The full Easter message — Angus Buchan

A monthly column by farmer, preacher and writer for Jesus, Angus Buchan

As we see Easter fast approaching, it is the highlight for me in the Christian calendar. It is actually more significant to me, a sinner, than even Christmas is, as much as I love Christmas. A man of God once said: “If there is no crucifixion, there can be no resurrection”. What true words.

And yet, sadly, many churches these days do not celebrate Easter Friday, only Resurrection Sunday. I want to caution you, my dear friend, never to forget what Jesus Christ did for you and for me on the cross of Calvary. That is where the ultimate battle took place. The devil’s neck was broken on the cross of Calvary. When Jesus said: “It is finished” He meant it. It is done.

If we remember just a few months back, we had a prayer meeting in Pretoria, Tshwane, the legislative capital of South Africa, where we prayed for our nation and yet again God has been faithful and many of those prayers have already been answered. But if you remember carefully, the Scripture which God gave us clearly was Mark 14:38 (NKJV) where Jesus said, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

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We need to discipline ourselves. It is so easy to start a race, but not so easy to try to finish that race. I found that out when I ran the Comrades Marathon and 14km from the end, I blacked out and was taken in an ambulance to hospital with a drip in my arm. This race is the greatest race of our lives. We cannot afford to capitulate at such an important time. Jesus’s second coming is imminent. As they say: “He is not coming soon, He is on His way.” We need to be ready.

Now, if we remember clearly, Peter said to Jesus in Matthew 26:33 (NKJV) “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.” How many of us have said: “Lord we will never forsake You, we will never leave You, we will never let You down” and if you look at Matthew 26:56 (NKJV) the Bible says, “Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.” Not some of them, all of them. God forbid that you and I would be among that number. Because even after Peter had been so forthright in telling the Lord Jesus Christ that he would never leave Him, in Matthew 26:34 (NKJV) “Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.’”

And that is why we cannot take our faith glibly. We must be definite on what we believe in and on where we are going, for the devil is no respecter of persons.

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The good news is, of course on Easter Sunday, Jesus was not found in the tomb, He had risen. I had been to that tomb many many times. I have rejoiced at that tomb. Because the tomb is empty; there are no bones in that tomb, there is no one in that tomb because Jesus is not dead, He is alive.

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Rom 8:11 (NKJV) “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”