Rachel shares her thought from the week; He is risen!
Praise God, Jesus is risen. Peter in Acts 2:36 said,
Let all Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
Acts 2:36
Our God is not dead, he is not made of wood or stone, as we read in Deuteronomy 4:28 where it says
they served gods made of wood and stone, the work of human hands that neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
Deuteronomy 4:28
And he’s not an unknown God either. In Acts 17:23 Paul said he was fascinated with all the shrines that he’d come across whilst proclaiming the Gospel, sharing that Jesus was alive. And he said that he found one inscribed to the God, “nobody knows”, and Paul was so bold because he said,
“I’m here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you’re dealing with, the God who made the world and everything in it, the master of sky and land.”
Acts 17:23-24
He was sharing about Jesus, our risen living King.
You know, he’s not unknown, he’s not a myth. He’s not a cleverly crafted ornament, but God who became flesh, God who was born, God who lived and walked this earth, God who died, God who was buried and God who rose again. And on that Easter morning, there was jubilation, there was joy because they were told He is not here. But it didn’t stop there because the full message is “He is not here, He is risen”.
And that brings so much joy that it cannot be contained because our God is alive. He sees, He hears, He is Lord God both in heaven and on earth and there is no other. And God has shared so much with us that we didn’t deserve. Our sins have been forgiven. We have been redeemed. We are loved and accepted. We’ve been empowered with the Holy Spirit, but He also shared with us eternal life.
John 3:16 is such a well-known verse,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
An eternal life with God starts when from the very moment that we take that step of faith and believe that Jesus died and rose again and accept Him as our Lord and our Saviour. For me personally, it was the 10th of March 2005, but you might not have a specific date, but rest assured that if you believe in Jesus, if you believe that He died and He rose again, eternal life has already begun for you right now whilst you’re here on earth. And what is eternal life?
Well, Jesus tells us in John 17 verses 1 to 3, these are the words of Jesus. He said,
“When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
John 17:1-2
And Jesus then explains this is what eternal life is
and this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
John 17:3
And so as we celebrate that Jesus is risen, he is alive. We are a new creation in Him, we serve a living God and we have eternal life through Jesus we can rejoice because we are redeemed for all eternity. Our names are written in heaven and that is a lot to be thankful for, a lot to celebrate and a lot to rejoice and so we can give praise and glory to God because He is Lord of all.
Every week one of our members shares a short thought aiming to inspire you for the week. You can watch previous Thought For The Week videos by clicking here.