THEME: JESUS’ RESURRECTION IS OUR VICTORY
Mark 16:1-8
Praise the Lord brothers and sisters. He is Risen, He is risen indeed! Hallelujah! It’s my pleasure to share with you this message on this historic day in our lives as believers and in the life of the church generally. Easter, the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. This momentous event did not only give Satan the last blow, but it also gave us victory as Christians! Victory over sin and death. Because of Easter, we are victors. Praise the Lord!
It is a contradiction to talk about victory where there is no challenge, test, race, battle or contention.
As we go through life, we are daily faced with life’s challenges, oppression, persecutions, contentions and battles, both spiritual and physical. Many of these are engineered by our enemy, the devil. But because Jesus rose from the dead, we have the confidence that we are also overcomers. In fact, this victory was registered on the Cross when He said “it is finished” (John 19:30), and it was sealed on Easter, when he rose from the grave.
Let us share 3 dimensions in which Jesus’ resurrection becomes our victory:
1. The power of resurrection gives us victory over any obstacles
In Mark 16:1-3, we see these women, full of love and passion for their Lord, were taking spices to anoint Jesus’ body. But they had an obstacle to their mission, and they asked each other: “Who will roll the stone away for us?”(v3). Similarly, many of God’s people have spiritual, emotional, financial or marriage stones, obstacles to their progress. They keep asking who will take such as stone away. On this Easter, the answer is got: the power of Jesus’ resurrection can clear any stone hindering your progress, in the name of Jesus. Look at v4, the power that raised Jesus from the dead rolled away the stone, praise the Lord! (Read Matt. 28:3-4)
2. Resurrection brings regeneration, 1 Peter 1:3-4
3. The resurrection gives victory over death, 1 Cor. 15:54-57
Peter declares that God, in his great mercy, has given us new birth (regeneration) into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Before Jesus was raised from the dead, we did not have any hope. In fact, if he had remained on the cross, Christianity would not be there. But his resurrection ushers us into a new life of hope, in which we inherit a new life which never perishes, or fades, kept in heaven for us. Even when we die, we just pass on to a better, eternal life in the everlasting Kingdom. This new life of hope is our victory.
Death is the most dreadful occurrence anyone wishes to experience. It is Satan’s strongest weapon. At the cross of Jesus, Satan seemed victorious. But God turned Satan’s apparent victory into defeat when Jesus rose from the dead (Hebrew 2:14-15). In 1 Cor. 15:54-57, we see that death is thus no longer a source of dread or fear. Christ overcame it, and one day we will also. Scripture says: Death is swallowed up in victory, O death, where is your victory? The victory over death is now with us, through Jesus’ resurrection. Hallelujah!
Happy Easter!
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