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Listening to the Easter sermon yesterday, something struck me for the first time. After Jesus had been placed in the tomb, the chief priests and Pharisees asked Pilate to post a guard there because they knew Jesus claimed he would rise from the dead on the third day. (Matthew 27: 63-64) Now, they were mostly afraid that the disciples would steal the body and fake a resurrection, but still, they thought something would happen.
It was common knowledge that Jesus expected to rise from the dead. And who made preparations for the third day? Unbelievers. His enemies. And where were the disciples? Holed up and afraid. They didn’t even go to the tomb on the third day to see if it might be true. And when the women came back to tell them Jesus was risen, they still didn’t believe.
Luke 24:11-12 – But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
What has God promised us?
Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
John 14:12-14 – “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
God has led me to my husband, my church, my job and my writing. He has big plans for me (and for you). It would be a shame if we weren’t prepared for those plans to come to fruition. I, for one, am going sit outside the tomb and wait for the miracle to happen.