We remain in the season of Easter until Whitsun or Pentecost Sunday which will be on the 19 th May. We celebrate Easter with great joy as we remember the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, knowing His resurrection was the confirmation of the sacrifice being accepted, the fulfilment of the requirement of the law and so now the way to peace with God is open, through forgiveness of sins and is accessible to all who will repent and believe in the Saviour, Jesus Christ.

From the time of His resurrection to His ascension, forty days later, Jesus appeared to His disciples on many occasions and in many different places. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians Ch. 15 v 6 ‘Then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep’.

Jesus ministry began with His baptism by John and forty days spent in the wilderness where He was tempted. His ministry on earth is ended with another forty days, this time being spent showing Himself to His disciples, so that they would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He really was alive, not just raised to life with His mortal body, only to have to die again. No, His resurrection body was an eternal body, that will never die again and that Jesus was going to take with Him when He returned to heaven. Others before Jesus had been called back into their mortal bodies only to face death again later. Jesus had raised at least three people from the dead during His earthly ministry. But no one had ever been resurrected with a new eternal body. This is why Paul in Corinthians Ch. 15 v 12-23 discussing the resurrection from the dead, says in v 20 ‘in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep’.

Jesus is the first of many who will be resurrected with an eternal body to dwell on the new earth, in The Kingdom of God forever.

This is not wishful thinking or a vague, hoping things will be alright. Hope, in the Bible is firm, sure, dependable, something we can rely on.

So just as Jesus wanted His disciples to be sure that he had indeed risen from the dead and was alive forever more, He spent time showing them that He could be found throughout the Scriptures, (just the Old Testament, as the New Testament hadn’t been written then.) So that when they faced persecution, distress, illness and death, which all followers of Jesus will, they would be able to find Him in the Word. So too, He wants us, His disciple now, to be just as sure that He is alive and to be able to find Him in the Bible as we read and study it.

Jesus speaking to Martha just before He raised Lazarus from the dead, tells her ‘I Am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in Me though he die, yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’

Jesus asks us that same question today, we must believe it if we are to follow Him, trust Him and know Him to be Our Savior, the Son of God and the King of Kings.