The Resurrection of the Lord-Easter Sunday April 12, 2020

ACTS 10:34A, 37-43 | COL 3:1-4 | JN 20:1-9

Scripture

Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and
he saw and believed.

Easter Vacation by Fredrick Zydak, Omaha, NE

The Need for Easter Hope

• On this Easter, like no other in our lives or history we need signs and stories of hope
• Suffering, evil, darkness and death will not have the final word
• Jesus-Love Made Visible always has the final word

Our Easter Season Message Series: Rise Up! Be Amazed!

• In Jesus, nothing can keep us down forever
• In Jesus, we will always rise up
• In Jesus, there is reason to be amazed
• The Light of Christ penetrates through the darkness which surrounds us
• The seed broken open, giving unselfishly of itself, bursts through the darkness ablaze with the light of new life
• The tomb, with its stone rolled away, cannot hold the daunting power of the Lord’s love for you and me!

Easter is our reason to always hope!

About Hope from Vaclav Havel (dissident playwright, elected President of Czechoslovakia 1989 and the first President of the Czech Republic in 1993)

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. It is this hope, above all, that gives us strength to live and to continually try new things, even in the conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do here and now. In the face of this absurdity, life is too precious a thing to permit its devaluation by living pointlessly, empty, without meaning, without love and without hope

The Resurrection

• Testifies to Jesus’ absolute love for us
• Gives us strength to try new things when things seem hopeless
• Reminds us that hope is endless

Some Stories of Hope for These Easter Days

• Jeanette, Michael, Brandy, my neighborhood, Ethan, little girl in the drive-thru

You and Me in These Fifty Days of Easter

• Be on the look-out for moments in which God amazes you
• Consider how you can amaze someone with the love of the Risen Jesus

Let us rise up together and trust that the Risen Jesus is always with us! AMEN!

Questions for Reflection

• What/Who has given you hope in the last few weeks?
• What have been some things you have done to give others hope when they felt hopeless?
• How has your faith in Jesus Christ helped you from feeling hopeless?
• What would you say about Jesus to a person who might be feeling hopeless?
• How has celebrating Easter changed your life?

Live Connected

• Be on the look-out for moments in which God amazes you
• Consider how you can amaze someone with the love of the Risen Jesus