The Greatest Day in History

  This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on  April 20th 2025 by Colin D Cruz. For the audio & video please click here.  For the worship please click here.

The Greatest Day in History

Think about your life. There must be something significant in your life. Children remember their birthdays, and married people remember their wedding anniversaries. We also remember historic events. 

Today, we remember the greatest event in history - Jesus' Resurrection. 

Why is it so important? 

This body that you see is just a shell. As we grow old, we lose some parts, and one day this body will be cast out. But that doesn't end you. The real you is going to live forever. Where you live forever depends on Jesus' Resurrection. 

One day we will also be resurrected, and that body will live forever with Jesus or suffer in hell forever. The Bible speaks about this. 

Last week, we saw the message of Jesus' death. He gave up his life for us. His work is finished. He died on the cross for our sins. Death entered the Garden of Eden. Because sin entered the Garden of Eden, we die. 

Rose is beautiful, but it has thorns. When God created the rose, it didn't have thorns. 

Genesis 3:17-18 NIV - [17] To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. [18] It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

The sickness we have is all because of the fall. Jesus came to set us free. He died and rose again on the third day. 

Matthew 28:1 NIV - [1] After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

We see in the gospels that the women had a great spirit. Jesus' disciples deserted him but the women stayed.

Mathew 28:1-10

On the third day, a violent earthquake and an angel came down. The guards who were posted there saw something like lightning, and they were scared. The angel told the women that Jesus was not there and that he had risen. He told them to inform the disciples that Jesus was going ahead and would meet them in Galilee. As the women hurried joyfully, Jesus suddenly appeared to them and greeted them.

The message of Easter is one of hope. Jesus indeed rose from the dead. He came through walls, but he had a body, not just a spirit. 

There were others who were brought to life from the dead, like Jairus' daughter and Lazarus. They were only resuscitated because they eventually died. But Jesus rose never to die again. 

Jesus is the first fruits for us. One day we will die too. Those who put their faith in Jesus will die and rise again to be with Jesus forever.

 

1 Corinthians 15:3-6 NIV - [3] For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, [4] that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, [5] and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. [6] After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

If Jesus has not been raised from the dead, then our belief is useless. 

On the Earth, there's sin, sickness, accidents, suffering, death and much more. But not in heaven.

Romans 10:9 NIV - [9] If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  

Matthew 28:6-7 NIV - [6] He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. [7] Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” 

From these verses, we see that Jesus has commanded us to do two things - 

Come and see

Gilbert West want to disprove Jesus' Resurrection. And so he started to write a book. But halfway through, he encountered Jesus, and then he started to write the other way round. 

Lew Wallace wanted to disprove the resurrection, too, but he met Jesus and wrote the book, Ben-Hur.

Frank Morrison wanted to do the same, but ended up writing the book, Who Moved the Stone?

 

Go and tell

There's a dying world out there. When they die, they will be punished. Nothing can take away their sins. Sins are to be punished. Either you will pay for it, or we put our faith in Jesu,s who bore all our sins and paid for it all. 

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English-speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.