Good morning! I’m glad to welcome you to worship today at Hillcrest Baptist Church.

It is said that Michelangelo, as he visited several great art galleries in cities across Europe, was deeply impressed by the overwhelming number of paintings that showed Jesus hanging on the cross.

Michelangelo asked, ‘’Why are art galleries filled with so many pictures of Christ upon the cross – Christ dying? Why do artists concentrate upon that passing episode, as if that were the last word and the final scene? Christ’s dying on the cross lasted for only a few hours. But to the end of unending eternity, Christ is alive…’’

On this day, Easter, as we have come to know it, we celebrate the very reason that each of us can have peace with God, forgiveness, and hope: THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS!

In Matthew 27:62-28:10, we read of a very intentional attempt to secure the tomb where Jesus was buried, but not even a Roman governor and guard, or all the religious leaders from the temple could keep Jesus from rising from the dead. Yet on the “first day of the week”, Sunday, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb and discovered what millions have since learned as well: HE IS ALIVE!