Easter is a day of joy for the church. In history it soon became a feast day. Our Lord's resurrection was the beginning and basis of new joy, real joy – of a new life. It is a joy that can be found nowhere in the vicious circle of Ecclesiastes. It is the beginning of the whole new program God will work in the New Testament culminating in the renewal of all things, including a new heaven and earth.

Jesus Christ arose again. That is the message of the empty tomb. He is not here anymore, on this side of the grave. He conquered death, went through the grave, and arose with a new life. The people who had been raised by Christ came back to the same side of the grave, and had to die again. Jesus arose on the "other side" of the grave, with a new heavenly life. Never will things be the same again in His work and program. When sinners become born again, regenerated, they, too, become new, receiving of this resurrected life of Christ. This gives them a different attitude towards life, a new and different philosophy of life and also an entirely different attitude towards death. They have a hope that shall never be put to shame.

Even the angel servants of God join in this great celebration. How interested they had been in all of the work of God in the past. When He created the world by His almighty power, the angels rejoiced. They must have grieved over much of the Old Testament history of the church showing the effects of sin. They apparently knew something about the program our faithful covenant God would work out. Peter tells us that they watched it all with intense interest, not understanding it all, and wondering how it would all turn out (1 Peter 1:12). Of course, they were there with Jesus' birth, first one angel and then a host, and mortal men on earth heard a program of these heavenly creatures as no one ever heard before.

(Wouldn't we like to have a recording of that choir?)

Later, angels sustained Jesus during His ministry. They strengthened Him in awful Gethsemane. Where were they when the Son was on the cross? We may assume that this, too, they watched with keen interest? During this crucial time Jesus might not have the support of any messengers from His Father. But at the resurrection, they appear again, the first to give the good news of the resurrection.

Angels will naturally also be in heaven. But there, even though they will still have a prominent place, they will retreat into "the background." The saints will be sitting around the throne of Christ, while the angels will be standing, and so join in the heavenly music program. God's children, sons and daughters, are more important than servants. Those who are being served sit down, while those who serve stand to serve.

The empty tomb spoke loudly that Jesus had risen. First of all the big, heavy stone had been rolled away. The women knew that they couldn't do that. Surely the enemies of Christ would not have done it. Who then? John makes a special point of the fact that the angels in telling the women that Jesus was not there, but had been raised, pointed to the place where He lay. What does this mean? What would be special about seeing a bare flat rock where once the body of Jesus had lain? Likely this means that the strips of cloth that had been wrapped around the body and limbs of Jesus, were still in the same form they had been when wrapped around the body. There was the form of a body, but no body in it. And the head napkin in a place by itself, likely where the head had been. How could anybody in any way arise out of that form of the "bandages?"

Wouldn't we expect that these bandages when taken off had been laid or thrown on a pile somewhere in a corner, or on the place where the body had lain? But apparently they weren't lying that way. Only by a miracle can one be raised from the tomb with the bandages in that particular shape or form. That, too, the women and a few of the disciples saw. The empty tomb announced that Jesus was not there; He had risen. There stood the women with spices in their hands, wanting to annoint the dead body of Jesus, their beloved Master.

Consider these women standing with their spices before the tomb of the mighty risen Christ. Here are struggling, stumbling, children of God, in utter despair. They had expected so much from Him, they loved Him so dearly, but this was the end. What a disappointment! In deep sorrow and grief they stand at the dawn of the eternal day. But they don't know it.

We see all kinds of sadness at this empty tomb. Mary Magdalene is there sobbing and crying because someone has taken away the dead body of her Savior. Of the disciples, Judas Iscariot was no more. But what about the rest? Thomas was not even with the rest for a while. What's the use? It was all over; for what reason should the disciples continue together? We get a glimpse of the followers from the town of Emmaus. We know the history. One thing that troubled these men was that there were rumours that Jesus had risen from the grave. The two things that don't make sense to them are the crucifixion of Christ and now the rumours that He was alive. It was like a jig-saw puzzle where one big piece just didn't fit. That was Jesus' death on the cross and the rumours of Him being alive.

Why did all these people fail so badly on this great day?

The answer is given very plainly.

They were not living with or according to the Scriptures. That always causes problems, and lack of peace and comfort.

Hadn't Jesus told them repeatedly, and in great detail exactly what would happen to Him in these last days, that He would be captured, flogged, crucified, but also that after three days He would arise from the grave? He couldn't have made it any plainer.

But they apparently forgot all of this.

How the Lord chided and rebuked them for this unbelief. He even spoke of the disciples' hardness of heart.

Only by the Word can we, too, come to the knowledge and joy of the resurrection. Unbelief never comes to the resurrection. And man by himself doesn't either. The resurrection is not something that happens in this world, as something natural, or that can be seen or done by any man. It is a miracle of the Spirit, a work of God. The resurrection is something which no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has ever arisen in the heart of any man. Our God is the God of wonders.

God's Word reveals the things of the Spirit. Believing this Word, living by it, we come to know what it teaches, including the glorious resurrection from the dead and victory over the grave.

That Word gives us many accounts of Christ's appearances to prove that He arose. It gives us testimonies of witnesses that they saw Him, and even heard Him speak.

Luke tells us in Acts 1 that the Lord gave many infallible proofs of His resurrection. Paul tells us that Christ revealed Himself to over 500 people at one time. These people testified that they had actually seen Him. All this took place in our world. It is a part of history. I heard it said that the resurrection of Christ is better attested to than the life of George Washington in American history.

Clark H. Pinnock finds proof for the resurrection in the time when some of the New Testament books were written. He says: Paul's letters are firmly dated in the first decades after the death of Christ, and he refers to witnesses that he knew and talked with. Mark wrote his gospel a mere thirty years after Christ died; he designed it for Christians in Rome who were suffering under Nero's persecution. Thirty years is not a very long time. Imagine a person writing something today about the Second World War and dreaming up all kinds of events that never happened. He wouldn't get away with it, because there are too many around who can still remember those days as if they were yesterday. It is the same short period we are talking about in the case of Mark's and Paul's writings.

Because the Word tells us that He arose, and gives accounts of those who saw the risen Lord, we believe the testimony of the Word. "Faith comes from hearing and hearing comes from the Word of God," says Paul. If we fail to live by the Word, as the disciples did, we, too, will encounter all kinds of problems resulting in fear and insecurity.

In a certain hymn we sing: "You ask me how I know He lives." Then the answer in the hymn is: "He lives within my heart." It is true, of course, that the living Christ lives within the hearts of believers. But we do not know first of all that Jesus lives, because we feel that within our hearts. We know it first of all, because the Word tells us about it.

God calls us to believe His Word, in simple, child-like trust. Father, forgive our unbelief. And increase our faith through hearing that infallible Word that tells us again and again that Jesus lives today.

And make us by the Spirit new creatures, living children of God, who know that because He lives we, too, shall live.

Hallelujah, what a Savior!