A Happy Easter to all at ABC,
Jesus Christ was sent on a mission in Matthew 1:18-20 to take away Adam’s curse from all his descendants, that is all of us! In this passage He is not only the expected Messiah but He is introduced as the Saviour to be born from a woman alone and in Genesis 3:15 this same man at His future coming will cancel out all sin and its consequences as well as the devil from the universe(Revelation 20:2-15). In Romans 5: 12-17 reveals this reversal of the curse from Adam to life eternal in the Christ who would accomplish His intended mission completely. The Messiah’s cruel criminal death was substitutionary bearing the world’s sins so that believers trusting in Him would experience this substitutionary death on their behalf; He achieved this and more on the cross by reversing this curse on all the descendants from Adam who by believing and repenting of sin received the blessing of reconciliation to our offended Creator and God. God was offended by all who rejects His rightful claims of ownership upon those He created.
Three days in a tomb dashed all the expectations of His disciples; despair gripped all who trusted Him until He appeared in person, risen from the dead, being seen by individuals, groups and over 500 at one time. All the indisputable evidence in history corroborates what actually occurred. The rise of Christianity for over 200 years of martyrdom, persecutions and imprisonments cannot explain the growth and strength of the early church in history without the the resurrection of Jesus without the resurrection and the change that took place in the believers who knew first-hand the evidence. The disciples preached truth and risked their lives to doing so; people do not die for what they know is a lie. All the authorities had to do is to produce the body of Jesus to disprove the resurrection and to this day, none ever could produce his remains simply because He rose from the dead and later ascended into heaven. Religious leaders paid guards to say that while they slept, his followers stole his body from the tomb. The fact that 3,000 in one day became Christian reveals and history corroborates the fact that people knowing the real evidence, believed the truth of what actually happened. (Acts 2:41). Attempts to falsify the evidence of what really transpired by religious authorities and paying guards to lie about the body being stolen by the disciples while they slept; it was clear to the 3000 who recognized the real truth of the resurrection and the claims of the Messiah. (We live in an age where information and people’s prejudices are publicized in abundance as information without real evidence to base it on fact. Despite so much that is written in the 21st century by those who rationalize their prejudices on groundless possibilities, what one author called “probability” on what might have happened, etc. cannot be supported from history.)
2000 years later, there are many around the world who continue to experience the new life change that transforms their lives to those who believe and repent by faith in Jesus and they know in their inmost being that Jesus lives and that love, grace, truth and righteousness of God is real in their experience.
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed!
