He is risen!

Belief in the resurrection of our Lord is a central pillar of the Christian faith. Paul says “If Christ has not risen, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” (1 Cor 15:13). To many non-Christians, and even some who call themselves Christians today though, the resurrection is merely a myth – an invention of the early church.

At the start of His gospel, Luke says that he carefully investigated everything from the beginning, and sought to write an orderly account so that his original reader might know the certainty of the things he had been taught. He takes a very down to earth approach.

KNOWING GOD BETTER, Peter Smit, 10-01-3

Sermon 2 of a series on Ephesians (Series title – “Ephesians: Portraits of the living church”)

Text – Ephesians 1:15-23

The title of this series on Ephesians is “Portraits of the living church.” The first portrait we looked at from the first half of Chapter 1 was of God’s amazing blessings poured out on us.

Today’s portrait is a picture on prayer.

When you pray for friends, family, parents, children, your church family what do you pray?

What a wonderful day to celebrate, “Jesus has risen from the dead" and all God’s people reply, “He has risen indeed!"  And surely this is also the very reason why we worship and glorify our Saviour God today!  Where would we be without the resurrection of Jesus from the dead?  We would still have to suffer God’s wrath for our sin; we would be false witnesses and living a big lie; our loved ones who have already passed away would be lost; our preaching and our faith would be useless.  As the Apostle Paul says, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men."

But thanks be to God, our glorious Saviour has risen from the dead! And that dear friend makes life worth living to the glory of God.’  That one fact gives purpose and direction to life!’  That one fact gives reason for endurance when things go against us and encouragement to continue the race of life.’  That one fact causes great thankfulness to well up within our hearts for now eternal life in glory with our Saviour is guaranteed.