John 20:30+31, Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. 
	This Easter morning, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the tomb. We proclaim the reality that Jesus is the very and Only Begotten Son of God. He was sent by the Father to earth, to take upon Himself human flesh in order to suffer all that was necessary to secure our redemption unto God. By His death and resurrection, we are saved and given eternal life. In Him, we are made partakers of His atoning and perfect offering of love.  
	In this morning’s reading, we have the account given as to the morning of and the days following Christ’s resurrection. It culminates with the glorious statement that we just reiterated. It is in order that all who study the scripture, throughout the ages of the time before Jesus returns to this earth will believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and thereby receive everlasting life. 
	This is vitally important to understand and to receive in the light of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The every focal point of all creation rests in the surety of belief on Jesus as God’s Only Begotten Son. Everything, from before the eternal ages began is centered in and for the glory established in this overruling and overriding truth. The entirety of the scriptures declares this work of the Son, the Christ so long promised to the Jews of old.  
God, knowing His plan and purpose and what had to take place for the redemption of His creation, instilled mankind with an inherent hope of salvation. From birth, without conscious awareness, we look for some avenue of making our lives better. We struggle with all the methods that this world offers as a means of subterfuge against the only valid and realistic salvation that is offered freely in Christ Jesus. The air of this world is infused with all manner of lies and false promises and imitation religions which capture the unaided mind and intellect of man. 
Even the absolute denial that there is a God is a course that is taken to avoid the consequences of our being born in sin. If man can fool himself into thinking that there is nothing to fear and that even sin is nothing but an invention of men to control one another’s behavior, then there will be no judgment and no need to worry about eternity. The common thought put forth so often now is that when man dies, that is it. There is nothing after life. That is the dying hope of those who cannot discern the truth from the lie.
It is the active work of the Holy Spirit Who opens our eyes as to the need for our salvation. By His work, we see the utter and absolute necessity of calling out to Jesus to save us. As the Holy Spirit accomplishes His pre-salvation ministry in our hearts, we begin earnestly searching for that which we know we need. We may not know all the details. We may not have a deep understanding of all the religious terms and doctrines and history, but we know that we need something we don’t yet have and we must have it or perish. That salvation is the long promised Christ, the Redeemer sent from God for His people. It is this Jesus Whom God raised from the dead on that historic, earth-shattering, and eternally overwhelming third day.    
We can only see Jesus as the Christ as He is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the One Who opens up scripture to make known the fact that the whole of God’s Word brings to light the work of God’s Son, in all of creation, both as the Creator and as the Redeemer. All His works declare His glory in the brilliant splendor of the life of the Holy Spirit as He gives sight to spiritually blind eyes. Christ proclaimed this in Luke 4:18, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, 
	This is why not everyone will see and accept Jesus as the Christ, even when they witness His work firsthand. John, earlier in this Gospel records an interaction with the Jews who were looking for the Christ on their terms. They could not recognize Jesus, despite all the miracles that He performed, because they wanted the Christ to meet their expectations of what the Savior would look like. John 10:24+25, The Jews therefore gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, "How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these bear witness of Me. 
	Despite the fact that there were so many who believed that Jesus was the Christ, these Jews could not accept Him. They wanted more because they could not see through the scales of their spiritual blindness. However, for those called of God, whose eyes were opened to the truth, the Holy Spirit inspired and infused the living Word declaring the person of the Christ.  
	Such we have in the record of the physician, Luke, as he proclaimed all that he was taught by the very Spirit of God. Luke 1:1-4, Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word have handed them down to us, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you might know the exact truth about the things you have been taught. 
	As well, the Apostle John concludes his God-inspired Gospel with the following affirmation. John 21:24+25, This is the disciple who bears witness of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his witness is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books which were written. 
	To those who are blind to the spiritual truths of God, Jesus of Nazareth is no big deal. He was a good teacher, maybe even a gifted man with some prophetic powers who is honored throughout history for advocating good moral standards and peaceful resolution of life’s dilemmas. He was not truly appreciated in his day, as most good men aren’t. He is merely seen as valuable for his many solid and worthwhile lessons and His peaceful lifestyle. But beyond that, this statement of John would be considered as an over exaggeration of what Jesus was able to accomplish in His day.
	However, to those whose eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit, this passage reflects everything that we already know that Jesus Christ has accomplished in just our lives and in the lives of our loved ones. We have no doubt in the veracity that all of eternity will not even begin to contain the glory of Who Jesus is and what He has done! In every day, we get deeper and deeper glimpses of the majesty of Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten of the Father. We read the accounts of all four Gospel writers and we know that they are not even scratching the surface of the innumerable lives touched and changed by Jesus. Truly, John is understating the volume of the details that eternity will reveal of the tremendous work of Jesus for your sake and for mine. 
	The Apostle Paul encapsulates what we know in our hearts through the living ministry of the Holy Spirit’s active work in the revelation of Our Lord and Savior. Rom 15:4-6, For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus; that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are given the union of being together in Jesus Christ and of Him being united with us to the glory of God the Father. 
	As we earlier read concerning Christ’s response when the Jews interrogated Him …the works that I do in My Father's name, these bear witness of Me. What Jesus did, He did not for Himself, but for the Father. So is it true in our lives that what we do we are to do in the Father’s name for His glory. We are called Christians because we now live by Christ, not because we subscribe to a religious set of dogmas. Our lives reflect the One unto Whom we live, just as Christ’s life reflected perfectly the Father unto Whom the Son lived. He did nothing of Himself, but only as directed by the Father. That is to be now true in our lives as we live the resurrected life of Our Lord and Master. 
	As Paul instructed Timothy in 2 Tim 3:14-17, You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them; and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. 
	The Word reveals the resurrected and living Lord Jesus Christ, by the power and the wisdom and the instruction of the Holy Spirit. As we read it and as we study it and as we feast upon it, we receive the every sustenance required for our walk on this earth. We are enabled to face every challenge, every threat, every trial, every circumstance, every storm and gale with the solid assurance that we are equipped to do all that God requires, in endurance, to overcome to His glory, Alone. That is the life that Jesus lived and that is the life that we are called to live. This is why we are Christians, not because we become little christs, but because we are utterly and absolutely and resolutely and, thankfully, totally reliant upon Him to be our everything!
	We witness the resurrected Christ each moment of each day as we walk by His grace on this earth. As we are so encouraged by John in 1 John 1:1-5, What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life —  and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us —  what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 
It is the Holy Spirit Who opens our eyes to the light that came down from Heaven and Who now indwells our heart and mind and soul and spirit. When we see Christ, the resurrected and glorified Son of God, we are freed from all the blindness and the darkness of this age. We respond and we choose to live in the light that has driven away the darkness. John 1:9-14, There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 
	As John further details in 1 John 5:9-13, If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for the witness of God is this, that He has borne witness concerning His Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness that God has borne concerning His Son. And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life. 
	Jesus is the glory of Easter. He is the Light of the world. He is the One through Whom life has come into this world. In Him, by our complete belief upon Him as the Son of God Who bore the righteous penalty for our sins and trespasses, we receive salvation from God. Christ, Who willingly took our burden of guilt unto death, is the only source of peace with God and eternal life in His very presence. Ever let us proclaim, in the lives that we are called to live on this earth, the glory of the One Who has set us free from death and made us alive unto God! To His glory Alone, so be it! 
Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. Amen.

			
This morning’s benediction is Luke 24:5b-7. "Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again." Amen.