Hope is a key element in faith; it’s often what keeps us going through trials and testing. Paul told the Corinthians that ‘now these three remain: faith, hope and love’ (1 Cor 13:13), and he speaks frequently of the power of hope to sustain and enable us to endure.

It was because of his hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ that Paul was arrested and put on trial. (Acts 23:6, Acts 24:15, Acts 26:6, Acts 28:20) Yet he affirmed that ‘we boast in the hope of the glory of God’ (Rom 5:2), finding hope in the ultimate fulfilment of prophecy as he waited for God. (Rom 8:23-25) Hope kept him going throughout persecution, opposition, injustice and imprisonment. He kept hoping for deliverance and knew he could trust God in every situation. (2 Cor 1:9-10)

Hope is desperately needed in our world today. Without God, we are without hope. (Eph 2:12). We identify with Job in his suffering: ‘My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope. (Job 7:6) One of the problems people have faced over the past year is that they feel they have no hope. Illness, insecurity, the loss of freedom, financial anxiety, loneliness, the loss of familiarity and security have all led to a feeling of hopelessness and helplessness which has been evidenced by mental health suffering, unemployment rising and desperation becoming the norm for so many people. How can we keep going when there is so much uncertainty and despair around us?

God’s word speaks hope into our lives. It reminds us that God has not forgotten us and that we do not have to live merely by sight, but can let faith become our sight. If Paul could endure hardship and persecution with hope and joy, then we too can be sustained by God in exactly the same way. Don’t give up. Don’t lose hope. Trust in God and wait patiently for Him.

In Acts 26:8, Paul cuts to the chase with his question, ‘Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?’ In all the trials he undergoes, his focus is always on the resurrection of Jesus, a resurrection he makes plain is consistent with Jewish beliefs.

We don’t live in a society which generally believes in miracles or the supernatural, and therefore Paul’s question is one which forces us onto the back foot. The reason many people discount the account of the resurrection of Jesus as factual is because they have a worldview which has no room for an incredible, miracle-working God. If we assume that there is no god, if we believe that nothing can happen except that which we understand, then the idea that God raises the dead will seem ridiculous to us. But if we work from the viewpoint that God made the universe and all in it and is able to do so much more than we can understand or fathom, then there is nothing incredible about the idea that God could raise the dead.

The resurrection of Jesus is at the heart of the gospel, as Paul makes plain in 1 Corinthians 15, where he goes as far as to say that if Jesus were not raised from the dead, our faith is useless. Here are some things to consider about the resurrection before dismissing it as incredible:

1. There was an empty tomb with no body in it. No one has ever been able to produce the body of Jesus.

2. The tomb had had a Roman seal on it and a huge stone in front of it. The price for interfering with Roman justice was great, and it’s unlikely the Roman guard would have broken the seal or moved the stone.

3. There was a Roman guard at the Tomb, so it was unlikely anyone else could have simply stolen the body.

4. Many people testified to seeing Jesus after his death – over 500 at least!

5. The behaviour of the disciples changed radically after the resurrection. Before, they had been fearful and hiding away; after the resurrection, they became bold witnesses to Jesus, prepared to die for their faith.

6. Jesus predicted he would rise again on many occasions.

7. The Old Testament Scriptures prophesied that the Messiah would rise again.

8. Christians today testify to the life-changing power of Jesus.

If God can raise the dead, then perhaps we really should pay closer attention to everything that Jesus said!

Obsessions take over our lives, leading us to become so preoccupied with an idea that everything else has to take a back seat. The very word indicates something that is not quite normal, that goes beyond what we regard as usual. We can be obsessed with anything: a person, an idea, a hobby, a possession. There’s usually an element of a normal liking becoming twisted, so that if we say someone is obsessed, we are pointing to something that has an element of fanaticism or abnormality to it.

Paul’s account of his life before meeting Christ is ruthlessly honest. He says that he was a fierce opponent of Christians: ‘Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities.’ (Acts 26:11) Such a person is the last person you would expect to end up on trial for the Christian faith, but Paul’s story of his conversion is one which shows that to break or cure an obsession, you have to have a greater goal!

Paul’s life was changed by his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. It was a complete U-turn: from persecuting Christians to preaching the gospel and being persecuted himself. We should never underestimate the power of personal testimony or doubt that meeting with Jesus is enough to overcome any obsession or addiction. As the singer Carman once said, we should only be addicted to Jesus! Anything else will control us, but He sets us free to serve Him and become the people we were meant to be.

Paul summarises his commission from Jesus in this way: ‘I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ (Acts 26:17-18) This could be said to be a summary of the gospel.

Before we know God, it’s as though our eyes are closed; blindness is often used to describe our natural state (see John 9; 2 Cor 4:4). God’s light shines in our hearts and opens our eyes; Paul describes this to the Colossians as ‘he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.’ (Col 1:13-14) Not only are redemption and the forgiveness of sins often linked (see also Eph 1:7) but Paul stresses that even the Gentiles have a place in God’s family through faith. We are all welcomed into God’s family through faith.

John Stott comments that, ‘conversion includes a radical transfer of allegiance and satanic rule and a liberation into the sphere of God’s marvellous light and power.’ (‘Acts’) Paul outlines this further in Ephesians 2:1-9, and it is important for all of us to understand the radical nature of conversion. Paul’s own behaviour shows us what this looks like. Does ours?

Acts 26 tells us of Paul’s testimony before King Herod Agrippa II. In the ongoing saga of Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem, he has defended himself before the crowds, before the Sanhedrin and before the governors Felix and Festus, and now has the opportunity to speak before the king himself. Undaunted by all the pomp and grandeur of a meeting with royalty, Paul not only recounts his personal history, both as a faithful Jew and as someone whose life was turned around by meeting with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus, but challenges his audience to consider what the implications for their own lives are if God really has raised Jesus from the dead. Agrippa clearly understood these implications, saying, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” (Acts 26:28) Paul’s answer is that he wishes all men could become as he is (minus the chains of imprisonment!) We see here the fulfilment of his calling to be a witness for Jesus as he proclaims the gospel in every setting imaginable.

Jesus had warned his disciples that testimony to him would be required. He said, ‘But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.’ (Luke 21:14-15) Paul is living proof that this happened, for at the end of Acts 26 we see that both Agrippa and all the judges present agreed that he had not done anything worthy of imprisonment and could have been released had he not appealed to Caesar. (Acts 26:31-32)

We may look at this chapter from a historical point of view, but all Scripture has something useful to teach us today, in our own situations too. We too have a testimony to share, a story to tell. We may never have to testify before kings, but we are all called to be ready to give a reason for the hope we have. (1 Pet 3:15) May God give us words and wisdom in every situation so that His story is told through our lives to all we meet.

The Easter story is ultimately not about chocolate at all. It’s about God’s love for the whole world and how His everlasting love and eternal plan of salvation were fulfilled by the death and resurrection of Jesus. The story involves God’s mercy to us – for we have all sinned and deserve to pay the price of death and separation from God for that sin, but we are rescued by Jesus taking our place on the cross. It involves the Messiah, Jesus, God’s chosen and anointed one. It’s a story of miracles – a miraculous birth (which we celebrate at Christmas) and a miraculous resurrection, demonstrating God’s power over sin and death. It also reminds us that God is worthy of our worship and wants us to be His witnesses around the world. One of our readings today was from Matthew 28, reminding us of the Great Commission God has given us to make disciples of all nations, teaching people all that God has done.

God’s plan of salvation was not a last-minute idea; Jesus was slain from the creation of the world. (Rev 13:8) Salvation came from apparent failure, humiliation and defeat. Resurrection followed crucifixion, and this reminds us that in our lives too, we have to walk dark paths before we reach victory.The gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that by His death and resurrection we are reconciled to God and born again into His family, is so simple that even the youngest child can understand it and receive Jesus into their lives by faith. Paul spends a lot of time in his letter to the Corinthians trying to explain the difference between God’s wisdom and the world’s wisdom and he tells us that everyone who believes can have access to God’s wisdom and that Christ is actually the wisdom of God. He says,‘No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this, Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—What God has arranged for those who love him. But you’ve seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you.’ (1 Cor 2:9)

Easter changes everything. It opens our eyes to God’s eternal plan, shows us the extent of His everlasting love, gives us insight into the mercy He shows us and the miracles the Messiah works – and the result should be our ongoing worship and witness to the world God made and loves so much that He gave His only Son to save us.