“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” \u2013 John 6:40
\nWhat difference does the resurrection of Jesus Christ make to you and to me? It answers the all-important question that Job asked: \u201cIf a man dies, will he live again?\u201d (Job 14:14). When I close my eyes for the last time here on earth, do I just slip into nothingness, or is there something on the other side of the grave? The resurrection of Jesus answers that. The resurrection of Jesus was not just an isolated event. The Bible says His resurrection was a prototype of the resurrection of all who trust in Him for salvation. Jesus promised that the resurrection He experienced, you and I will also experience one day if we place our faith in Him. Death will not have the final word.<\/p>\n
We find that promise to Jesus\u2019 followers all throughout Scripture. Jesus made a bedrock promise that those who trust in Him would have eternal life. I think of John 5:24. It was my dad\u2019s favorite verse. He had it put on his gravestone. Jesus said, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.\u201d Or John 6:40. Jesus said, \u201cFor this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.\u201d Or John 11:25. Jesus said, \u201cI am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.\u201d Because Christ lives, one day those of us who trust in Him will live again as well. That is what the resurrection means to us.<\/p>\n
In 1968, when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, many people feared that his death and the riots that would ensue afterward would undo the civil rights movement. Dr. King\u2019s funeral was a pivotal event. That day, several people gave eulogies. One of those men was named James Bevel. When his turn came, the heavy-set Bevel mounted the podium and said, \u201cYou have heard that our leader is dead. That rumor is false. Our leader is not dead. Our leader was not Martin Luther King.\u201d He paused and then continued, \u201cOur leader is the one who led Moses out of Egypt. Our leader is the one who went down with Daniel into the lions\u2019 den! Our leader is the one who walked out of the grave on that Easter Sunday morning. Our leader neither slumbers, nor sleeps. Our leader cannot be put in jail! Our leader is still on the job! Our leader is not dead!\u201d<\/p>\n
That is the Easter message! Our leader is not dead! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today! And because He lives, one day so shall we! God be praised for a risen Savior.<\/p>\n
What does it mean to us that Jesus died and was raised from the dead? It means we do not have to wonder about our eternal destiny any longer. We are all going to die. We are all going to experience death, but we can experience life after death by trusting in Jesus to be our Savior.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” \u2013 John 6:40 What difference does the resurrection of Jesus Christ make to you and to me? It answers the all-important question […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1058,227,725],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7974"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}