Approaching the Cross

Family service - the Resurrection

551 Thine be the Glory

Notices - Diane

Spring Harvest report - AJ

Building report - Stephen Bruce

Pray and give thanks

61 - Christ the Lord is risen today

Shout with children - Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! (get the children to listen out for it and shout the response each time during the service .)

Today is Easter Sunday, the day when we especially remember that Jesus rose from the grave three days after he had been crucified. I'd like to think

Coming back to life?

Have you ever heard of resurrection moss? It lives in desert and semi-desert regions of Texas and South America . What do you think happens to plants in deserts? They dry and shrivel up. What makes this moss interesting is that it goes completely brown and dead-looking. but as soon as water is added it goes green and comes back to life.

Another touching story was recorded in the Metro Newspaper a month ago. Only in Britain . A Goldfish thrown 15ft through the air in a motorway smash is feeling back in the swim. Bercy was hurled from his tank and out of his owners car in the accident on the M1 in Leicestershire. Police arrived on the scene to find the sodden vehicle littered with coloured gravel. As owner Sophia Underhill , 23, was treated for neck and arm injuries, officers combed the carriageway for the four-year-old-pet. They found nothing until an officer sweeping up glass spotted the tiny fish lying in the middle of the outside lane. As he was out of the water for 15 minutes, police thought he was dead. But a paramedic put him in a tray of water in the forlorn hope of saving him. 'Amazingly, Bercy started to swim around as soon as he was put in the water,' said one officer. Both he and his owner are now fully recovered.

Both remarkable stories of something apparently dead, but coming back to life. But I have to tell you that the resurrection of Jesus is much , much more than that You see Christ is risen (he is risen indeed) from the dead .

Jesus really died and really came back to life!

753 - He is Risen!

We thought last week about how horrible it would be to be crucified, and how the spiritual suffering Jesus faced as he carried our sin and our punishment was much worse than that. When Jesus had finished everything, had done everything that was necessary to save us, he cried out "IT IS FINISHED" and then died.

Roman soldiers were sent along before the Sabbath started to make sure that all of the prisoners who were being crucified that day would die before the Sabbath started. The other two prisoners were still just alive so the soldiers broke their legs to make sure they would suffocate quickly. When they came to Jesus it was obvious to them that Jesus was dead, but they had to make sure so they stuck a spear into his side.

It is interesting that the Bible says "blood and water flowed out". I've been told by a doctor that after someone has died their blood separates into "clot" and "serum" - red parts and transparent parts. When the apostle John, an eye-witness, was recording this he may not have realised that he was providing medical evidence that Jesus was actually dead.

On that first Easter Sunday Jesus rose from the grave. The tomb was empty, the graveclothes were there but the body wasn't. Nobody had stolen it away, Jesus just wasn't there any more. The authorities couldn't have done it (they would have produced the body later), the disciples couldn't have done it (they were demoralised and fearful and there were soldiers guarding the tomb)

Jesus started appearing to people. Mary Magdalene saw him in the garden. Two walking back to Emmaus discovered that he had been walking and talking with them. Most of the disciples saw him in an upper room, a week later Thomas saw him too. He was met cooking fish beside the sea of Galilee. One time he was seen by 300 people at once!

The first eye witnesses had no doubt about it. Jesus was alive! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!).

What is more, Jesus didn't just get up again in his same old body. he had a new resurrection body, very special. Harry is going to be telling us more about this in a couple of weeks time as we look at the details in 1 Cor 15. I just want to say that it is a perfect body that won't ever wear out or get old, and Jesus was able to appear inside locked rooms with the disciples.

So you can see, Resurrection is much more than just coming back to life. It also has a special meaning for us too - you see.

We shall be resurrected too!

The resurrection is the foundation of Christian faith; if the resurrection happened then it is all true, if the resurrection didn't happen then it is all a lie.

I stand today with the hundreds of millions of people throughout the ages who are convinced that the evidence is that Christ is risen . (He is risen indeed!)

( optional 736 - God sent his Son, they called him Jesus )

Jesus lives, and he is alive today. He walks with us and watches over us, he listens to our prayers and intercedes with God on our behalf. And one day all of us will be resurrected too, given new bodies to enjoy and to serve Jesus with - forever.

Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!)

77 - Crown him with many crowns

 

Alex White