A couple of thousand years ago, a 33 year old man was killed on a cross. There’s nothing particularly unique about that – plenty of men and women were killed on crosses in those days. But two things make Jesus entirely different from anyone else.
Firstly, Jesus claimed to be God. Of course, he performed many miracles – helped the blind to see, the lame to walk, and raised some people from the dead. And he also taught with great wisdom. But claiming to be God is the single most important thing he ever said.
Secondly, Jesus didn’t stay dead. If there is one way to prove that you are the God who is in control of everything, rising from the dead is a great way to do it!
Curiously, the important bit is not simply that Jesus died and rose from the dead. The important bit is why he did it.
We were all created by God to live in harmony with him and with the world that he made. Now, it doesn’t take much to see that our world is in a complete mess. We’ve strayed a long way from living God’s way – the Bible calls this sin. And not only have we made the world a mess, but because of the way we’ve treated God, we are deserving of God’s rebuke and punishment. This is where Jesus fits in. He came to fix the mess we have found ourselves in.
Jesus died on the cross for you! He took all of our sins upon himself, and the punishment we deserved. When God raised Jesus from the dead, it showed that our sin has been dealt with once and for all.
We can now be friends with God. We can begin to live the way God designed us to live. We can start to restore our relationship with the world and with each other.
We can seek God’s help to fix the mess that we find ourselves in. We have hope in a new and better future, where we live the way God has always designed us to live.
This affects every one of us. We each need to consider who we believe Jesus is. If Jesus is who he claimed to be — God, who came to live with us in human form — then it changes everything else about life.
It means Jesus knows the best way to live. And we need to listen to him.
And this is what our church is all about – Jesus.
We seek to better understand his great love for us, and to live the life he created us to live: bringing hope, peace and restoration to our world.
We’d love to meet you and help you better understand how Jesus makes sense of everything.