Eastertide - from Easter Sunday till Ascension Day!

Eastertide lasts from Easter Sunday which we celebrated on 5 April till Ascension Day that we will celebrate 40 days later, on Thursday 14 May at 19:00. All Christian worship testifies to the resurrection of Christ and we meet every week on the on the first day of the week to express our devotion and awe because we serve a risen Saviour whom was raised on the first day of the week. We worship every Sunday to say testify to the world that we serve a risen Saviour.  Our Sunday worship always speaks of the critical importance of the Resurrection to every Christian and all of humanity.

But as the resurrection of Jesus is the pinnacle of our faith, we also have a Season until Ascension Day that we call Eastertide – a Season of focused learning about the impact on our lives when we say that "Jesus Christ is risen indeed."

Celebrating Eastertide is not duplicating Easter Sunday forty times over. No, it is allocating enough time to reflect upon the impact, the meaning and delight of the truth of serving a living Lord.

Two angels appeared to the women who visited the tomb on that first Easter Sunday. The angels reminded them of Christ's predictions about the cross and the grave, the crucifixion and the resurrection. "Remember?" they asked. Then they remembered the words of Jesus and understood what he had said to them: that he must die and must be raised. Then they believed that Jesus truly is alive. (Luke 24:8)

Only then did they believe and their sorrows were changed into joy.

On Resurrection Sunday the veil was lifted.

Finally people saw the risen Christ and believed his message that (Lk 24:7) the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.

The message that Christ is risen indeed turns sorrow into joy, death into life and defeat into victory. For the disciples of Jesus, the resurrection was a wonderful, beautiful, exciting surprise.

Surprise, death! Surprise, sin! Surprise, mourning disciples!

Surprise, post-modern humanity!

Surprise! He's alive! Christ is risen. He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

(Rom 4:25) He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.