"Easter Is The Gift..."

Jesus Christ, the Savior And Hope of Easter

Easter is the springtime holiday marking the rebirth of Jesus and the renewal of the Christian faith.

It is a blessed time for the faithful to celebrate the life, death and resurrection of the Savior... and a magical time for children to enjoy chocolate bunnies, marshmallow chicks and jellybean-filled Easter eggs.

For Christians, there is no holiday more important than Easter. Easter is the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. He had been crucified and was buried for three days. All His disciples had believed that He was gone for good. None had understood that His sacrifice was the primary purpose of His short life and the only way for us to obtain righteousness and restore our fellowship with God. No man had taken His life. There was no sin in Him and no way for Satan to take His life. It was freely given for us all.

Easter stories are a great way to share the sacrifice and unconditional love that Jesus made on the cross for all of mankind.

Easter also refers to the season of the church year called Eastertide or the Easter Season. Traditionally the Easter Season lasted for the forty days from Easter Day until Ascension Day but now officially lasts for the fifty days until Pentecost. The first week of the Easter Season is known as Easter Week or the Octave of Easter. Easter also marks the end of Lent, a season of prayer and penance.

Jesus Christ's Resurrection

Jesus Christ rose the third day after His death; that was the time He had often spoken of. On the first day of the first week God commanded the light to shine out of darkness. On this day did He who is the Light of the world, shine out of the darkness of the grave; and this day is from henceforward often mentioned in the New Testament, as the day which Christians religiously observed in solemn assemblies, to the honour of Christ. Our Lord Jesus could have rolled back the stone by His own power, but He chose to have it done by an angel.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ, as it is the joy of His friends, so it is the terror and confusion of His enemies. The angel encouraged the women against their fears. Let the sinners be afraid. Fear not ye, for His resurrection will be your consolation. Our communion with Him must be spiritual, by faith in His word. When we are ready to make this world our home, and to say, It is good to be here, then let us remember our Lord Jesus is not here, He is risen; therefore let our hearts rise, and seek the things that are above.

+ (Colossians 3:1-4): 1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

He is risen, as He said. Let us never think that strange which the word of Christ has told us to expect; whether the sufferings of this present time, or the glory that is to be revealed. It may have a good effect upon us, by faith to view the place where the Lord lay. Go quickly. It was good to be there, but the servants of God have other work appointed.

Public usefulness must be chosen before the pleasure of secret communion with God. Tell the disciples, that they may be comforted under their present sorrows. Christ knows where His disciples dwell, and will visit them. Even to those at a distance from the plenty of the means of grace, He will graciously manifest Himself. The fear and the joy together quickened their pace. The disciples of Christ should be forward to make known to each other their experiences of communion with their Lord; and should tell others what God has done for their souls.

-- Matthew Henry

The Great Commisssion

The evangelist passes of the resurrection and appearances of Jesus Christ, recorded in Matthew (28), Luke (24), John (20-21), and Acts (1:1-11), and hastens to the most solemn; one appointed before His death, and after His resurrection.

All that see the Lord Jesus with an eye of faith, will worship Him. Yet the faith of the sincere may be very weak and wavering. But Christ gave such convincing proofs of His resurrection, as made their faith to triumph over doubts.

He now solemnly commissioned the apostles and His ministers to go forth among all nations. The salvation they were to preach, is a common salvation; whoever will, let him come, and take the benefit; all are welcome to Christ Jesus.

-- Acts 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Christianity is the religion of a sinner who applies for salvation from deserved wrath and from sin; he applies to the mercy of the Father, through the atonement of the incarnate Son, and by the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, and gives up himself to be the worshipper and servant of God, as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three Persons but One God, in all His ordinances and commandments.

-- Romans 6:8-11,23: 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him. 10 The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ++ 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Baptism is an outward sign of that inward washing, or sanctification of the Spirit, which seals and evidences the believer’s justification. Let us examine ourselves, whether we really possess the inward and spiritual grace of a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness, by which those who were the children of wrath become the children of God.

-- Romans 6:3-4: 3 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Believers shall have the constant presence of their Lord always; all days, every day. There is no day, no hour of the day, in which our Lord Jesus is not present with His churches and with His ministers; if there were, in that day, that hour, they would be undone. The God of Salvation, the Savior, is sometimes a God that hidden Himself, but never a God at a distance.

-- Romans 8:9-11: 9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.

To these precious words Amen is added. Even so, Lord Jesus, be Yourself with us and all Your people; cause Your face to shine upon us, that Your way may be known upon earth, Your saving health among all nations.

-- Matthew Henry

"Easter Holiday"

Easter & Christian – What is the Significance?

What is the significance of Easter to the Christian? For some people, Easter strictly belongs to the realm of the Easter bunny and family get-togethers. For others, Easter is primarily a time of celebrating Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. For many, Easter -- like Christmas -- is celebrated as a combination of the secular and the sacred.

Understanding Easter from a Christian perspective is vitally important. The celebration of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection from the dead is crucial for believers in Jesus’ Christ. Without this doctrine, there is no Christianity and no Christian Easter.

Beyond doctrine is the knowledge of the truth that Jesus died to pay the penalty of death that we deserve for our sin, was buried, and rose with a glorified body, gaining victory over death and the grave. When we put our faith in Him by believing through faith alone in Christ alone, we have the promise of one day having a body like our Lord’s and reigning with Him in heaven.

-- Philippians 3:20-21: "20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 Who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.”

-- 2 Timothy 2:11-13: “11 Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we disown Him, He will also disown us; 13 if we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown Himself.”

This gives hope to the Christian at Easter time and throughout the year.

+ Read the entire Easter story in all four Gospels:

+ The Resurrection of Christ +

"Happy Happy Easter Morn"

"Easter Joy"

"A Crown of Thorns"

"His Cross Became My Crown"

"God's Sacrifice"

"Jesus' Eternal Sacrifice"

"Unity in Christ"

-- Ephesians 4:1-7
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

4 There is one body and one Spirit -- just as you were called to one hope when you were called -- 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

-- Ephesians 1:1-14
1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will. To God’s holy and faithful people who are united with Christ in the city of Ephesus.

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth -- in Him.

11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.



-- Hebrews 12:2
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our Faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

-- Psalms 72:17,19
17 May His name endure forever;
may it continue as long as the sun.
All nations will be blessed through Him,
and they will call Him blessed.

19 Praise be to His glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with His glory.
Amen and Amen.

-- Revelation 11:17
We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty,
The One Who is and Who was and Who is to come,
Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.

-- 2 Corinthians 13:14
May the love of God,
and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all. Amen.