Darkness covered the earth when Jesus died on Calvary; and darkness filled the hearts of his beloved disciples. The light of their very lives had gone out. As Jesus had foretold, they were as sheep without a shepherd1. Probably they cowered for fear somewhere in the city of Jerusalem. What should they do now? Where could they go?

The story is told that, on the day that Wellington of England met Napoleon at Waterloo, arrangements were made to relay the news of the outcome of the battle from one ship to another, by semaphore (visual signaling - flags, hands, smoke, etc.), across the English Channel. A group of men stood anxiously waiting on the shores of England. Suddenly, the ship closest to the shore began to signal the message. Letter by letter, the anxious men on the mainland read the words: Wellington defeated... Then a bank of fog cut off all view of the ship. Was that all? If it was, that could mean the end of England. After some anguishing moments, moments that seemed like hours to the waiting Englishmen, the fog cleared away and the signaler began his message over again: Wellington defeated ...Napoleon!

This story is a vivid illustration of the experiences of the disciples of Jesus following his death on the cross. On Calvary, the only message that the hearts of the disciples could read was: Christ defeated... But, on the first day of the week, the resurrection morning, the good news message came through: Christ defeated... death!

If the central message of the gospel could be summarized in two brief sentences, they could well be these: Christ died for our sins, and Christ has becn raised from the dead. The cross has long been recognized as the symbol of our Christian faith, but the empty tomb is no less significant. Paul summed up the matter when he wrote: And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith2.

By the resurrection of Jesus from the dead we mean that his body was lifted out of the tomb by the power of God and that he lives again. The gospel story of Jesus began with a powerful miracle: the miracle of the virgin birth, and ended with a miracle: the miracle of his bodily resurrection. This is what the New Testament clearly teaches. This is what we believe!

The resurrection of Jesus, therefore, is the cornerstone of our Christian faith. To quote Paul again: If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved3. Not to believe in the resurrection of Jesus means not to believe in Christ as Lord and Savior. And indeed, not to believe in the resurrection of Jesus is to have no assurance of our own resurrection from the grave.