Good Friday: The Beginning Of A Beginning Of A Never-Ending Eternity

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(3) Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (4) and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, (5) who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (6) In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ’ (1 Peter 1:3-6)

Let us remember today is Good Friday; assuming the determination of the timing of the historical record is accurate, that Jesus was born in 4 BC and lived as human for 33 years until 29 AD; it was 1,996 years ago when the Passion Week events took place.  Today is the day we somberly celebrate His final trials, and Crucifixion.  As we know, fortunately, this was not the end of the story but the beginning of our Eternity; His death and burial, then three days later His Resurrection.  In those three days, He freed those who came prior, the Old Testament saints and prophets – those who lived Righteously under the Levitical or Mosaic Law, from their ‘soul-sleep’ in Sheol.  

We know Lazarus the Beggar, Samuel, and the repentant thief on the cross were there among many, many others; some waited (liked Samuel) for centuries, the thief on the cross just minutes – but Jesus came and freed their souls from this gentle bondage, as He overcame the curse of Death and claimed His birthright as the King and Lord over all Realms.  These resting saints were the first to see Jesus alive after the Crucifixion as He entered Sheol, or Paradise or Abraham’s Bosom and the other names it is referred as. 

Jesus then returned to the Mortal Earth, regenerating His human body in His final conquering of Death, and left the tomb in His Resurrection from death, to show His living Apostles, disciples, and likely a few of those who were ‘on-the-fence’, perhaps some Roman soldiers, Samaritans, and skeptic Jews who wanted to believe but were not quite sure, that He was indeed still very much alive!

He was among His people for 40 days after the Resurrection, appearing, disappearing, and reappearing to Peter and the Apostles and His disciples.  We know, according to Acts 1-2, at least 120 of His followers became the 1^st Christian church rallying around Him, receiving instructions, including the final instruction of the Great Commission – to go make more disciples of all people, Jew and Gentile, around the world – to follow Him and become Christians. He left us one ‘not-so’ final time, with the promise He would return to redeem His followers to Eternal Life at a future date of Father God’s choosing.

We are thus part of His story; we are in this phase of waiting for His return to redeem the church, the ‘Rapture’ or the taking-away of His followers from Earth before Judgement falls upon it.  The Easter story is not complete, but neither is our task to fulfill the Great Commission.  This story that has many beginnings and endings is not complete and will not be until that final follower who accepts Jesus as Lord repents. 

This means your part of the story is not complete until you share the Word with those around until death forces you to stop.  If you are that person needing Jesus to provide you Everlasting Life, your story needs a beginning as well.  And for all of us, our story is not complete, even if death comes to our door, until we are reunited with Him in His glory in the New Heaven & Earth promised in Revelation 22. 

The Easter message can be summarized by these verses.  Verses 3 through 5 are specifically what Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection accomplished; we have now, with Faith, a promise – a guarantee – that we are though Christ forgiven of our sins and are now grafted into God’s family, and there is now a spot in Heaven to live for all Eternity with our Lord.  This guarantee cannot be revoked our taken away – God has given His Word and it is unbreakable. 

Verse 6 shares that we will, in the midst of our good fortune in gaining that unbreakable bond with Jesus, suffer through what our mortal lives must live through.  We will suffer (as will everyone else) the effects and the actions & reactions those events occurring in our developing ‘clown’ world.  We need to go through this, to be refined and forged like a blade must go through the fire of the foundry and the quenching of the oil to gain strength and stability. 

Some of it is to test our Faith, to provide proof to ourselves and others of our Faith and to demonstrate our need to depend on the Lord for strength.  Some of our Faith is for others to see Christ in us, how we react and how we depend on the Lord and how in turn the Lord provides in our struggles.

Easter has been and until Jesus comes again will be the message that never changes – the Gospel message that was true then as it is now.  JESUS IS RISEN!  JESUS SAVES!  JESUS WILL RETURN!