Easter
Easter Sunday: Christ and God Are OneLesson
On Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate the biggest holiday of the year – the celebration of Christ rising from the grave. Without His Death on the Cross how hopeless our existence would be, with His Resurrection how glorious our future is. In past years, we’ve studied the resurrection and the events that surround Christ’s death and resurrection. This year, let’s look at another aspect often misunderstood – that indeed Jesus was God and is God and His death and resurrection have always been part of God’s plan for our salvation before He created anything.
I often think that folks believe that God did His best to get the Jews to live a righteous life and follow God as their king. When the Jewish people failed, God’s next plan was to get Mary, a virgin, pregnant through the Holy Spirit; and Jesus was born. Following His birth Jesus did all that prophecy foretold, and then went to the cross to die for us. On the third day God raised him back to life and today Christ sits at God’s right hand. While all this is true, sort of, the real truth is God has always been the only Savior of humankind and knew that He would have to be before He created anything. This means God made a premeditated decision to manifest Himself in human form and suffer and die for us as a part of His eternal plan. How awesome. Let’s look then at the scripture that shows us this and that points to Jesus being God, and in fact we’ll learn that it was Christ who created us, Christ came and suffered and died for us, and Christ is who God has appointed as King and Judge over us.
Jesus is God, Jesus is the Messiah – Christ Jesus and God are one. Jesus created us. All of these are true, here’s how we know it: Beside each scripture reference, jot down a brief summary of what it’s telling us about these statements.
- John 1:1
- John 8:58-59
- Exodus 3:14-15
- John 17:5
- Isaiah 42:8
- Isaiah 43:10-11
- Isaiah 44:6
- John 1:14
- Colossians 1:15-20
- Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:21-23
- Isaiah 9:6 and Micah 5:2
- Luke 2:4-7, 10-11
- John 10:30-33
- Hebrews 1:3-4
- Colossians 2:9-12
- John 8:24
- John 20:27-29
- Revelation 1:7-8, 17-18
Let us celebrate His resurrection and keep our eyes open for the signs of His coming. Today we are two thousand years closer to His coming, let us live and act as the people of God, anxiously awaiting the return of our Savior. Knowing that if our death precedes His coming again we will pass from death into life and be immediately in His presence. As He told us, God is the God of the living, not the dead. Praise Him for his great love and sacrifice for us.
God Bless you all during the Easter Season.
In Christ,
Wes
[2008]