselves that they believe. Now, that is bad, for we believe by faith and not by sight. And, when Jesus came to the 11, He rebuked them.

But, think about this in this way. For you to fully know and enjoy Jesus, you have to know Him. It is not merely enough for me to tell you about Him. You have to have experience His grace for yourself.

For those of us that believe, we must preach that Gospel with our lives and with our word, and we must help others to encounter Jesus. For, that for many will be the means of ultimate belief. We have to do all that we can to allow others to experience His grace. But in that, have we experience it ourselves. We can’t give witness to something that we don’t know. We can’t communicate God’s amazing grace until we know it ourselves. Today, let us believe and encounter God. And let’s help others to do the same.