Resurrection Sunday
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
-1 Peters 1:3-9 (NIV)
Today we celebrate Jesus’ victory over sin, death, and the grave with over 2.3 billion Christ-followers around the world. We can visit Jesus’ grave, but we are not going to find Him there. He is alive. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the defining pivotal event in human history.
Jesus' resurrection gives us a model for what we can do when our world falls apart. Fridays represent the days in our lives of fear, uncertainty, and pain.
On the Fridays of our lives, we need to remember to:
Reach out to friends. If Jesus needed friends, then we need friends. It is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). But, it is especially not good for us to be alone on the Fridays of our lives. We also need to share our emotions with Godly and trustworthy friends that we can count on. The devil is a divider and an accuser.
Cry out to God. Jesus knows that He is facing the ultimate pain of the cross. Then, He cries out to God and states that He doesn’t want this pain (Mark 14:35-36). When we are going through the Fridays of our lives, we need to cry out to God.
On the Saturdays of life, which are the days that represent confusion, we need to remember the promises of God. We have gone through a lot over the last three years. There has been loss, division, and isolation, which all come from the enemy.
However, there are over 7,000 promises of God for us in Scripture. All of the promises of God have their “yes” in Jesus. But, so often, people forget the sermon they heard on Sunday. So, we need to be in God’s word and remember His promises. Anybody can bring good out of good. But, only God can bring good out of bad.
On the Saturdays of life, we need to remember the promises of God. Three things to pray when we are going through the Saturdays of our lives:
We affirm God’s power. God can do anything. He is omnipotent and all-powerful.
We express our desire. Ask God to take away the pain.
We offer our trust. Tell God that we want His will and not our will to be done.
God promises, “To all who mourn, I will restore beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, and praise instead of despair (Isaiah 61:3).”
On the Sundays of life, we need to rely on the Power of Jesus. Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with Jesus, and we are invited to be in a relationship with Him every day of our lives. Jesus wants to know us, not just on our Sundays, but on our Fridays, our days of pain. He also wants us to know us on our Saturdays, our days of confusion.
If things haven’t gone as we have hoped, we can always come back home to Jesus, and His family, which are our church family and Godly friends.