What phenomenal news we, the followers of the lamb, are commissioned to share. I find it most refreshing and rejuvenating, especially in these times of the now – these last days! Everywhere we turn there is trouble, pain, heartache, calamity, and despair. Outside there is turmoil, inside there is unrest! Yet in the midst of it all the church remains the harbinger of good news, the agent of hope and restoration, undeterred in her commitment to preach the whole gospel which announces most decisively the death, burial, and resurrection of our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Like the angels we adamantly, positively, repeatedly declare “He is not here, but is risen . . .” (Luke 24:6).

It remains our greatest message of power. It speaks of His triumph over death, hell, sin, and the grave. It is the mantra of the church in every age – He is risen! Every time we are bombarded and threatened by the forces of darkness we need to take them to these powerful facts of our salvation history “. . . that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures . . .” (1 Corinthians 15: 3,4). The fact is, the enemy would so love for us to forget this, to omit this but to do so would be the greatest tragedy and defeat of our lives.

The Apostle Paul reminded the Corinthians and by extension the entire church that it is by this gospel that we are saved if we hold firmly to the Word preached. He strongly contended “. . . Otherwise, you have believed in vain” (1 Corinthians 15: 2). He further informed that what he received, he passed on to them, as of first importance – the entire gospel of our redemption, culminating in the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior, who died but rose again, becoming the guarantee of the resurrection of all of God’s redeemed people (1 Thessalonians 4: 13-14).

Therefore, today I rejoice as I graciously remind the church that this present age in which we live is Easter Time for the church. Easter is not just March 31st.  Easter for us begins with the glorious resurrection of the Redeemer and ends with the resurrection of the Redeemed. It is believed that we live between two Easters . . . In the power of the first Easter, we go to meet the last Easter. It is further stated that the resurrection of the Head guarantees the resurrection of the body. Because He lives, we too shall live!

It is with great diligence we note and are reminded so powerfully that the church is not a funeral society. We are people of the resurrected, ascended Lord of glory. Now instead of just weeping and mourning at funeral services for the believers, we also rejoice, knowing what the message of our gospel declares. In a great note of praise and positivity, the apostle Peter declares “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1: 3-5). As sincere followers of the Lamb, we greatly rejoice! He is Risen!