Thoughts on Death and the Resurrection

Pastor Bob Sievers, Olympia First Baptist Church

There is nothing more important for us to discuss in terms of Jesus “humanness” than his death! We are all going to die someday! We live in a society that likes to deny death. It makes us uncomfortable—we don’t like it—many fear it. We are even uncomfortable to talk about it. Yet Jesus’ life and death bring the topic to its apex.

It was important that Jesus lived but even more important that He died! (When He was young—and under tragic and unfair circumstances.) His resurrection becomes the only thing that can bring hope into dying. One of the most powerful statements in this regard comes from Paul in Philippians 3:10-11: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Because Jesus died and now lives and has promised the same to us is our only hope! Nobody besides Him ever permanently and forever came back from the dead! It is at the core of the Christian Gospel (good news) that we preach. Paul puts it all on the line when He says in 1 Corinthians 15:14: “And if Christ has not been raised; our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” It is good to be called back to Jesus’ life and death each Easter. It is a yearly reminder of the hope that is ours in Christ! It invites us to consider the new life that will be ours.

[This article originally was published in a longer form in the March 2016 issue of "Windows", the newsletter of FBC Olympia. Used by permission. Edited by Charles Revis.]