The Bishop of Blackburn, Rt Rev. Philip North delivers his Easter message to the whole of Lancashire

Blackpool Gazette

Transcript

00:00 (silence)

00:02 - Hi everyone, it's Bishop Philip here

00:14 and happy Easter to you all.

00:15 Now I wonder if anyone has ever been

00:17 to a surprise birthday party.

00:19 In my experience, surprise birthday parties

00:22 always go wrong because somebody

00:25 spills the beans in advance

00:27 and the surprise is lost.

00:28 So just recently I started organising

00:31 a surprise birthday party for a friend.

00:33 Almost at once, his son gave the game away

00:36 and the surprise party is pointless.

00:38 The surprise is out.

00:40 Maybe though we shouldn't be too shocked

00:42 by that kind of thing because it's in the nature of joy

00:46 that it spills out all over the place.

00:49 Joy is incredibly infectious.

00:51 When your football team wins a key game

00:54 or when you book a great holiday,

00:55 you just need to tell people the joy spills over.

01:00 And really that's what Easter is all about.

01:03 It's about an incredible joy spilling out all over.

01:08 And what is that joy?

01:09 Jesus is alive again.

01:12 Jesus, who died on the cross, is alive again.

01:17 The moment the women see that truth

01:19 because they notice that the tomb is empty,

01:22 the joy spills over.

01:24 They tell the disciples.

01:26 Then the joy spills over more.

01:27 The disciples tell others

01:29 and proclaim this message of good news.

01:31 And still that message of joy is spilling over

01:35 across the world and that's why our churches

01:38 will be such joyful places this Eastertide.

01:41 What's at the heart of it though?

01:42 Why is this Easter message such a message of joy?

01:46 Because at Easter we know, we have a cast iron guarantee

01:51 that God's love has triumphed over sin and death.

01:55 When Jesus died on the cross on Calvary,

01:59 he died your death and my death on our behalf.

02:03 Which means that as he comes to life again at Easter,

02:06 death is overcome.

02:08 Death has been swallowed up by the strength of God's love.

02:12 You see, God loves you and me so much

02:14 that he wants to be with us forever.

02:16 That means that those things that get in the way

02:19 of that friendship are intolerable to him.

02:23 He dies to destroy our death.

02:25 He rises so that we can share in his life.

02:29 So through this empty tomb,

02:31 we know a joy that nothing can take away.

02:34 No matter what ups and downs we may go through in our lives,

02:37 no matter what strains or struggles we may face,

02:39 we know for sure that God's love, God's joy has triumphed.

02:44 I hope that this Eastertide you can experience that joy.

02:48 Hope you have joyful times with your family and friends

02:51 and the people you love.

02:52 But I hope above all, you can experience something

02:55 of that joy that spills out from the empty tomb

02:59 because Jesus is alive again.

03:02 Why not go to your local church this Eastertide

03:04 and celebrate with Christians this wonderful good news.

03:08 Jesus is alive.

03:10 Death is defeated.

03:12 God's love has triumphed over all things.

03:15 Alleluia, Christ is risen.

03:17 Have a very happy Easter.

03:19 (silence)

03:21 (silence)

03:23 (silence)

03:25 (silence)

03:27 (silence)

03:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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