Exciting Jesus - bless us with a sense of wonder this Easter.
Amazing Jesus - bless us with peace and happiness this Easter.
Saviour Jesus - bless us with thankfulness this Easter.
Teacher Jesus - bless us with wisdom and faith this Easter.
Encouraging Jesus bless us with reassurance this Easter.
Risen Jesus - bless us with anticipation this Easter
Read Luke 24: 1-8
Each Easter we come to church and hear the same story: Women coming to the tomb and finding it empty and are initially disbelieved when they tell their story, but eventually when more of Jesus followers see Jesus alive, they all believe. It is good and helpful for each of us to be familiar with the facts concerning Jesus’ death and resurrection, but the downside of that can be that we lose our sense of wonder, lose the excitement of living the Christian life. We forget how lacking our life felt before we discovered Jesus to be our Saviour and Lord. The events of the first Easter Sunday remind us that God is full of the unexpected - full of wonder, fulfilling promises in surprising and exciting ways.
The next description of Jesus in our Easter acrostic builds on this, as we consider how amazing he is, how he blesses us with peace and happiness. This doesn’t mean all our worries disappear and nothing bad ever happens to us, instead it is talking about a particular type of peace. The word Jesus uses is ‘Shalom’ which rather than being defined as lack of disturbances, it is defined as wholeness, completeness, a contentment which is unaffected by circumstances. We can only experience this when we are sure that we are loved by God and know we are in a right relationship with him through faith in the Saviour he gave us.
The next phrase reminds us to be thankful for this Saviour God gave to us. The events we have remembered over the last few days remind us that Jesus gave up his life so that we can know forgiveness and enter into a right relationship with God as our Father. Thankfulness is something we should feel whenever look at the cross, or think of Jesus our Saviour.
Recognising the Salvation Jesus brings us, it just the start, Jesus also wants to be a teacher to us, and help us to understand more about who God is, how wise and loving he is. Jesus wants to teach us to utterly depend on God’s promises, something which involves faith. In the bible we have recorded for us teaching which reveals to us enough about God, so that if we are wise, we will put our faith in him.
Jesus not only teaches us what pleases God, he also explains what thoughts, words and actions make God sad – even make God angry, but Jesus doesn’t leave us in that state of separation from God. Jesus encourages us and gives assurance time after time that God loves us and wants to save each of us from the dire consequences of not living life as we ought to have. Through the events we particularly remember at Easter, we can be assured that we each have a Saviour, who encourages us to trust him and who declared ‘I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.’ (John 14:6)
The final phrase of the acrostic, ‘Risen Jesus’ is perhaps the most difficult to put our faith in when we know it to be beyond human possibility, but without Jesus being our risen saviour, there is no Good News, no Salvation. The Roman soldiers who took down Jesus’ body, knew whether a person was dead or not, and when they had previously put a sword in Jesus’ side, water and blood had poured out – a sign that his heart had stopped beating. Jesus was definitely dead when he was put in the tomb, but Father God showed his power over sin and death by raising Jesus to life. Those followers of Jesus who spread the news that we have a risen Saviour, never gained from telling the message – never made any money out of it, and in fact received persecution, with many of them being killed for proclaiming that Jesus is alive! They continued to declare this news because they knew it to be true, and the promise we have in the bible is that because Jesus lives, we also will experience resurrection life! This is the anticipation which Easter bring to us!
Easter is a time to remember to never take for granted the benefits we receive from accepting Jesus as our Saviour and King. It is a time to recall the wonder and astonishment we felt when we first realised how much God loves us, and how Jesus died for us.
Read again the acrostic which starts this article, then using the lyrics below to lead you into spending time thanking God for Jesus:
I serve a risen Saviour, He’s in the world today.
I know that He is living whatever men may say.
I see His hand of mercy; I hear His voice of cheer;
And just the time I need Him He’s always near.
He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.
(A H Ackley © 1933 Word Music)