It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin’!
Being Christians, everything we believe and profess is built upon the historical reality of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. The cross is undeniably important. Jesus couldn’t have been the Lamb of God if he was unwilling to suffer sacrificially for those he came to save. But the cross alone did not prove Jesus to be the Messiah. In fact, when Jesus died, his followers scattered and went into hiding. After all, the one they thought was becoming the King of Israel had just died. There was no doubt that he was dead.
They’d witnessed his miracles and heard his powerful teachings. They listened as he reinterpreted the Law of Moses in ways that emphasized God’s love, compassion, and grace. They left homes and jobs and families in order to follow him all over Judea. But when he died, they likely wondered if he was just another in a long list of Jewish “messiahs” who’d aroused their hopes only to be killed by those in power. They were so sure that he was the 
One. They were so sure he was different, until the cross. But the cross isn’t the end of the story.
On Sunday morning we’ll retrace the steps of Jesus and his disciples as retold by a first-century physician and historian named Luke. We’ll hear his account, consider the testimony it contains, and then we’ll have to decide for ourselves: Is this Jesus the One? Is he the risen Messiah who gives new meaning to everything and new life to every one of us who believes? If he is, you need to know him.
See you soon,
Patrick Barber