Related Scripture:

  • Philippians 3:7–11
  • Colossians 3:1–3
  • 1 Thessalonians 4
  • Ephesians 2

Thoughts:

  • When Jesus Christ rose from the grave, He was the firstfruits of all those who sleep in Christ. He rose from the grave to life. It is not just a story, not just a picture of something mystical that happened long ago—it is a reality. He is alive!
  • Before we are saved, we are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. There is no power in the withered hand to get a hold of God by faith. There is no mind that can conceive of such a dying love in Jesus, and trust in the fact that He literally rose from the grave. (Ephesians 2)
  • Unless God works on your heart, there is maybe a thought of “what happens when I die,” but there is no conviction that would lead you to salvation, because that’s too painful. Conviction is that first painful inkling that you need to be brought to life. (It’s pain like unto a hand or foot that’s gone to sleep, and when the blood finally circulates again, there is a painful tingling.)
  • If you are not saved, you are going to find that when God really does bring you under conviction, that all-of-a-sudden there’s a painful experience. It is a conviction that you have not known Christ and you are lost without Him, and you are dead. You do not have a hope because you do not have a living Christ.
  • Believers, pray that God will bring the unbelievers around you to a saving knowledge of Christ, because life is not designed to stay in the grave.
  • Is the grave where you want to be for the rest of eternity? Neither is the grave of fleshly self-centered life where we belong for the Christian existence on earth. (“If you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above….” Colossians 3) As with Lazarus, the grave clothes—that which stinks of decay—is to be cast-off.

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