Resurrection Power

This morning as I awoke, I began to think about the disciples of Jesus and what their first thoughts must have been...that first morning they awoke after the crucifixion. For them, it truly was ‘mourning’.

They had been with Jesus for about three years; they had heard Him speak, had witnessed the signs and wonders and miracles. They had walked with Him and talked with Him and had heard Him declare that they were His own.

Among the many things that Jesus had spoken to them, was that they were not to let their hearts be troubled, that they were to believe in God and to believe also in Him. Jesus had told them that He was going away to His Father’s house and that He was going there to prepare a place for them and would surely come again and receive them to Himself…that where He was, there they may be also. John 14:1-3

Jesus had told them these things so that His joy might be in them, and that their joy might be made full. John 15:11

How could their ‘mourning’, the day after the crucifixion of Jesus, become joy?
What was this joy that Jesus had; this joy that He wanted to give to His disciples that their joy might be made full? Because whatever that joy was back then, it most certainly is for us today!

It was joy that enabled Jesus to endure the cross…
“…Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame…”
Hebrews 12:2

What was the joy that Jesus saw on the other side of the cross that was so powerful to have caused Him to endure the cross and despise its shame? It was the joy of sitting down at the right hand of the throne of God…
“…and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12:2

Is your mind like mine and just reeling back to “…that where I am, there you may be also”? Girls, we are looking at the Resurrection Power of the cross this Easter full in the face…let the reality of it just wash over you and penetrate into every part of your being. I can hardly catch my breath…Jesus said that He spoke these things so that His joy may be in us, and that our joy may be full. Oh, that our joy would be full today – and I do mean Today…this reality of our place with Jesus is not just some far off day…
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…”
Ephesians 2:4-6

He who experienced death, but death could not hold Him, now gives us Life together with Him. He gives Life! The joy set before Him…the gift of Life! Jesus said…
“I am the Resurrection and the Life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11:25-26

What need could not be met in the mighty acts of God through the cross and the resurrection. There is nothing in our lives that the power of the cross and resurrection could not speak to.

There is the “surpassing greatness of (God’s) power toward us who believe…in accordance with the working of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places…”
Ephesians 1: 19-20

Resurrection Power…may this be yours this blessed Easter season.
May God bless you this Easter; may the cross of Christ and His resurrection become more and more precious to you. It is what I pray for myself, what I pray for my family, it is what I pray for you.