The Bishop of Blackburn, Rt Rev. Philip North delivers his Easter message to the whole of Lancashire
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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)
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03:23 (silence)
03:25 (silence)
03:27 (silence)
03:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]