He Is Risen!

Luke 24:5-7 ~ "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise."

The angelic testimony to the women who came to the tomb gave the ultimate proclamation that would change the world. There is much that can be drawn from their joyous declaration of the risen Lord, far more than we can capture in this moment. But let us look upon it and find some treasured truth for the day.

First, do not look for Jesus where He will not be found. The women went to the tomb, fully anticipating that the body of their Lord and ours would be laying in rest. Though the Lord Jesus had told them on multiple occasions that He would rise from the grave, they had not grasped the truth of His words. Thus, we hear the angel's question: "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" Truly because they had fully believed that His body would have remained where it was placed.

And, to bring this text to an illustrative view, why do we, today, seek for Jesus among those who are dead in this world? I do not mean that we go looking for Jesus among the tombs, or seek for the Lord in the burial sites in the nation of Israel. But there are those who look to the world and expect to find the Lord. You will not be able to find Him with any worldly wisdom. The Apostle Paul even said of himself that he once regarded Christ according to the flesh, that is, according to mere human understanding, "From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer" (2 Corinthians 5:16). The wisdom of the world will never be able to give any person the opportunity to find the Lord (see 1 Corinthians 1:21). It is merely seeking the living among the dead.

Second, you will not find the risen Lord apart from His revealed truth. The angel told the women who came to the tomb, "Remember how He told you." And Jesus had told them, over and over again, exactly what was going to happen to Him. Consider Mark 8:31, "And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again." In the Gospel of Luke 24:25, The Lord reminded the two on the road to Emmaus of this very thing: "And he said to them, 'O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!'"

Your own personal inspirations are no measure of knowing the risen Lord. Imaginations and ideologies are no means a person has for coming to walk with and worship the Living God. Everyone looking for Christ will find Him in the testimony of Scripture and nowhere else. John told us this very thing, "But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31). We also find in Luke 24:44, "Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled."

Beloved, everything written of Jesus Christ proved true. He was delivered into the hands of sinners. He was cruelly and brutally crucified. And, my friends, He has risen!

Open your heart to the message of the angels. Look for Jesus where He is found--in the testimony of His word, delivered to us through those who bore witness of His resurrection. And know that, as Jesus fulfilled everything written about Him, He will fulfill every promise made to all who have faith in Him. Let this promise rise in your heart with the joyful hope of everlasting life: "Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him" (Romans 6:8). 

In His Grace,
Pastor Michael

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