An ‘open door’ Gospel for all
- 20 minutes ago
- 3 min read
    Easter Message
If you have visited Lightning Ridge, you will probably be familiar with our local ‘car door’ tours.
It is a great way to see some of the famous sights of the Ridge – Lunatic Hill, First Shaft Lookout, and the like – from the comfort of your own Commodore or Kia. And it is all colour-coded for the convenience of out-of-towners doing their best to avoid a mob of emus on the right side, and 40-foot mineshafts on the left!
Here at Lightning Ridge Community Church, where I am Pastor, we have our own car door out the front – spray-painted in eye-popping orange, with John Murray lettering to boot. And, again, this Easter, our church doors will be open wide with an ‘open door’ gospel for all.
See, wherever you come from, wherever you call home, it is open doors all round at Easter time.
First comes Good Friday, and the ‘open door’ of Christ’s death, where the sacrifice of Jesus in the place of rebels like us reopens the way to God, as sure as the curtain of the temple was ripped in two (as we read in the eyewitness accounts of his crucifixion, such as Mark chapter 15).
But the grave could never keep God’s Mighty Son down for good.
On Easter Sunday, we are blown away by the ‘open door’ of Christ’s resurrection, where the good news that ‘He is risen!’ opens the way to life forever, as sure as the tombstone was rolled away.
And so again this Easter, we are invited to see Jesus in all his awesomeness. In his death as Saviour. In his coming back to life as Lord.
Like Easter and eggs. Like sausage rolls and sauce. You can’t have one without the other. Jesus’ death and resurrection go hand in hand.
One Bible verse puts it like this: ‘God gave Jesus to die for our sins, and he raised him to life, so that we would be made acceptable to God.’ (Rom. 4:25 CEV)
Never before has the doorway to forgiveness and ‘forever’ life with God been so open, so accessible to every tribe and tongue.
If you do visit the Ridge over the Easter Weekend – if you can afford the fuel! – our local car door tours will be ready for you to explore. But wherever you find yourself between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, do not let another Easter go by while Christ’s doorway to life stands open… with you on the outside, looking in.
For, Jesus himself tells us, there will come a day when he will return, or our earthly life will be over. Either way, on that last day – that decisive day – I know which side of the door I want to find myself and my loved ones standing. Safe and sound inside with Jesus, forever.
May the Lord bless us, our wider communities, and our fractured world this Easter.
Pastor Kurt Langmead
Lightning Ridge Community Church Main Service 9:30am each Sunday, 13 Morilla Street Lightning Ridge
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