We have just celebrated Easter. We have spent time remembering Jesus' sacrifice for us, His amazing love and forgiveness. We have encountered the risen Christ, what will we do next? Will we be like those who met Jesus while He walked the earth. Let us look at how people responded to meeting with Jesus.

When Jesus was born the Angels went to tell a group of lowly shepherds that the King had been born. They went to visit Him and met the King not in a palace but in a stable. Their reaction to their meeting with Jesus was to go and tell everyone they met.

In John 4 Jesus is travelling through Samaria, while travelling He finds himself alone and thirsty with a Samaritan woman who is obviously not socially accepted. A woman that Jesus should not speak to you. He engages her in a conversation and shares the good news of Gods salvation with her. Her reaction to this conversation is to go tell those who had probably shunned her about Jesus. The villager’s reaction was to meet Him and believe in Him, because of what she told them and what they saw in Him..

Jesus meets a demon-possessed man. This man is possessed by a legion of demons and out of his mind. Jesus heals him and he becomes normal. He sent the demons into a herd of pigs who promptly all die by running off the side of a mountain. The people who see and hear about this miracle and what happened to the pigs want Jesus gone from their area. The healed man wants to follow His saviour, but Jesus tells him to go and tell what God has done for you. He does this and it is worth noting that the next time Jesus visits this area crowds come to meet Him instead of shunning Him. The healed man’s proclamation had had an effect.

Mary and some friends come to the tomb to prepare Jesus' body. Instead of finding Jesus, they find an empty tomb. Mary meets the risen Christ in the garden where the tomb was, and Jesus explains He is alive, and she is to tell the good news to the disciples. Her reaction to this encounter is to go give the unbelieving disciples Jesus message.

After Jesus has ascended to heaven the disciples in obedience to Jesus are in Jerusalem waiting for the Spirit of God to come and empower them. When He does come in a great display of power Peter’s reaction is to preach the gospel and plead with the people that they accept and believe in the risen Christ.

Saul hates Christians and thinks they are enemies of God. He is on his way to Damascus to get rid of more of these evil Christians when he encounters Jesus. He commits his life to Jesus at this point. One of the first things he does after this encounter is to begin preaching the good news of what Jesus has done and how everyone should believe in Him.

Jesus last command to the disciples and to us was to go and make disciple of all nations. To do this we need to speak about Jesus, tell people what He has done, who He is and how amazing He is. We can not make disciples silently.

The party that will be held one day in Heaven when all who know Jesus come into their inheritance and celebrate the wedding feast of God is not a private or secret party. God wants everyone to be at the party and He has issued invitations to everyone through us. Are we giving out the invitations or are we keeping this awesome party secret?

We have just celebrated Easter. We have spent time remembering Jesus' sacrifice for us, His amazing love and forgiveness. We have encountered the risen Christ, what will we do next. Like those we have read about will we go and tell everyone we meet and encounter. Will we hand out the invitations? How can we truly encounter the risen saviour and stay silent? How can we remember His love and then not act on it? There must be a next step, like the disciples in obedience we must speak and tell all we can God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. Let us do all we can to live in such a way that we honour Easter every day of the year.