Because He Lives we can face
tomorrow and that is the power of Resurrection.
As We Gather here today on this Easter Sunday, I wish you all a Happy Easter.
We all know that many Easter celebrations happen around the world and particularly Easter egg hunt is popular in the United States. I don't know how that came into being and what the history of that is. Maybe it was a marketing technique by the commercial world around us. But the Easter egg hunt taught me about the excitement particularly for the children to find the gift of that Easter egg in unexpected places. They look and search for these eggs and find some of them in the most unexpected places. Some eggs may have surprise messages inside. They open it and read that. Some people place candies or little toys in there. But whatever the gifts inside are, it is the excitement of finding the gift in the strange and unexpected places.
We read about the three women who went on the first Easter morning to the tomb where Jesus' body was placed to embalm the body. And they found something very unexpected and strange. There was an angel sitting at the tomb in dazzling white cloths. How many times do you expect to have an angel sitting in front of a tomb, the place where you expect to find a dead body?
We do not expect nothing other than silence and gloom in those places. When when you go there and you find that there is an Angel waiting for you there. That is the greatest message of Easter. When we find ourselves in hopelessness and darkness just like those women who were afraid and sad. They were already tired with all the events happned in the past couple of days. The trial of Jesus, the crucifixion and the painful death of Jesus they witnessed on the cross, put a toll on these women mentally, physically and emotionally.
And they did not expect any life in that graveyard, not to mention a talking angel. They were expecting a dead body there so that they can embalm with spices they broguht. They have been preparing for this for a ouple of days and some of them have been gathering this for months as we read here later. They were waiting for this time to come. Instead of finding the dead body, they found an angel sitting there and telling them that they were in the wrong place. " You are looking for the living among the dead.", said the angel.
Even as we go through our life situations where everything seems to be dead, and our front and our future seems to be bleak and hopeless, and you think that there is no hope after this. and many people around you may think and tell you that you don't have any more hope left, me even the doctors may tell you there is no hope left, there is a God of Resurrection in Jesus Christ telling you that there is hope that goes beyond the grave. That is the message of Easter.
Somebody recently shared me the reason why the women were the first one to see to go and look at the tomb. And they were the first one to hear the message of Resurrection. And I don't know the reason why the why God chose three women , but some people say that is the best way the news will spread faster. If men were to be given that message, I doubt if they would go and tell anyone on that morning. We know what happened to Peter who went to the tomb. He didn't see an angel or the linens. He went out with an empty feeling. These women went there with no hope but came back with full of hope and full of power.
That is because they stayed with Jesus during his difficult times in the previous days. They were there close to the cross when all the disciples disappeared. Peter denied him, and Judas betrayed him and all the disciples ran away from him ad left him alone. The betrayal was the greatest pain that Jesus bore in his life. It is not the physical torture. It was not even death, because he knew that he was he came to die. But the betrayal of his own people, the Jewish people and his own disciples who were telling him that they were going to be with him no matter what happens. They all betrayed him. They all left him and left him alone during the time of suffering. They all left him when he needed them the most.
It happens to each one of us when we will be betrayed by our friends, betrayed by your families, betrayed by of even the church. And then God is the only one going to be there with you to comfort you and that is the fact of life. Jesus Christ taught us this with the events of those three days of those three days that we we remember as passion. Eespecially during Friday that I was sharing the message that Jesus suffered everything a human person can suffer in his whole life in this world the Betrayal the cheating the Injustice. Even when the justice system found him innocent, as Piloate said that I find no guilt in this man and even then He sentenced him to death. What kind of justice system will find person innocent but punish with death sentence. That's the Injustice that Jesus faced. So he went through all of that in this short span of 24 hours all that you and I go through in a whole lifespan. He took it upon himself so you and I can be comforted by the fact that Jesus went through all of this and that is the message of Easter that is telling us there is hope no matter what you are going through here today in this life. And when you think that everything is going to be at the end there is God who is going to give you The Hope through the power of Resurrection Jesus Christ asked in this world and all so we see that the issue the Easter celebrates the good news that are hidden in surprises, in surprising places.
If you are going through a time in your family life in your personal life in your physical health condition or a grief that you cannot get over remember, there are unexpected places that angels are waiting for you to tell you don't look at here. Look there. There is a God who you can trust. He will give you hope and he will give you a future a future filled with blessings. And that is what the message of Easter hit tonight today.
A man was sitting in his car in an intersection and he was waiting for the light to turn and another car was turning from the other side and swiped his from the back and made a big fender. And when the man got out of the car and walked to the other car, there was a young woman behind the steering wheel and she started crying. And she she was apparently very upset about the accident that happened that she knew probably it was because for her fault and she said, "oh, I'm so sorry. I can't believe I have done this. My dad is going to kill me. I am just graduating from college next month and my dad gave me this car as a gift. as a graduation gift. and I can't believe this happened to me. And I've already reacted. He will be very disappointed. I have never had an accident before so I don't know what to do." She started crying and screaming. And the man reassured her that not to worry and tried to calm her and told her that he would need her name, address and insurance information and that's all. Then she started crying again because she didn't know whether the insurance card was. She had no idea where it was.
So the man said don't worry, we'll figure it out. "Open the glove box. It may be somewhere in there." That's what we usually keep our registration and insurance and all of that stuff. So sure enough. She opened the glove box and she found a little booklet which has an envelope in it, and there was the insurance card in there. But and also along with that insurance card, there was a little note from her dad saying, "honey in case of an accident, remember that I love you and not the car."
That is the message of Jesus Christ. He loves you no matter what. You may lose everything in this world including your life. But there is a God who gives you hope of a promise and future.
Don't worry about this life for this world. God has an eternity waiting for you full of blessings. Just like Pastor Nelson
shared you we are going to be together with all the heroes of waith who have
gone before us because Jesus rose from the dead and went there to prepare a place. He is waiting for us. We have an
eternity that we are going to be together Easter reminds us to see the
possibilities in love not from our Heavenly Father. in unusual places when we least
expect it. God is going to be there. May the good Lord bless these words and the
power of resurrection.
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