04/12/2020 - Victory! - Easter Sunday

Long before World War II newspaper headlines proclaimed, "Victory!" there was a much bigger battle fought and won. The stone was rolled away. The tomb was empty. The apostle Paul sums it up...    “Death is swallowed up in victory.”   “O death, where is your victory?   "O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:54-56 It's been said that all of man's life is one long attempt to avoid death. Death is separation, a dividing of things that ought to be united. Fundamentally, it is separation from God. Death also marks the separation of the soul from the body. Not only did Jesus bear the wrath of God on our behalf; he endured death, the separation of his soul from his body. And let's not forget what Jesus did upon his death. The Saturday event is very important. Following his death for sin, Jesus journeys to Hades, to the City of Death, and rips its gates off the hinges. He liberates Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, John the Baptist, and the rest of the Old Testament saints, ransoming them from the power of Sheol.  As the old gospel song proclaims, "Because there was no grave that was going to hold his body down, there won't be any grave that's going to hold your body down." On that resurrection Sunday one thing for certain was proven. There is no fear that the resurrection cannot conquer. So let's proclaim it together church family... The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!