Antioch Church of Santa Cruz: The Journey of Lent #6

What's up incredible Antioch Church. This week marks the last week of Lent & celebrates the greatest event not only in church history, but world history: The Resurrection of Jesus. Only one man in history has risen from the grave & this event is the central event in all of creation & our faith as well. In fact, resurrection is one of the main themes throughout the whole New Testament. Why? Because Jesus buried death in the grave &, as I've said several time, "if we die with Him we will also live with Him." God, through Jesus, demonstrates the fullness of His plan: We will be resurrected; death has been defeated; we will enjoy a New Heaven & New Earth. This is the promise for the church both in Santa Cruz & the church world wide.

The Resurrection marks God's promise to redeem creation & Jesus is the firstfruit of what God intends to do, & is in fact, already doing through us his church. When creation was corrupted through sin God made a covenant with man to redeem it, which He has been faithfully doing & now takes it's ultimate form in the resurrection of Jesus. As Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father, we are left behind to demonstrate to the world the power of the resurrection; in fact we would be right in saying, the church is creation as it should be. This is a tall order, but through love, repentance, grace, & worship we are becoming just that. Jesus is the demonstration of the new creation; we, the church, are the demonstration of a new creation. "...on earth as it is in Heaven..."

Here are the scriptures for this week:
Isaiah 25:6-9 Isaiah shares with the church the imagery of the wedding feast & at the same time imagery of what Jesus accomplished through putting death in the grave.
John 20:1-18 John tells us the dramatic story of those who discovered the empty tomb. No one expected Jesus to rise from the dead; yet, his rising revealed God's continued commitment to creation. Too, "as we die with Him, we will live with Him." He is the first fruit of those who will be resurrected; His church, the called out ones: Us.
Acts 10:34-43 Here Peter shares the testimony about the resurrection of Jesus. Is this how we as a church describe our risen King?

Here's a great link to a video by Rob Bell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjXYlwvS5LY&

Please take time to ponder what this week stands for: We are the church, God's called out ones; We are the church, God' redeemed ones; We are the church, the salt, light, & hope of the world; We are the church, those who will be resurrected like our Master; we are the church, God's demonstration of what the Kingdom is like; We are the church, the bride of Christ & the only reason we exist is because Jesus rose from the grave on the third day. Jesus is God's plan for creation & we are a part of the plan.