Fear Not!
Christ's resurrection is a call to the Christian life, a reminder of His great victory and a source of assurance for our own triumph.
Mary Wilder Tileston preaches on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, emphasizing His victory over death and Hades, and the eternal life He offers to all who believe in Him. She encourages believers to rejoice in the new life and beauty that God is constantly revealing to the world, symbolized by the return of spring and the singing of birds. Tileston highlights Easter as a time of great victory, perplexity solved, and triumph assured for Christians, calling it the news of a great victory.
Text
Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
REVELATION 1:18 (R. V.)
LET all things seen and unseen,
Their notes of gladness blend,
For Christ the Lord is risen,
Our Joy that hath no end.
ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS A.D. 760
"THE time of the singing of birds is come,"--the time when nature calls aloud to us and bids us awaken out of the deadness of personal grief, and rejoice in the new manifestation of His beauty that God is making to the world. "Behold, I am alive for evermore, and the dead live to Me." Was not this the secret saying which the new verdure was writing all over the hills, and which the young pattering leaves and singing-birds were repeating in music? It must be well to have ears to hear and a heart that could respond with a little flutter of returning joy and thankfulness.
ANNIE KEARY
THE return of Easter should be to the Christian life the call of a trumpet. It is the news of a great victory. It is the solution of a great perplexity. It is the assurance of a great triumph.
FREDERICK TEMPLE
Sermon Outline
- The Power of Christ's Resurrection
- The Call to Joy and Rejoicing
- The Return of Easter
- A call to the Christian life
- The news of a great victory
- The assurance of a great triumph
Key Quotes
“Behold, I am alive for evermore, and the dead live to Me.” — Mary Wilder Tileston
“THE time of the singing of birds is come,” — Mary Wilder Tileston
Application Points
- We should trust in Christ's power and resurrection, and have faith in His ability to overcome death and Hades.
- We should respond to the call to joy and rejoicing by having ears to hear and a heart that can respond with joy and thankfulness.
- We should remember that Easter is a call to the Christian life, a reminder of Christ's great victory and a source of assurance for our own triumph.