The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon (Luke 24:34)!

In traditional Easter Sunday preaching the various proofs of the resurrection are set forth. Of course various theories have been set forth to try and explain it away, but none of them hold water. The disciples had seen and experienced the risen Lord, Thomas had put his fingers into the wounds in Jesus' hands and side (John 20:27), and Jesus had eaten a piece of fish in their presence (Luke 24:42). And I imagine there were fishbones lying round after He left, assuring them that He really had been there. There are two pieces of evidence that for me leave me in no doubt. The first is the change in the disciples. On Friday they had all runaway, and Peter had even denied that he knew Him (Matthew 26:72). Yet these same disciples, just a few days later, turned the world upside down with their preaching (Acts 17:6). And with the possible exception of John, they all died for their faith. You do not die for a lie. The second piece of evidence is the presence of the risen Lord in my life, and the growing resurrection power that He is fashioning in me (Philippians 3:10).

In a last minute invitation I tuned into a sunrise service on Zoom this morning. And we had communion. There was a gentle but powerful sense of His presence as we came together online from our separate homes. Truly, as they say, there is no distance in the Spirit! In normal times we might have been out on Signal Hill here in St John's for the sunrise, to be followed by a pancake breakfast. But the communion meal the Lord fed us with this morning was more satisfying than any pancake breakfast! It struck me that for the first time, at least in my life, the two most distinctive aspects of Christianity came together, namely the resurrection and in remembrance in the communion the cross.

All other religions are essentially man reaching up to God to please Him. In the cross we see God reaching down to man to do for him, what he cannot do for himself. The cross is God's incredible and costly initiate to bring sinful man back to Himself. “While we were yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6, 8). And the resurrection is the proof that all Jesus said and did is the truth. I mentioned above the growing resurrection power that He wants to fashion in us, and it struck me again that there can be no resurrection without a death, in this case, the death of the self life (Galatians 5:24). Paul could say he counted everything he formally valued as garbage, in that he might know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. These two things go together, or they don't “go” at all!

Lord Jesus, the essence of the gospel has been described as You saying “My life for yours. In calling us to be living sacrifices (Romans 12:1), You are calling us to give our lives for others, not in codependence, but nevertheless in the costly part of discipleship that calls to take up our cross and follow You. No wonder we need the blood to keep on cleaning us (1 John1:7). And I want to thank You Lord this morning for the blood in Your precious Name Amen