While we cannot go back to that morning when the women and the disciples ran to the tomb to find that Jesus had risen from the dead, it is belief in their testimony that confirms the confession Peter made when Jesus asked them who they said He was: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” It is this confession that has formed the foundation of the true Church throughout the centuries since. Jesus was more than a good man or a good teacher or a prophet who lived a long time ago. Jesus was and is the eternal Son of God in the flesh, the Messiah, the Christ, God’s anointed KING!! He came the first time to suffer and to die on the cross to pay the penalty for sin, and He will come again to judge the living and the dead, and to establish His eternal kingdom in a new heaven and a new earth! All that is written in the Bible, God’s Word, points to Jesus Christ and to God’s kingdom. Every person who is alive on the earth today is either born again by the Spirit of God, and so part of Christ’s kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ, or is at this moment outside of His kingdom and in danger of eternal judgment. The clear testimony of the Bible is that salvation from sin is only found in Jesus Christ!! Reading of Jesus’ resurrection in our text this morning from John’s Gospel, or from any of the other Gospels … Matthew, Mark or Luke … is more than reading an account of events that took place at a certain point in history. This is the central event of all of human history! And as such, it is the dividing point of the entire human race: “These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). What is implied here, and taught elsewhere in God’s Word, is that whoever does NOT believe does NOT have eternal life. This is why the good news of the Gospel is, indeed, foolishness to those who are perishing, “but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (I Corinthians 1:18), that gives spiritual LIFE to those who were spiritually dead! So rejoice this morning as you hear once again the message of the angels: “He is not here; He is risen!”