Seeds of the Kingdom Daily Devotional 17 April 2022
TOPIC: Just As He Said!
SCRIPTURE: There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.’”
He is Risen! Hallelujah!
Today we celebrate with great thanksgiving the fact of the resurrection. For a believer in Jesus, however, every day is EASTER DAY! For, unless Jesus had been risen from the dead we could never know His resurrection life, be born again of the Spirit of God, and be alive in Him on Easter Day or any other day for that matter! He is our life. He is everything. He is our Saviour, our Redeemer, our Joy, our eternal Hope. “Because he lives, I can face tomorrow” – as the old song expresses these timeless, amazing truths – not just all the ‘tomorrows’ of time – but the eternal tomorrow when, one day, we are absent from the body and at home with the Lord, as Paul expresses the extraordinary consequences of knowing the resurrected Lord Jesus in 2 Corinthians 5:6-8.
For the disciples, His resurrected presence changed everything – darkness, doom and gloom was dispensed by the One who called Himself the Light of the World. Despair and hopelessness were replaced by their increasing awe, wonder, faith and courage as they realised that what had happened occurred ‘just as He had said’.
If these words of Jesus about His own death and resurrection were proven to be true, there cannot, surely, be any of His words that aren’t true – a fact that should drive us to our Bibles to discover afresh what Jesus told us about His second coming – an event that will be greeted with ecstatic joy by those who know and love Him – but with mourning and grief by those who have rejected the only One who can save them from the consequences of sin, judgement, death and Hell. Jesus said, “Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:34).
When the Philippian jailor who was guarding Paul and Silas in prison, and had been listening to their songs of praise to God, experienced the earthquake that had opened the doors of the prison and shaken the chains off his prisoners, his immediate response was, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul’s reply rings down the years of time to our own hearts today, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved – you and your household.” (Acts 16:30-31).
All our days are numbered by the Lord. Now is the time to seek the Lord while there is yet time. Now is the time for salvation to come to your house!
PRAYER
