Early Easter ... may be the last one this early?
03-07-2008

Column 929, March 5, 2008

“Provoking Christian Insights” series



Part 29

Early Easter … may be the last one this early?

All Christians know Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring equinox (which is March 20th in 2008). This selection of the Easter date is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify the Passover. This is why Easter moves around on our Roman calendar. This year Easter is the earliest that it will ever be. However, Easter could be one day earlier March 22nd, but not in anyone’s lifetime, or anywhere in the future. Christ will certainly return before then and take home His remnant and establish His millennial reign.



Earliest Easter any of us will ever see

Only the most elderly of the people on earth, 95 years old and older have ever seen Easter this early in 1913. And, none of us will see it ever a day earlier.



The next time Easter will be this early in the year, on March 23rd, will be in the year 2228 (277 years from now). The last time it was March 22nd was in 1818, so no one alive today has or will ever see Easter any earlier than this year. Jesus may come before Easter is this early again, and most likely so because He told His disciples,” I will not tarry!” How we will celebrate Easter after Jesus comes is not known.



The perfect body

“Who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body,” (Philippians 3:21, NIV).



Jesus comes back to life. No one in history comes back to life without an encounter with Jesus. As we get older we begin to realize that our bodies are not going to last forever. We lose a tooth … a doctor tells us that our eyesight is beginning to fail … another says that we have a disease that will never go away… our bodies are corruptible. Only a miracle can make us whole.



Stephen Hill writes, “Among the most successful preachers of his day, Richard Baxter (1615 – 1691, yep, he died too!) was known for his analytical, but heartfelt presentations of the gospel. In this concise analysis of death – and the most subsequent resurrection of the saints – Baxter sums up one of the most delightful rewards a disciple of Jesus has to look forward to receiving;”



‘At death, the souls of the true believers go to Christ and enter into a state of happiness. On the last and final day, the body will be raised and united to the soul, and the Lord Jesus Christ will come in glory to judge the world, to openly acquit and justify the righteous. He will then condemn the ungodly, be glorified in His saints, and admired by all of them that believe. And the saints will also judge the world, and they themselves will enter into everlasting glory. Their eternal home will be in heaven, near God and in the presence of His glory. Their company will be only the holy angels and glorified saints and will be perfectly one in God forever. Bodies shall be perfected and made immortal, spiritual, incorruptible and glorious, shining like the stars. No longer to be subject to hunger or thirst, cold or wariness, shame, pain or any of the frailties that now hinder, but the believer will bade like the glorified body of Christ.’



“There isn’t an exercise machine on the planet that can give you the ‘perfect body.’ To be physically fit is wise, but to be spiritually fit should be our highest goal. Let us labor fervently to remain in Christ and attain this resurrection!” Hill ended.



Attaining His resurrection

When Christ announced his departure in John 13:31-35 He said; “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another.” If you hate your family, brother, sister, or anyone else, then you are breaking this most important command from Christ himself. You have some work to do.



Jesus promised Peter; “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward.” (John 31:36). Jesus further promised Phillip; “Most assuredly, I say to you, He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do, also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to my Father, And whatever you ask In My names that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son,” (John 14: 12, 13).



Because I live, you will also live

“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him,” (John 14:21). The one who loves Jesus will obey His commandments. He will experience more of the love of the Father and of Jesus. To him Jesus will manifest (reveal) himself in a special way, (see verse 23). “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him.” Please read all of John Chapter 15.



Total continued dependence on Christ

Disobedient Israel was God’s “degenerate vine (Jer. 2:21). Jesus is the true vine, the source of all spiritual life for God’s people. As the vinedresser, the Father removes what is unfruitful and prunes (disciplines) fruit bearing lives to make us even more Christ like in character and witness. The lives of the disciples were already being shaped by obedience to the word that Jesus had taught them. Abide in Me; total continued dependence on Christ is the only way to grow in Christian character and witness, (Commentary NKJV).



The world will hate you

“…it (the world) probably already does.” Jesus said; “It hated me before it hated you.” All who reject Jesus and His teaching, “they will also persecute you (John 15:20). Let us rejoice if evil persons rejected us because we follow Christ. The love of the world, no matter how swell it may seem, is never as deep as the self-giving love of Christ. But you have something the world can’t give you … the joy of the love of Christ.



INSPIRATON: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life,” (John 3:16).



Write: croneis@embarqmail.com