This Easter, I found it this following article from Tim Keller quite helpful ….

Do you know what the word gospel means? Euangelion. It means literally ‘the joy news.’ J.R.R. Tolkien, says there’s a kind of story … that brings us unbelievable joy … He says these stories always have a certain kernel to them. There’s always some incredibly hopeless situation, and victory is snatched out of the jaws of defeat. But how? Always through someone who comes in, and whose weakness turns out to be strength, someone whose defeat turns out to be a victory. He says it’s those kinds of stories that just seem to bring us joy. He called them eucatastrophes.

Do you know what the word eucatastrophe means? The joyful catastrophe. The tragedy that turns out to be a triumph. The sacrifice that turns out to bring joy. He said, however, there’s a Eucatastrophe of the eucatastrophes. There is a Story in all of the stories. He believes there’s a bass string to the human heart, and those stories can kind of make it reverberate a little bit but can’t pluck it.
Tolkien says the gospel story – where Jesus dies for the sins of the world on that Cross and rose again from the dead on the third day – is the only story that will pluck that string so the whole heart never stops reverberating and vibrating with joy. The reason it will reverberate is … this is the reality to which all of the other stories point. It happened. It really happened. There really is a hero who defeats the villain. There really is Jesus.

The word gospel means the joy news. Joy. It’s real. You have to have it.

Tim Keller sermon on “The Joy of Jesus” from the Series: The Fruit of the Spirit—The Character of Christ, (May 3, 1998)

Our Easter Services are as follows:

Easter Services….

Good Friday (19th April) – 8am and 10am (no communion)
Discover what’s good about this Friday as we remember the death of Jesus.

Easter Sunday (21st April) – 8am, 10am, 5pm (at Woolooware Shores Chapel), and 6pm. All with communion.
Celebrate Jesus’ resurrection with us at our services in the morning and evening.

Also, the Anzac Service details are as follows:

Anzac Service….

10:30am on Thursday 25th April at Woolooware Shores Chapel.

St Phils Editorial