He Is Risen

Matthew 28
Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. 3 His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. 5 But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.” 8 So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came to this earth yes to die on a rugged cross for our sins, but more importantly to rise from the grave. He defeated death, satan and anything else that stood in the way of bringing salvation to the world. Scripture shows us here that Jesus defeating the grave was something that was seen and heard. First, there was an earthquake and an angel of the Lord sat atop the stone that once blocked the tomb of Jesus Christ. I believe there was much spiritual warfare going on as Jesus destroyed death and established victory over the grave and sin for eternity. The earth felt this battle and it shook. As these ladies approach the grave they see an angel atop the stone that once blocked the tomb of Jesus. Please see the splendor of this angle, scripture says that his countenance was like lightning. His presence had to be overwhelming as the guards passed out as if dead. But the angel spoke to the two Mary's and said, do not be afraid, this is pretty important since his appearance caused the brave and trained soldiers to pass out. the angel then says, "I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified." If we truly think about this statement we will see it has deep meaning. The angel did not say I know you come to mourn, or I know you come to pay your respects, he said I know you come to seek Jesus. He tells the ladies Jesus is not here He is risen, 'come see where they laid Him.' The Lord was gone and and they had a job to do. This is a reoccurring theme throughout all of the Bible. Come and see and then go and tell. Come and see that the tomb is empty and go and tell. I want you to understand that they did exactly what the angel said in the order he said do it. He said come and see, so they did, he said go quickly, so they did, he said tell it, so they did. They did not negotiate  or try and reason, they went quickly and told what they had seen. Verse 7 says they ran to tell this news. They did what the angel said and how he said do it. Think about verse 8, the scripture says they went out with fear and great joy to deliver the news to the disciples. It may seems odd to you,  'with fear and joy,' well I don't think so, the word used for fear here is  phobos and means fear, dread, terror, that which strikes terror, and finally reverence. I think they experienced all of these things. After all the countenance of the angel was like lightening and that had to have an everlasting effect. Have you ever been really scared? It has a lingering effect. The bottom line is we should have the same mindset when we set forth to do the work of our Lord and Savior. Fear and joy. Let your terror fade into respect and reverence as you know that it is Jesus that works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Let that bring you great joy. Go make disciples today because HEIS RISEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RAK CHAZAK,

Brother D

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