An Easter Animation for Children

At times it's hard to find resources for children that make sense of Easter. We obviously want any resource to be biblically sound, and yet at the same time also engaging. The video animation below is based on Mark 15. The video tells the Easter Story in a simple but accurate way for children. It has been adapted from 'The Jesus Storybook Bible' written by Sally Lloyd-Jones with illustrations by Jago. You might like to share it with your children this Easter.

Baptist Contributions at Easter: A Powerful Word & a Brilliant Dance

It's a long time till Easter next year but here are two things that can't wait.

1. The Sermon

Do yourself a favour and listen to Rev Tim Blencowe's wonderful Good Friday sermon. Tim is Pastor of Macquarie Baptist Church in Sydney and a part-time lecturer at Morling Theological College. I doubt you will have heard a clearer and more challenging exposition of John 19:16-18
HT: Thanks for recommending the sermon Nicole 168 hours

Listen HERE

2. The Dance

And who said Baptists can't dance. Here is a wonderful dance by 2,000 Baptists in the heart of Houston Texas celebrating the Resurrection. Have a look, it will make you smile!

The Paradox of Easter

Easter is a special time for me. I will never forget the first Easter I celebrated in 1983, just 6 months after I had become a Christian aged 31 years. I'd grown up as a child enjoying the Easter holidays and the chocolate and as a young father I had introduced my daughters to the same limited pleasures of the secular celebration of Easter. But as Easter approached in 1983 I grasped something that made sense of the strange traditions that I'd been taught in Scripture at school. I understood the significance of more than the narrative about a man who died and then miraculously came back to life.

In my limited understanding of Easter, we were meant to be sad on Friday and able to celebrate on Sunday (with chocolate!). But as I prepared for Easter that year, I had an overwhelming sense of gratitude that God had forgiven my sins, for in God's sight I was now righteous.

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9).

For the first time I saw in the hideous death of the perfect Son of God that my sins were responsible for his death! The paradox of Easter is that we see God's majesty and power revealed in the resurrection of the Son, but at the same time we bow our heads at the thought that in the brokenness of Jesus on the cross, the love of God is revealed so profoundly for each of us.

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom 5:6-8)

May God bless you abundantly as we contemplate and give thanks for his mercy, love and kindness demonstrated in Christ.

Celebrating God's Grace & Mercy Every Day!

As I wrote last year (here) Easter is always a wonderful reminder to me of how remarkable is the love, grace and mercy of God. The inexplicable wonder that he would save a 'wretch like me' from my sin and rebelliousness. John Newton's famous song 'Amazing Grace' always speaks to repentant sinners like me. The same sense of overwhelming gratitude, humility and thankfulness that flooded the heart of the former slave trader flooded me when I first came to faith some 27 years ago; a young happily married 31 year-old father of two who seemingly had no need of God. My conversion was dramatic and life changing. And yet, every day is a battle to remember that I am nothing but repackaged dust given life for just a moment on this earth. From dust I came and to dust I will return. Life ended in a wink and a blink, but for the mercy and grace of our God.

For me the ongoing challenge is always to grasp and hold on to the fact that it was MY sin that nailed Jesus to the Cross. It was MY rebellion, MY pride, MY vanity, MY self sufficiency, MY arrogance, MY hatred, MY ungraciousness, MY lies, MY deceit....! With Paul who persecuted Christians, and Newton who traded human lives, I stand condemned but for the grace of God. I need to recognise each day in my 21st century middle-class comfort that I lie prostrate with all other sinners at the foot of the cross in shame - a wretch! And yet, with fear and trembling I can wake each morning knowing that in some amazing way I have been granted freedom from such shame and forgiveness. A life of filthy rags is forgiven for no other reason than that God has chosen to extend to me his grace, mercy, love, kindness and forgiveness.

My God has given me just a little less than 10,000 mornings (since that day I came to faith) to wake in the knowledge that Jesus paid the price for my sins at Golgotha some 2,000 years ago. I don't know how many more mornings he will give me. But for those who know me please pray that the troubles of the previous day and the challenges of the next might never push aside the overwhelming sense of gratitude and thankfulness I have when I remember that Christ died for me.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Amazing Grace sung by Judy Collins and the Harlem Boys' Choir

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far
And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
and mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call'd me here below,
Will be forever mine.

Jesus, the Son of God, died for me!

My first 'real' Easter

It seems a vain hope that this Easter people might reflect upon the true significance of Easter, but I believe in miracles so I wil pray that this might happen. As a 31 year old I can remember my first 'real' Easter quite vividly. I'd experienced 30 before, but prior to this particular Easter it had been all about chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies and having a holiday. This was to be my first 'real' Easter. It was a wonderful time of Christian fellowship - church on Friday and twice on Sunday, time with new Christian friends on Saturday and Monday. I had an overwhelming sense of gratitude to God for sending Jesus to die on that crude wooden cross for me; a deep sense of my unworthiness in the sight of God, and an amazing joy and hope in Christ who I now knew was my saviour.

A personal miracle

It was 1983 and just 5 months before I had snuck across the road from my car to enter a church for the first time as an adult (bar some weddings, funerals and christenings). I can recall thinking, "What if my friends see me going to church, what will I say?" I was a atheist, what was I doing going to church. My wife Carmen had tentatively said to me just 2 days before "I'd like to go to church on Sunday and I don't expect you to be happy about it, but if we're sending the girls to Sunday School (they were 5 and 3 at the time and we'd just sent them) I think I'd like to go to church." Miraculously, the confident atheist replied "what makes you think I wouldn't want to go to church?" She might have answered "Oh, the fact that you've never shown any interest in God as long as I've known you", but she was too gracious for that. She simply replied, "Okay, you can come to." The preaching of God's word that Sunday changed my life. A simple gospel message from Matthew 11 that cut to my heart and exposed my sinfulness to such an extent that I wanted to run and hide. I went home hid in the bathroom, cried out to God, and begged him to reveal the truth to me. "Help me God to understand what this is all about. Help me to believe in this person Jesus. Help me to understand just who he was. Change me." And miracle of miracles, he did. My hard heart was cracked open by the power of God's Holy Spirit and the truth was made clear to me that day.

In the weeks that followed I read God's word from front to back (well from the gospels to the back then back to Genesis to read the Old Testament). And when I'd finished I started again, and again. Carmen too accepted Christ some 2 weeks later as she read John's Gospel, we joined a Bible study, and set about leading a new life.

The need for more miracles this Easter

As a Christian I pray that God will perform many miracles this weekend. I pray that some members of my extended family, residents at New College, neighbours and strangers who don't believe in Jesus will consider his claims. I'm not sure how God might do this, but my prayer is that some might find themselves drawn to a church service, or might be led to ask a friend just the right question. And I pray that the person who preaches at the pulpit or the friend who answers the question will do so with the power of the Holy Spirit, and many will be convicted of their need to be rescued from sin and death.

Who knows, someone might stumble on this blog post. If so I hope that they'll read John's gospel account of Jesus life, death and resurrection. And if they want to read more they might read an address that Dominic Steele gave at the City Bible Forum this week on the significance of Easter. You might also visit the Two Ways to Live site. My prayer would be that any such visitors to this site might not reject Jesus without considering his claims for themselves.

It would also be good for Christians and non-Christians to watch the Christ Files that will be shown on Seven Network television across Australia. This will be shown today at 12.00 noon in most cities, and on Saturday and Sunday in a couple. See my previous post for full details and a preview.

"For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God."
1 Peter 3:18a

The Christ Files

Screening on the Seven Television Network this Easter in Australia is an exciting new documentary, The Christ Files. It has been produced by Anglican Media and is presented by John Dickson. It will be screened at Midday on Good Friday, Friday 21st March (EXCEPT in Melbourne where it will be at Midnight on Good Friday and in Tsamania where it screen at Midday Saturday 22nd).

John Dickson comments that ‘Often at Easter time, TV specials on Jesus try to create controversy instead of clarity....the Christ Files, I hope, will be a breath of fresh air to believers and critics alike. It invites us to take front row seats to the historical facts about the man at the centre of our faith.’

For more information and some video previews click here.