Easter Sunday

On Easter morning Christians traditionally greet each other with the words, “He is risen!”, to which we respond, “He is risen indeed!” When we speak these words we are preaching the Gospel to each other. 

In Acts 10, Peter shares the gospel with a household and his message is similarly simple: “they killed Jesus, but guess what? He’s alive again! We’ve seen him and had supper with him! And if we believe in him, our sins will be forgiven.” And the Spirit moved and the people believed.

Jesus is alive. The tomb was empty (but the grave clothes were left behind). Jesus’ followers, numbering in the hundreds, at different times and in different places after his resurrection saw him, spoke with him, touched him, ate with him. His followers began to gather and pray and remember and worship together. And here the church is today, still gathering two thousand years later -- except not just in the hundreds, not in the thousands, not in the millions, but in the billions the world over.

These are all significant details that we must not overlook. This isn’t just a fanciful story someone made up. It’s history; it’s truth. Jesus died, was buried, and he rose from the dead. Jesus lives!

Don’t think that you don’t have it in you to share the Gospel, because it’s really that simple: Jesus died, was buried, and rose from the dead. That’s what we believe, that’s the message we share. God does the rest.