Blog You are here: Blog > Now for the Good News!

“I’ve got some good news for you!” If ever there was a statement to not only cheer us up, but to make us sit up and take notice, it is surely that one. In a world that is so often full of bad news, to hear a sentence like that is particularly encouraging.

It’s the sort of statement that will be made in quite a few different places in our village this week. It might be on a very mundane level. The bill in the Spar might not be as high as usual because there is a special offer, of which we are able to take advantage. Or it might be something more important. Little Tommy has done well at school and the teacher is giving a good report to a parent more used to receiving complaints from the member of staff involved. Sometimes the news is of a more vital nature. We have gone to the surgery for those test results that we were dreading, and the doctor begins with those words; words which lift a huge weight from our shoulders. And, of course, every Sunday as we meet for worship, we hear good news that surpasses even that; news of the eternal life to be found in Jesus Christ as sins are forgiven and broken fellowship with God restored.

But there is one place, at least, in New Inn where good news is hard to find. I’m thinking of the cemetery. Not much to cheer our hearts happens there, no matter how many times people visit it. How amazing, therefore, that the best news the world has ever received was delivered in such a place as that, where the evidences of the bad news of death are all around us.

The first Sunday of this month was Easter Day, when Christians in every country of the world celebrate the resurrection of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2000 years ago, on that first Easter Day, good news was the last thing that those who went to the garden tomb were expecting. They had come to anoint a corpse, and grieve for a friend that they had lost. All the hopes they had entertained about God doing something great for them and the nation had come crashing down around them. Jesus was dead. Their chief worry now was how to get the stone away from the tomb, especially as it had been sealed and guarded by the might of the Roman military machine.

But as the morning progressed that grief and perplexity was replaced by joy. An angel brought them really good news, asking them the question; “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here, He is risen!” (Luke 24:5,6). By the end of the day, many of Christ’s disciples had seen Him and were utterly convinced of the truth of the resurrection; so much so that in time they were willing to lay down their lives for it.

Why is the resurrection such good news, even today? It is because death, the final enemy, the thing that fills us all, naturally, with fear has been defeated. More than that, it tells us that Jesus has defeated not only death, but also it’s ultimate cause, sin; it’s ultimate supporter, Satan; and it’s ultimate consequence, separation from God. The great news of the resurrection is that if you trust in this Saviour you can conquer death too, because He, and He alone, can give you eternal life. Will you trust Him?