SERMON - RESURRECTION of CHRIST GOD'S SALVATION FOR ALL MEN

Resurrection of Christ God’s Salvation For All Men     The celebration of The Resurrection is upon us. God’s Son has been crucified and died for the unbelief of man. Had only they believed…but God knew that just would not happen.   Let’s get a few things cleared up so as to learn the truth of God’s Word.   Jesus repeatedly told His disciples that He would leave them but return.   Matthew 12:40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.     Jesus Himself said, “Three days and three nights.”   Matthew 26:61 and declared, "This fellow said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.' "   Again three days was referenced.   Mark 8:31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.   Mark 9:31 “because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise."   You may ask why is this so important. Why be so repetitive?   I repeat this as it is written in God’s Word, our Bible, and God’s Word is never erroneous!   As a child I often wondered; If Jesus was crucified on Friday and arose on Sunday, what happened to the ‘three days and three nights? Friday does not represent a full day. Friday night is one night, Saturday one day, Saturday night a second night then He arose.   It defies logic.   Now, we all know that Jesus was not found in the tomb wherein He was ‘buried’ on the “First day of the week.”   Matthew 28:1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.       This fits in with my last sermon respecting the Sabbath. But the subject before us is now Easter.   Now, in order to fulfill His own Word and for us to learn truth, lets count the time so as to conform to God’s Word. In doing that, we learn that the crucifixion of Jesus could not have happened on a Friday, it had to happen on Wednesday!   Look at facts that require very little thought.   If Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday, He would have lain ‘dead’ Wednesday night, Thursday and Friday nights, and that adds up to three nights. The days of Jesus’ death would be, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the Sabbath. Then, in discovering the tomb empty on the first day of the week, a Sunday, Jesus had to have risen the night of the Sabbath!   To long men and women of faith have been held hostage to imaginations and outright untruths! God’s Word is infallible and unerring!   With that said, I now ask each of you to know just how happy I am on this day to celebrate The Resurrection of Christ and to know that Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, went through all His suffering to give me a chance to gain salvation. Now I can confess my sins to God and repent to Him and from sin and gain Paradise ! An eternity of being in the presence of our Creator, our Savior and the Holy Spirit waits... What more could we ask?   We are going through earthly travails and having men attempt to smash our hopes and dreams by seeking to deny us the very Christianity we seek and are part of. We are banned from praying in school. We are banned from praying at school events as we visit and attend sports competitions. We are banned from displaying religious scenes in public places. We live in a society that condones abortion, the murder of elderly, slanderous libel of our beliefs and are spat upon for our faith in God.   Guess what? They aren’t getting to me! They are not able to control my mind, my thoughts and my faith in the Most High! They may kill this body but my soul will live on and IN THE PRESENCE of GOD!   He sent His only begotten Son to give me a gift. That gift is worth all the guff and ill-thought-out obstacles that could ever be put in my path. As a Christian you are able to understand my happiness, but they are not!   Guess who the joke is on? Me? Hardly!   No matter what rules and falseness that is placed before us we all know the truth. In the end, they will lose! Sadly, their loss will not make us happy but we will know that we fought the good fight and God, in His wisdom and glory will greet us and love us for all eternity.   He IS RISEN!   Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah!   (Closing prayer)   Dear Father, Abba, our Creator, we are here to praise You and thank for the gift You bestowed upon us when You sent Your Son, Jesus Christ, to walk amongst us and to light the path and lead us to eternal life with You.   We thank Jesus for His sacrifice and His sending the Holy Spirit to enlighten us. Without Him we would be forever in darkness as we needed the heavenly Light to show us the way.   It is with tears of joy that we pray that You accept our love, our praise and our worship. You are our God and there is no other.   As we pray, we ask that You enlighten the hearts and minds of those who would stand against us. Their continuing disbelief in You, our Lord and Savior and the Holy Spirit grieves our hearts. Enlighten them O Lord and allow them to see the path You have made known.   Father, we ask that You protect our military, our elected officials, the many judges that make up our judiciary, our police forces and the many men and women charged securing our nation from harm.   We ask that You continue to be with the children throughout this world and see them fed and in safety. Enlighten their tormentors and bring them to understanding You way.   We ask these things as we offer You our hearts and minds. You are our Creator and nothing can match Your power.   We pray on the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, who is One with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever,   Amen, amen and amen.