Newsletter for April

Pastor John’s Corner
Lent, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter; these are the specific days that mark the most holy days of our Christian faith and Church year. You might think that I’ve left out a day that is just as important, that would be Christmas. But in my mind I’ll take Easter over Christmas in importance.
While Christmas is certainly more celebrated and more commercialized; it “only” represents the birth of Jesus; the day he came into the world. I’m not saying for a moment that we should not acknowledge the occasion, but in my mind, Christmas simply doesn’t hold a candle theologically to Easter.
The Easter season brings us to the full realization of the teachings, the suffering, the death and the resurrection of Jesus. It is the events of that Easter morning that gave us eternal life as Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, threw open the confines of death itself and walked out of a tomb that had held him for three days. Jesus made the necessity of a relationship with him clear in Luke 24:46-47; “And he said, ‘Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah must suffer and die and rise again from the dead on the third day. With my authority, take this message of repentance to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: “There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me.”
It is the resurrection above all else that seals the covenant between God and man. Without the resurrection, Jesus would most likely have simply been classified as a brilliant teacher, rabbi, prophet or simply a wonderful man who loved the people. But Jesus died and fulfilled the promise that he would rise again and because he did, we too will have eternal life. God is good.
Blessings,
Pastor John