1.) It is a promise of a renewed life and a renewed world

Life is hard. If it’s not one thing it’s another. Between our limits, our weakness, and our wrestle with sin, life can start to feel like a never-ending cycle of suffering internally. The world around us is deeply fractured and keeps breaking in new ways. Conflicts, wars, hatred, selfishness, and trauma. Sometimes we long for it to just be over.

The resurrection is the promise that “all sad things will become untrue.” What Jesus began in our faith will someday go world wide. Everything that is broken will be healed. All demonic influence will cease and evil humanity will have either repented or be sent to judgment. 

In other words Jesus came to resurrect the world.

2.) It is proof that Jesus’ work on the cross worked

The Gospel is a message that Jesus died for sinners. He took the penalty. He absorbed the wrath. He is the substitutionary atonement for us. He died in our place for our sin.

The resurrection is proof that it is really finished. Once you put faith in Christ, you are saved for his name’s sake. Nothing or no one can take that away from you.

3.) It is an anchor in the Christian year.

Because the resurrection is the central truth of Christianity, we circle back to it with a yearly celebration and a weekly one.

Yearly, on Easter Sunday, we remind ourselves and others that He is alive! He is not a dead guy that said some good stuff. He’s not a dead guy that we remember for his sacrifice and kindness. He is an alive guy who is Lord of all creation. 

So, once a year, we anchor ourselves to this truth.

Weekly, each Sunday, we gather because it is the day of resurrection reminding us that our faith is based on the fact that He is alive!

4.) It is a compass pointing us to our true north

It is also like a compass. The resurrection shows us that God intends to renew all things, not with force, but with love. The resurrection shows us that God intends to remake this whole place.

For us Christians, we live in this world leaning into the future. It is my prayer that All Souls Church will lean into how things will be, not how they are. This informs our mission and gives us daily courage to press on.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Harvey