I awoke this morning to the sounds of chirping birds. Not too long ago the ground was covered in 6 inches of snow and even more recently there was a sheet of ice that engulfed everything. Winter is a time of death. The grass is no longer green. There are no more leaves on the trees. The squirrels are hidden away. Everything is drab, dreary and cold. In the winter we like to huddle up by the fire, wrap ourselves in a blanket, drink some cocoa or cider, put on Netflix and wait. We wait for the glorious spring. We wait for flowers to bloom. We wait for squirrels to come out and play. We wait for leaves to fill the trees. We wait for chirping birds and we wait for life.
This morning I awoke to the sounds of birds chirping, but it is still winter, it is still cold, it is still dreary the trees are still bare. The birds reassured me that winter is almost over and spring is almost here. the season of death is almost over and life will soon emerge.
We Christians are in the season of Lent a season of preparation for Springtime – for Resurrection Sunday the day Christ triumphantly rose from the grave. It is not here yet, but the birds are chirping, “It is almost here!”
Not only are we now observing this season of Lent, but from the time of the apostles till now the world has been in the winter waiting for the springtime. Winter constantly assaults our senses we feel it in our bones, we see the dreariness, the cold even seems to have a smell, but our ears hear something else our ears hear the birds chirping our ears hear springtime. It will soon be here the day we rise with Christ. The day winter ends and springtime goes on in perpetuity.
Now, since our message is that Christ has been raised from death, how can some of you say that the dead will not be raised to life? If that is true, it means that Christ was not raised; and if Christ has not been raised from death, then we have nothing to preach and you have nothing to believe. More than that, we are shown to be lying about God, because we said that he raised Christ from death—but if it is true that the dead are not raised to life, then he did not raise Christ. For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is a delusion and you are still lost in your sins. It would also mean that the believers in Christ who have died are lost. If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more, then we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world. But the truth is that Christ has been raised from death, as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised.
(1 Corinthians 15:12-20)