I’m enjoying preparing and preaching about the Resurrection: I Serve A Risen Savior!
What a time-bending event Jesus’ resurrection was! We have a hard time realizing its significance today because it seems like ancient history. But, Jesus’ resurrection changed everything for all humanity and its effects are still changing people today.
Jesus died and rose again on April 7-9 of the year 30 AD. In that day and time, life expectancy was much shorter than it is in our day and time. Today’s life expectancy is 79 years in the US, the highest on record. But in Jesus’ day, life expectancy throughout the Roman Empire was only 25 years of age! When first-century skeletal remains are recovered and evaluated, evidence suggests that on any given day, 25% of the population was sick, dying or in immediate need of medical care. *
Babies often died soon after birth. Only 49% of children lived to their fifth birthday. Only 40% of the population lived to the age of 20! Truly, death was commonplace in the first century world. The leading cause of death in the first-century world of Jesus and the Romans was malnutrition. *
So imagine the impact of a Teacher bursting upon the scene in Galilee who could open the eyes of the blind, heal the lepers, raise the lame up to walk and even raise the dead back to life! Imagine when that Teacher said, “I will be killed, but on the third day, I will rise again!” Jesus was The One Who could overcome the physical sickness and death of this world. No wonder crowds flocked to hear Him and see Him. No wonder He caused such a sensation.
When Jesus appeared to his disciples alive again, it was simply the Greatest Miracle Ever Performed. NO ONE dies and comes back to life. No one ever had. But Jesus had raised three persons up from death and He promised that He would rise. When His disciples saw Him and realized that He was no spirit, no ghost, no hallucination, but that He really was alive again, they became His champions. Nothing could turn them aside. Jesus was alive forever and He sent them out into the rest of their lives with an incredible message of hope!
Hope is the message our world needs today. Who’s Your One? Who is the one who needs to hear about Jesus’ life-changing resurrection from you?
I Serve A Risen Savior!
Bro Jonathan
* study from the book “Unanswered,” Jeremiah J Johnston, p 73
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