He is risen!

[0:00] Imagine this, someone that you got to know and got to love died and your grief was overwhelming because during the time that you got to know and to love that person you realised just how special and just how irreplaceable they were. I'm sure in fact you've experienced such grief in your life, such grief as this.

[0:34] Well then, think of the grief that was being experienced by the followers of Jesus of Nazareth when he was crucified.

[0:44] It had been a terrible and an agonising death, but also they had so much hope in Jesus. They looked to him for a fresh start and a new beginning and with his death it seemed like all was lost.

[1:03] Imagine that sorrow and that grief and that sadness. Well, now imagine what it must have been like when this person that you got to know and got to love and who had died was alive again.

[1:27] It would be overwhelming and it would also be hard to take in. It would be hard to believe, wouldn't it? Because it was so clearly the case that Jesus of Nazareth had died on a Roman cross.

[1:46] If there was one thing the Romans were good at, it was making sure that people were dead when they wanted to kill them and that was very much the case with Jesus. And yet, in the account that we read there, we hear these amazing words from the angels that are in the empty tomb when the women look into it.

[2:10] Why do you look for the living among the dead? That is, why are you in a graveyard looking for a person who's alive?

[2:21] He's not here. He has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee. The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.

[2:39] Now imagine this is beginning to sink in. Yes, he told us that he would be alive again after he had been killed. That is what is happening with these women who go to see the tomb and find the body of Jesus gone.

[3:00] He told us about this. And in verse 8 we read, Imagine that what is seemingly impossible has actually come true.

[3:13] Now we were thinking about the grief of losing such a person. Imagine the joy of regaining that person again. And in the case of Jesus of Nazareth, he's the most special person that has ever walked on the face of this earth.

[3:32] Loving, kind, compassionate, caring, always true, never doing anything that was wrong. And inviting anyone and everyone who sees their need of a saviour from all their sins to come to him and have eternal life.

[3:53] What Jesus did on the cross was die to take away our sins. And his resurrection from the dead means that it worked. It was accomplished there.

[4:06] He's conquered death and sin and Satan. And now he reigns on high at the right hand of his Father in heaven.

[4:17] All we need to do to be saved is to put our trust in this risen, living Lord Jesus Christ. Because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but will have everlasting life.

[4:38] He has risen. Let us praise God for that. And let us trust in Jesus for our salvation.

[4:49] Amen.