Dear Children of God,

ALLELUIA! CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! ALLELUIA!

I pray that you’ll be hearing and reading these words often! In fact, we should remember them always … after all, Christ is – not was … not will be … but is – in fact risen! He is alive today and forever. This is the essential truth found in the Easter story we hear once again in 2022. “Christ is risen” is the basis for all our hopes in this life. 

God’s word shares many accounts of people being raised from the dead, besides Jesus. Elijah and Elisha each raised a boy to life (1 Kings 17:17-24 and 2 Kings 4:32-37). The bones of Elisha also raised a man from the dead (2 Kings 13:20-21). Then Jesus raises a widow’s son, a synagogue official’s daughter, and his good friend Lazarus from the dead (Luke 7:11-17, Mark 5:35-43, and John 11:39-44). When Jesus dies on the cross, immediately a host of the dead come back to life (Matthew 27:50-53). And later we hear that Peter and Paul raise Tabitha and Eutyches (who falls to his death from an open window when he falls asleep during one of Paul’s sermons) (Acts 9:36-41, 20:9-10). But all these people join with every other person in history, except for one – Jesus, in that they all die for good … 

Only Jesus dies and then, on the first Easter, rises to new life for good (Luke 24).

When I said, “for good” in reference to everyone else in history, I need to make a point of emphasis. We all remain dead in the grave until our risen Savior, Jesus Christ returns. On that Day, “in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:22-23). When He returns, we’ll all be raised from the dead … forever. This is the great Easter promise causing us to proclaim each day of our lives,

ALLELUIA! CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! ALLELUIA!

                Your brother in Christ,

                                                                         Pastor Jim