Life is VICTORIOUS over death on this Easter Sunday. That’s a big statement. It can be a little confusing looking around at some of the secular trappings of the holiday. The bunny, the candy, Spring are all fine and dandy, but the meaning of Easter isn’t a pagan spring holiday. Easter is the day we celebrate Jesus breaking the grave. It doesn’t work anymore. All the dead will rise from the grave one day. How do I know? How can I be sure? Because Jesus proved it! Easter is all about the proof! I want to take a minute to talk about the meaning of this new life in Jesus.
How many of you know what the thrill of victory is like? Last week we talked about the word vicarious – it just means that you experience something through someone else! I don’t know if there are any JayHawk fans sitting with us this morning but March Madness ended with Kansas winning the big dance.
What about the agony of defeat. Those words probably have a very specific image or should I say ski jump burned into your mind if your from my generation. That poor fella suffered a concussion and a broken ankle. His name is Vinko Bogataj. He is the face for the agony of defeat from ABC’s Wide World of Sports! That poor guy who fell down the ski slope every week was quoted as saying – every time I’m on ABC, I crash. He was honored at a banquet ABC held for itself after 20 years of Wide World of Sports. The crowd at the banquet loved him! He had no idea why he was being cheered. All he did was fall down a ski jump break his ankle and get a concussion. Back in Yugoslavia he was nobody! Muhammad Ali asked him for his autograph because he was famous.
One day when you reach heaven, you will be honored not because you are famous or have accomplished anything in life. You will be honored because of the victory that Jesus won. You might wake up from the sleep of death a little confused because you didn’t do anything. That’s TRUE! In fact all the wrongs that we have done will not be remembered because we are washed clean by the blood of Jesus. Jesus has done everything for us. By faith in Jesus his victory is our! By faith in Jesus we are VICTORIOUS over death.
Want to hear more? Watch this Sunday’s message taken from 1 Corinthians 15.
Book(s): 1 Corinthians
Tag(s): Easter
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg