Anglican Bishop James Wong’s Easter message |02 April 2015

‘The resurrected Christ is our hope’

Alleluia. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.

This Easter Sunday, on this very day we gather to celebrate this touching moment when the stone which sealed the life and love of God has been rolled away and our hopes are now really alive in the resurrection of Jesus.

My dear brothers and sisters in the risen Christ, God’s Word speaks of this hope as “an anchor for the soul”. It is often the unspoken strength that allows each one of us to rise each day and face the uncertainties of our lives.

In the midst of our losses and let downs, we can anchor our souls with divine strength. The hope of Easter is not the hope of a naïve fool or nagging optimist, it is hope that meets us in the real world in the Seychelles.

The event of Easter does not begin with the light of day; it begins at dawn when it is still dark, a place far less clear, far more personal. It does not begin with Bishops, Apostles, Clergy or great religious leaders of the day but with an ordinary individual, Mary. She was not what we would call a traditionally religious person. She was a woman in a world that found woman a good scapegoat on which to place its shame, there was little acceptability to hope on her own. She was, according to tradition, a scarlet sinner, she had become oppressed by spiritual powers that bound her within. That was Mary before meeting this new presence.

What happened then this very morning?

What Mary heard and saw this morning had changed her life and can change ours today too. What is the living hope that transformed Mary’s life and can transform our lives also?

In the risen Christ Mary discovered the living hope that...

1. God can overcome any powers over her past

2. God will be present with her each and every day of her life

3. God has got a future for her, to be with Him forever

“3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you...” 1 Peter 1:3-4 NIV
Yes my dearly beloved, the resurrected Christ is our hope.

“19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest for ever, in the order of Melchizedek.” Hebrews 6:19-20 NIV

In the resurrection of Jesus, God embedded in the earth an anchor of hope sturdy enough to withstand any cyclone. This hope is the anchor that declares...

1. God can overcome our past and He will (Colossians 2:13)

2. God can be with you now and forever and He is (John 14:18-23)

3. God has got a future for us... to be forever with him (John 14:1-3)

The sealed tomb was one of a transient. Jesus only went in to prove he could come out. And on the way out he took the stone with him and turned it into an anchor point. He dropped it deep into the uncharted waters of death.

This day, the Risen is simply asking us: Are we living to die or are we dying to live?

“34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” Mark 8:34-36 NIV

My dear fellow pilgrims, if we want to follow Jesus into a life with God, he invites us to come and to enter in his death. If we offer our lives to Christ, we will receive his life within us.

Let us pray:

Dear God, thank you for sending your Son Jesus Christ to us. I believe Jesus was who he said he was and proved it by rising from the dead. Thank you Jesus for dying for me and forgiving all my sins. I accept you as my Saviour and the leader of my life, and receive your free gift of eternal life. I want to discover and begin following your plan and purpose for my life and to know you more and more personally. Amen.

Happy and blessed Easter 2015 to you my brothers and sisters in the risen Lord.
Stay blessed.