Resurrected to New Life (Easter Message 2022)

David Hathaway

I want to deal with a portion of Scripture that many people find difficult, and it’s in Mark 9. The reading starts with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration with His three closest disciples, Peter, James and John. Moses and Elijah appear – it was an incredibly powerful experience, but as they come down the mountain, Jesus tells the disciples, “Do not tell what you have seen, until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.” And they questioned one another, what does Jesus mean when He says He will ‘rise from the dead’? At this point in the ministry of Jesus, the disciples had not grasped that Jesus was literally going die and be resurrected three days later.

For us in our Christian faith, Resurrection is a challenge. When we repent of our sins and come to Christ, we die to the old life, we’re born, ‘resurrected’ into a new life – and this new life WILL RISE FROM THE DEAD. Whilst the Pharisees accepted Resurrection at the end of the age, the Sadducees didn’t! So it was a great controversy surrounding the ministry of Jesus. Today, I don’t feel that in the Church we are being taught enough about what Resurrection is and what happens when we die.