Because He lives, we have hope for tomorrow.

A week has passed since we celebrated Resurrection Sunday around the world. According to our calendar, a little more than 2,000 years have passed since the indisputable event of Jesus’ Resurrection, when He was seen by His disciples, as recorded in the Gospels.

Particularly, the Gospel of John in chapters 20 and 21 shows how Jesus first appeared to His disciples “while the doors were locked,” and later, when Jesus was with them, “none of the disciples dared to ask Him, ‘Who are You?’ because they knew it was the Lord… This was already the third time Jesus had revealed Himself to His disciples after rising from the dead.”

What the Lord was doing was proving to His disciples that death could not hold Him. Is there anything worse than death? … We often hear that the one truly irreversible thing is death. Can there be anything worse than death? Yet Jesus overcame death. If Jesus conquered it, then there is nothing He cannot defeat in your life.

Yesterday, Saturday, we attended The Wizard of Oz performance at the school where our grandchildren study—in Orangevale, a city in Sacramento. Isabelle, the second-to-last grandchild, had a part. Those familiar with the story will remember that Dorothy was unconscious for a long time, during which her friends (…)

What happens to her mirrors what happens to many Christians… some live immersed in unreality; some live in fear, almost cowardly like the Lion… others live frustrated because they do not feel love or joy in their hearts like the Tin Man… and many others feel diminished and wish for more mental capacity, like the Scarecrow longing for a brain…

Beloved brothers and sisters, perhaps some of us can identify with one of them, or even with all three at once.

John chapter 20 ends with verses 30 and 31:

“Jesus performed many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing in His name you may have life.”

The two “so that” statements point to the purpose of what was written there: “so that you may believe in Jesus” and “so that in His name, you may have life.”

This refers to the life experienced only by those who believe in Jesus. The Apostle John is saying that before believing in Jesus, we had no life. Paul says in Ephesians 2:1:

“And He made you alive, who were dead in your trespasses and sins.”

Now… the fact of Jesus’ Resurrection, “our Savior and Lord,” clearly marks a new and glorious time for those who have believed in Him, aware that before knowing Him, we were lost and far from God.

Because He lives, you lack nothing; because He lives, your heart is joyful; because He lives, you have courage and strength to face everything. Because He lives!