Easter Sunday

Mark 16:11,13 (NIV)

“When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it… These returned and reported it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.”

Hope restored in the face of deepest despair.

Without the resurrection of Christ, our horizon is diminished. There is no hope.

Romans 5:6-10 (NLT)

“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came, at just the right time, and died for the ungodly. Now, most people would not be willing to die in someone else’s place, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.  But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.  And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, we will certainly be saved from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.”

Jesus once and for all declared…

• I am the resurrection and the life!
• I am the good shepherd!
• I am the light of the world!

You cannot extinguish the creator of light and life.

You cannot extinguish true hope.

You cannot extinguish perfect love.

1 John 4:10 (NIV) 

“This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.”

John 3:16-18 (MSG)

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.”

Jesus said: “I am the bread of life.” Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Those who will come to me, I will never ever reject. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me.