6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. Matthew 28:6
Wishing you Blessings and Peace as we remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to reconcile us to our Heavenly Father!
Your LOOP Friends
Easter Sunday – My Purpose God’s Plan
All Scripture is from the New Living Translation
Easter Sunday is the day that Christianity celebrates the resurrection of Jesus… The day He walked out of a tomb… Raised back to life by the power of God!
1 Corinthians 15:4-7: 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. 5 He was seen by Peter[a] and then by the Twelve. 6 After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers[b] at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles.
Three days prior, He was nailed to a cross and buried in a tomb, but now He is Risen!
This was written about 20 years after the resurrection… And all the disciples met an untimely death for preaching the message of Jesus… All. 12. Of. Them.
But on Easter weekend… Between Friday and Sunday there was great confusion and a sense of loss by His faithful followers… Those closest to Him… His disciples…
What they did not know between Friday and Sunday was that it was all part of His purpose within God’s plan… God’s plan to redeem mankind!
I know it doesn’t always make sense, but the only way to be the people we were created to be is by living our lives alongside Jesus… Our Creator!
I want to share with you three benefits of Jesus’ resurrection.
The first one is this: Jesus has a purpose and plan for every one of us!
How many of us have spent years trying to figure out what our purpose in life is?
Finding our purpose and meaning can be a tricky thing because we often mistake purpose for success, a career, a family… We sometimes think, what I am most productive is my purpose…
When we think we’ve found purpose and it isn’t what God intended for us, we end up in a place of Who am I? Why am I here? Does my life have meaning? Do I really know what my purpose in life is?
These are questions that lead to a lot of speculation and guessing… And we’ll never find our true purpose in life this way.
Often people try to find purpose by looking within… You’ll hear this a lot with Eastern philosophies… And movies!
We are told to look within to find purpose, to find the true meaning to life…
The problem with this is most of us are a mess inside… Trust me, I know… I looked within for years…
We’ll never find our true purpose in life by looking within, because our true purpose in life doesn’t come from within…
If we don’t know the purpose of something, or how it works, what do we do?
We look to the manual… We google or YouTube the purpose of the object… How do we figurethis thing out, so it works…
It’s the same for us… We’ll never figure out our true purpose in life apart from our Creator and the owner’s manual… His Word, the Bible…
We were all created for a purpose much greater than anything this world has to offer… God created us… Our purpose in life is part of His plan for us!
Our purpose is much deeper than a career, hobby, sports, family…
Our purpose in life is to get to know our Creator, and from there He will begin revealing His plan for us… A plan much greater than we can work out on our own…
2 Corinthians 5:15 – He (Jesus) died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
When we go through life looking to be successful, looking to be popular, looking to be the self-made person we sometimes set out to be… Doing life on our terms….
We miss out on the best there is being offered to us…
By receiving this new life only Jesus can offer means we ask Him into our lives… We trust Him to lead us through life…
We now trust in His wisdom, His knowledge… His plans for us… And His plans reveal our purpose in life!
Many people look good, feel good, but there’s something missing… they feel stuck in life, frustrated, and even empty inside…
It’s because they are missing the presence of their Creator, their Savior… They are missing Jesus!
Ephesians 2:8-10: 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
The moment we ask Jesus into our lives, believing that He is the Son of God, and that God raised Him from the dead… He is the only One who can forgive us of all wrongdoing… And it is by grace we receive His goodness… It’s not earned by anything we can do…
The moment this happens, we become a new person… A perfected masterpiece in the eyes of God…
The moment this happens, our God given purpose and plan in life begins!
Jesus is the only One ever to raise from the dead after being buried for three days…
He is the One who split the timeline of the world’s history between BC and AD when He was born…
Why would we at least not give Him a chance to bring the change in life we are looking for?!?
The only way we will find true purpose in life is through the resurrection of Jesus!
And the moment we invite Him into our lives, God’s Holy Spirit fills us, and we now have access to the same power of God that raised Jesus from the dead!
Often, people invite Jesus into their lives because they come to a point that they realize something bigger than what they’ve been relying on is needed….
That something is a someone by the name of Jesus!
And with that is the power to breathe life into dying situations… (2nd benefit found in the Resurrection)
If God can raise Jesus from the dead, He can breathe life into any situation we find ourselves stuck in… He is a resurrecting God, a life-giving God…
Isaiah 40:28-31: 28 Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. 29 He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. 30 Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. 31 But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
When we are tired… When we can’t see the way out of a situation… When all seems lost…
When confusion is setting in, depression, hopelessness… Feelings of failure…
God, through the power of His Holy Spirit will breathe life into the situation and we will be able to run and not grow weary… Walk and not faint… He will renew our strength!
Luke 18:27 – What is impossible for people is possible with God.
God has the power to help us overcome every situation that seems impossible to overcome…
And this can only be accomplished by inviting the resurrected life of Christ Jesus into our lives!
Only Jesus can fill the emptiness and the void we so often feel when trying to do life in our own strength…
Only Jesus can help us to find out what our purpose is…
We’ll never know our true purpose in life apart from Jesus, and we’ll never have the power of
God in heaven working for us apart from Jesus…
2 Peter 1:2-4: 2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. 3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
The more we get to know Jesus, the more we realize how much He does for us…
And that He is the source of everything we need!
One more thing we’re going to look at this Easter Sunday that we gain from the resurrection of Jesus when we invite Him into our lives…
And that is this: We now have the hope of eternal life in heaven!
All of us put our hope in something… The hope that someday things will get better…
We often put our hope in our career… The big break we’re looking for… Our spouse…
Relationships… Wealth… Medications… Our good looks…
All these things will disappear someday or will let us down…
But the one thing we can put our hope in that can never be taken away…
Is that someday we will receive an inheritance that is being kept for us in heaven…
As believers in Jesus we will always have the hope of eternal life in heaven…
1 Peter 1:3-6: 3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. 5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. 6 So be truly glad.[a] There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.
Putting our faith in Jesus is called being born again… And we can only be born again by believing in the resurrection of Jesus… That He is the Son of God, and that God raised Him from the dead…
Once this happens, we now have hope… We live with great expectation that someday we will receive a priceless inheritance that God Himself has waiting for us in heaven…
But in the meantime… Through our faith in His Son, Jesus… God is protecting us by His power…
Now this doesn’t mean we will not experience hard times… But it does mean that we can be truly glad…
Knowing that even though hard times will come… We have the power of God protecting us and seeing us through it all….
2 Corinthians 4:18 – So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
We cannot see Jesus in front of us, but those of us that have experienced His goodness know that He is real…
We know that He is the only One who will lead us through the hard times in a way that offers
the wisdom of the One who created all that we see before us today…
He will protect us, and comfort us… He will lead us and provide for us… He will laugh with us and cry with us…
He is the King of all kings and the ruler of all authorities… He is the only One who can forgive us of all sins and take the weight of life we have been carrying by ourselves!
And He alone is the Savior for those who are looking for something bigger than themselves to find purpose and meaning in life…
To me Jesus is worth it and my faith in Him is something nobody can take away!
If you’re here today and the connection has been made that the resurrection of Jesus is for real and He is who you’ve been in need of… In just a minute I’m going to ask you to raise your hand… Raising your hand is an act of publicly saying, “Jesus, You have my attention and I’d like to invite you into my life.”
It’s a very simple process and the Bible makes if very clear what’s needed…
Romans 10:9-10: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.
~ The Centurion ~
© 2003 by Joan Clifton Costner
I knew it when the earthquake came. Already, the day had changed its face completely. It was so dark the birds had gone to roost! People were carrying lanterns. I never saw midnight any darker. And, I never saw midnight in the middle of the day! Over 2 hours, already, and it showed no sign of daybreak.
So, now, what? All those tales, these superstitious people, told had been true! I had barely listened. But, I retained what I had heard and this was too much! What do I do? I never uttered the name of God, except in an expletive, and this guy looked so ordinary – so like any other man. How could I have known? Should I stop the whole thing? I am a soldier and I’ve earned my way up the ranks. Though I hold some power, it was gained by obeying orders. So, I could not take it upon myself to undo what they had ordered. I am only a centurion.
I sat down and watched. When the lightning came and illuminated His face, I saw the suffering. But, also, that face held love. I even heard Him say, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” I never heard that one before. I was used to the filth spewed out from these criminal’s mouths. But, this was something new.
Now that the sun was gone (it wasn’t just that the sun was gone, it was really dark!) and the wind had risen, and the rain came, it sounded like all of nature was mourning. The thunder came, again, with the lightning illuminating the sign above His head … “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”. Was I executing a King?
It was more than that! Cesar, himself, could not have called down this storm and certainly not the earthquake. That was what settled it for me. More than a King, an area that I completely avoided in all my studies. I preferred not to clutter my brain with those superstitious lies.
What did it matter how this world came to be? I was here and I would do the best I could with the one life I had. But, if Someone made it, controlled it, cared about it … well, that’s something I had never toyed with. But, I sure would want to know everything about it. Where had He been all my life?
The night hadn’t been a good one anyway. They called me to oversee the collection of some guy that had hung himself. The Jews take this week too seriously; killing all those lambs, letting blood until the Kidron is discolored with the blood! What a strange people!
I thought, today, I would have to oversee the execution by crucifixion of two thieves. Some time through the night, they had thrown this fellow in. So, what’s one more? It would not take any longer part of the day. But, this was no ordinary man.
We divided His few possessions. His robe was seamless, woven in one piece, quite a masterpiece. So, we cast the dice.
He spoke to no one, until that thief said, “Remember me when You come into Your Kingdom!” and then He said, “Verily I say unto you, today, you shall be with me in Paradise!”
The day had grown so dark that I couldn’t see His face when He said, “My God! My God! Why have You forsaken me?” But, I could feel the agony of the cry.
When things got back to normal, I would certainly do some investigating on this Man. I watched it all. Sitting in the rain with trembling earth beneath. He had directed his last words to only a few, that thief, his friend, John, and his mother, and Some unseen force. He had said, at the last, “Father” and looked toward the sky, “Into Your hands I commend my spirit!”
I had never overseen a crucifixion like this. We had Him down before the sun set, having been certain of his death by the spear. We didn’t break His legs and, suddenly, I didn’t want anything rash to happen to this body. So, His soul was gone. Do we possess a soul? No matter, I would pursue that later.
I told my soldiers to be careful. Let Him down gently, not the way we put Him up. His body was evidence of the last 24 hours. There had been enough pain inflicted.
Already, there were two men, there, with proper papers to take the body. No one needed to tell them to be careful. They handled this Man as if He were Precious Stone! These men were in that high court the Jews have, the Sanhedrin. I had seen them both at the temple grounds and at the palace.
We took our spoils and left. I knew I had a lot of questions to be answered, never given to staying in ignorance.
The storm let up and the sky lightened. It was strange, like having daybreak from the west. I just thought I was through with the Man. Only a couple of hours and the call came to set a guard at His tomb. “Why would we need soldiers to guard a tomb?” I had asked. They told me because of some tales passed around, by this Man’s friends, and they were afraid of someone stealing the body and saying He had risen from the dead.
What a riot that would cause! It would have been better if they had left this Jesus alive! Well, the men would be thrilled at their exciting job. I would dispatch them and they would complain and be bored for a few days.
Meanwhile, I had plans for my free time. I had the sign that had been above His head: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” and now I brought it out. Strange words for a criminal, strange day. Strange feelings in my heart, so callused by all the “orders” I had followed.
I had the feeling that I was beginning a great adventure, for it had grown quite dark, now, and there was a definite chill in the air. I reached for my coat and started out in the night air.
Nicodemus had said I could come anytime, said he once made a midnight visit that had changed his life. I would chance it. For, I had questions too great not to pursue!
Stepping out in the night air only brought back the events of the afternoon. I really expected the earth to tremble. That came the first day of the week.
My guards answered to me. But, I answered to Pilate. Even the Jews had set a guard and the body was gone! I never saw such scurrying! Money was flying. Pay us all to say His body was stolen! We knew better. For, we knew the penalty. But, better to take the bribe than to face the truth.
Someone had made a serious mistake and, for my part, I knew I would never be the same. I had found some answers and I was on my way to more.
What would you do if you had been there … if you had seen the signs and heard the jeers, felt the earth quake, and seen the day disappear … heard kind words, from a man dying, because you did your job? What would you do, if you had been in charge of the guard?
The door to my soul was open and I could not but follow. He had, truthfully, said, “They know not what they do … Father, forgive.”
I know I need many answers. But, until I get them all, I will repeat what I said on that hill, on that dark day, “TRULY, THIS WAS THE SON OF GOD!”
Story of the Birds
By Paul Harvey
There once was a man named George Thomas, a pastor in a small New England town. One Easter Sunday morning he came to the Church carrying a rusty, bent, old bird cage, and set it by the pulpit. Several eyebrows were raised and, as if in response, Pastor Thomas began to speak.
“I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming toward me swinging this bird cage. On the bottom of the cage were three little wild birds, shivering with cold and fright.
I stopped the lad and asked, “What you got there son?”
“Just some old birds,” came the reply.
“What are you gonna do with them?” I asked.
“Take ’em home and have fun with ’em,” he answered. I’m gonna tease ’em and pull out their feathers to make ’em fight. I’m gonna have a real good time.”
“But you’ll get tired of those birds sooner or later. What will you do then?”
“Oh, I got some cats,” said the little boy. “They like birds. I’ll take ’em to them.”
The pastor was silent for a moment. “How much do you want for Those birds, son?”
“Huh??!!! Why, you don’t want them birds, mister. They’re just plain old field birds. They don’t sing — they ain’t even pretty!”