God's will includes a third day!

Rev. Enoch Thompson | July 4, 2023 | Matthew 20:17-19

KEY VERSE:

"¹⁸We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death ¹⁹and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!" Matthew 20:18-19

(NIV)

MESSAGE:

That Christianity is founded upon the death of Jesus Christ is a misstatement if it does not add the fact of the resurrection to complete the thought. The Lord Jesus announced His ordeal and His crucifixion, but He also announced that on the third day, He would rise from the dead.

The Apostle Paul met the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus and concluded that the One we killed could not be kept by the shackles of death. He had risen and demanded the allegiance of all, offered salvation to all and was in charge of His Church to grow it. That realisation turned the persecutor of Christians into a most powerful preacher of the Lordship of Jesus Christ as Saviour.

Paul and the early Apostles of Christ included the fact of the resurrection in their preaching. We do not follow a dead Master, our Lord is alive and well, and He is in charge today. Jesus Christ is alive and well and will come back to rapture His Church and take us to be where He is with the Father. All this is true because, in the sordid prediction of His approaching humiliation at Jerusalem, He indicated that “On the third day he will be raised to life!"

Thank God for the resurrection power that worked in Christ Jesus. When we suffer because of our commitment to Christ, let us not give up. After every Good Friday, there shall be a resurrection Sunday.

FEET AND HANDS FOR THE MESSAGE:

Are you facing challenges associated with your faith commitment and your Christian stance? Do not be dejected, God‘s plan shall bring you up again and make you rule over what rules against you now. May the faith in the resurrection of the Master be a reminder that when we die, we shall rise again to live with Him eternally.

PRAYER:

Lord Jesus Christ, I celebrate your resurrection. It gives me hope for my daily resurrection, and of that ultimate day when together with all the faithful departed I shall rise from the dead. May resurrection power be at work in me and make me more than a conqueror. For your dear Name’s sake, Amen.

THERE SHALL BE SHOWERS OF BLESSING.

SHOWERS! BLESSINGS!!