By Dave Frodsham, lead elder, Jubilee Church Wirral

“Is everything sad going to come untrue?“

There are many famous stories where resurrection is the central point.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Lord of the Rings, Crime and Punishment, The Matrix.… the list goes on. But there is only one true resurrection. The rest are all just a reflection of what Jesus did on that first Easter Sunday.

“Is everything sad going to come untrue?” is what Sam says in the Lord of the Rings when he discovers that Gandalf was not dead after all and was now the white wizard.

JRR Tolkien was a Christian who, through his friendship, helped bring CS Lewis to God and be saved. You may know his famous Narnia series for children. In “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, Aslan the Lion – who is killed in place of Edmund – comes back to life because he is innocent. He says “Death itself would start working backward.”

The key thing about the resurrection is that Jesus turns everything on its head with His resurrection.  We read in Romans 6 that Jesus will never die again, that death has no power over Him and if you have believed In Him, you have also died to sin and it has no power over you anymore.

Without Jesus’ resurrection we would be just worshipping another dead prophet. The resurrection is critical for us to be saved! If we just stop at worshipping Jesus for his coming into the world, his moral teaching, His righteousness or even His death, then they mean nothing to us without the resurrection!

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Glenn Scrivener, in his book Love Story, says that’s how we need to see Christ: His life and suffering and His sacrifices all come from love. Not from a God who is all powerful and can do miracles but one who genuinely loves us. Even when we betray, deny and run from Him, He remains faithful and continues to the cross in obedience.

When we look around this world we see darkness, we see works of evil, we see despair, we also see death and mourning and grief. We have disconnection with God and our fellow man.  We see and hear things that we just don’t think a human could do and yet we are all part of that and do similar things.  But Jesus changes darkness, death and disconnection to Light, Life and Love!

The resurrection ushers in the kingdom of light, the resurrection is the defeat of death and the resurrection brings love, and restores the relationship between us and God.

So, let’s look at three results of the resurrection and where things that are sad, are coming untrue.

1. He destroyed the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8 The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. Jesus defeats Satan and undoes his power on the cross as He is an innocent victim. He turns darkness into light.

2. He takes away the sin of the world and opens the way for our connection with God. Jesus doesn’t take away sin by making us better people. There is nothing of our righteousness in this: we owe everything to Him. That’s why you can come to faith at whatever stage of life. It’s not living by a set of rules, it is living in a relationship of love.

3. He destroys death – Jesus dethroned death as the ultimate enemy of mankind. Jesus reverses the effect of our sin and the evil one and makes everything new. He also destroys the fear of death and the hold it has on us. We are alive in Christ, united with Him, in a resurrection like His and walking in newness of life for eternity.

Hallelujah, Jesus is alive! Jesus has defeated our greatest enemies: Satan, Sin and Death. He has turned these around to give us Eternal Life, Perfect Love and brought us into the light. We are God’s people and we live from His victory!

Happy Easter

Dave

Dave Frodsham, Jubilee Church Wirral