From HAVEN NEWS Easter 2018

Easter is the celebration of the most important event in human history.   Jesus Christ was crucified but two days later he was alive again! But did   Jesus actually rise from the grave? Or did he stay dead? Is he alive today?
No questions are more important for every one of us to answer.

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead proves that he was who he claimed to be, the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. And the    resurrection brings us all God’s offer of forgiveness and new life and the happy certainty of life after death. Because he lives we will live also!

The first Christians were convinced that Jesus DID rise from the dead. The tomb was certainly empty. The authorities didn’t have Jesus’s body, and it makes no sense to say that the disciples stole and hid it. At least 550 people saw Jesus alive again, on at least eleven occasions! Very many of them went to horrible deaths insisting that Jesus was alive. Would all these Christians really have given up their lives for a lie? Something truly amazing must have happened to stop those men and women being terrified. Something changed their lives so much that soon they were telling everyone that Jesus was alive again, and they had seen him!

And how else can we explain all the people whose lives since have been transformed by faith in Jesus Christ – countless believers down the centuries and hundreds in North Springfield today? Each of these have experienced the love and power of God in their own lives, in hope and peace and healing and answered prayers. Are they all mistaken?

Easter is not a memorial for a martyr. Being a Christian is not about following the example of a dead hero but enjoying an exciting relationship with a living Saviour and Friend. That’s why it is vital to find out the truth for ourselves.  Is it all a lie, a hoax, the biggest mistake in history? Or did Jesus Christ really rise from the dead,

Dead or alive? What’s your verdict?