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Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1 NIV)

Notice anything strange about the above verse? It says that we have already been raised with Christ. Don’t we only get raised to life after we die? The fact is, the resurrection is a massive reality that governs our whole existence. It’s grounded in the past, it directs our everyday present and it gives us certain hope for the future. Come along and be transformed by a deeper understanding of the resurrection – both Jesus’ and yours!

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This term in Church, right across all our services, right across all our Small Groups, we’re focusing a lot on talking and sharing Jesus—technically called evangelism. Evangelism has suffered a lot of bad press in recent decades, whether from the seeming multitude of American ‘televangelists’, with more than a few particularly good at fleecing the vulnerable and gullible in order to keep their jet plane in the air’ or that obnoxious Christian you know who seems to have missed out when they were handing out the social skills, who tries to ram Jesus down throats rather than helping them know God as he really is.

The Bible still is all about how God is saving a people from this lost world. The dust of sin had barely settled and God revealed he was going to do something about it, promising a saviour in Genesis 3.15, who we know eventually was Jesus. Throughout the Old Testament, God used a people, the Israelites to point people to himself. No surprise that with Jesus, he too worked with a people, the disciples. If we know the Lord and his forgiveness, we too get to play a part in his plans to help others know him. Peter says in 1st Peter 2.9, “But you are a chosen people… that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness”. This term is all about being equipped to take this seriously.

Jesus spends a lot of time in John’s gospel getting his followers ready for the moment he had to leave them. Getting them ready for the moment he will die. He says the time has come for him to be glorified.

He’s going to be arrested, he’s going to be put on trial, and he’s going to be found guilty even though he’s innocent. He’s going to be tortured, and he’s going to be executed. Crucified. As far as his disciples can tell, it’s going to be anything but glorious. It’s going to be gory. It’s going to be torturous. But it’s not going to be glorious.

And yet Jesus says, it’s time for him to be glorified. And to bring glory to his Father. How can this ugly death, be a moment of beauty and glory?

Come to church over Easter, as we read about Jesus’ death and resurrection.

EASTER THURSDAY 2nd April
Combined Service | 7.00 PM

GOOD FRIDAY 3rd April
Combined Service | 9.00 AM | John 19.16-42

EASTER SUNDAY 5th April
9 O’Clock Church | John 21.1-25
10.30 Church | John 21.1-25
NightChurch | John 20-21