Finished/Risen

"When Jesus had tasted it, He said, 'It is finished!' Then He bowed His head and gave up His spirit." John 19:30....

"When they arrived, they were greeted with the report, 'The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter!." Luke 24:33-34

Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, is upon us. The most magnificent news ever brought to the human race will be celebrated this Sunday. Many of you will be in a church fellowship or sunrise service somewhere on this day, partaking of the celebration. That's wonderful, but here's a question for each of us; What is the witness of our celebration on the other 364 days of the year?

The two words I chose for the title of this writing need to be, must be, branded upon the heart of all who have believed upon Jesus Christ. "Finished, and Risen." They need to be accompanied by the greatest of exclamation points possible, because the truth contained within them cannot truly be contained at all. All that He came to accomplish, that He came to give to us, that He came to save and deliver us from, was done, finished upon the cross. His death opened the pathway for us to have His life. Every aspect of the dominion of darkness, death, and hell was broken upon that cross. Conquered, and conquered for all time. What seemed to be His defeat upon the cross was actually His victory over the spiritual wickedness that was His reason for going to it. The slavery of the human race to the sin brought upon it by its fall in Eden, was broken completely. The chains have lost their power. By His shed blood, the manacles that have held us have been soaked from our limbs. Glorious news! If you have believed that news, have you also received it? Are you, are we, living in a manner that testifies that what He came to do for us has been finished, accomplished? Or, do we still live held by those chains? Chains that have no legal right to be upon us by token of the cross, His death, and His cleansing, freeing blood. All that blocked our way to the Father, that kept us from the abundant life He came to give, was canceled once and for all on the cross. Finished! So, has it been finished for and in you?

Secondly, there is His resurrection. He is risen! He is risen indeed! His death on the cross was not final, for death could not hold Him. In His resurrection, He conquered death, once and for all. All who believe and receive Him are made conquerors as well. By faith we are born into a living hope. A living hope that death in all of its forms cannot touch....if we will just believe and receive that truth. Have you? Jesus proclaimed, "I am the resurrection and the life." Is He so to you? Do you, do we, live that life today? Do we live and abide in His resurrection life? Life that overcomes the world, and the death and darkness that go with it in all of its forms.

This is what we will be celebrating this coming Sunday. What a travesty it will be if that is the only day and time we will celebrate it. May my life, and yours, be one that gives constant witness to the truth that what He came to do and give has been finished in us. May that be the lesson and message that is heard through our lives. May we also give witness to His resurrection. May we, like the disciples, proclaim every day through our life witness, that the Lord is really risen! That we have "seen" Him with the eyes of faith and that others may see His risen life in us. It is finished, and He is risen! Let our celebration have no end.

Blessings,

Pastor O