March 28, 2005

He Is Not Here...He is Risen!

Sunset over the Saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa

The Gospel of Matthew Chapter 28:5-6

Mat 28:5 The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.
Mat 28:6 "He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.

The Gospel of Mark Chapter 16:1-7

Mar 16:1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the {mother} of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might come and anoint Him.
Mar 16:2 Very early on the first day of the week, they *came to the tomb when the sun had risen.
Mar 16:3 They were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?"
Mar 16:4 Looking up, they *saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large.
Mar 16:5 Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed.
Mar 16:6 And he *said to them, "Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, {here is} the place where they laid Him.
Mar 16:7 "But go, tell His disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.' "

The Gospel of Luke Chapter 24:1-8


Luk 24:1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.
Luk 24:2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
Luk 24:3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
Luk 24:4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing;
Luk 24:5 and as {the women} were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, {the men} said to them, "Why do you seek the living One among the dead?
Luk 24:6 "He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee,
Luk 24:7 saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again."
Luk 24:8 And they remembered His words,


Today being Resurrection Sunday I asked myself this... How many times do I think about this..."He is not here..." statement... dwell on it...give thanks for it...for it is a profound mystery. Many people from many faiths would like to know this about their god, prophet, teacher. In a world of wannabe gods and man made faiths this is a bold statement and the hope of the world...

We have seen in our lifetimes the rise and fall of dictators that would be god. They proclaim themselves god, demand to be worshipped, write a bible of sorts, set up a kingdom on earth...but die either naturally or unnaturally. You can visit their graves... the bodies are still there. So much for immortality.

Ramses, Nebucannezzer, Alexander, The Ceasers, Gengus Kahn, Henry VIII, Phillip II of Spain, Napoleon... in our own century...Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Ho Chi Min, Kim Il Sung, Khomeni, Pol Pot... to name a few... they all have this in common... they are men that wanted to be God... and they are dead, still in the grave to this day. Many of these graves are open to the public and you can visit them.

Then there is Jesus... God who wanted to be man. His grave is empty and is visited by tourists to see its emptiness.

This of course has been hotly debated over the course of 2000 years. I give you Pauls response to the skeptics out of first Corinthians 15, (Living Translation)

The Resurrection of Christ
Now let me remind you, dear brothers and sisters,* of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then and still do now, for your faith is built on this wonderful message. 2 And it is this Good News that saves you if you firmly believe it-unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.
3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me-that Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, as the Scriptures said. 5 He was seen by Peter* and then by the twelve apostles. 6 After that, he was seen by more than five hundred of his followers* at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died by now. 7 Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. 8 Last of all, I saw him, too, long after the others, as though I had been born at the wrong time. 9 For I am the least of all the apostles, and I am not worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted the church of God.
10 But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me-and not without results. For I have worked harder than all the other apostles, yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace. 11 So it makes no difference whether I preach or they preach. The important thing is that you believed what we preached to you.


The Resurrection of the Dead
12 But tell me this-since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? 13 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. 14 And if Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless. 15 And we apostles would all be lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, but that can't be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. 16 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still under condemnation for your sins. 18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ have perished! 19 And if we have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most miserable people in the world.
20 But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again.
21 So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, Adam, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man, Christ. 22 Everyone dies because all of us are related to Adam, the first man. But all who are related to Christ, the other man, will be given new life. 23 But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised first; then when Christ comes back, all his people will be raised.
24 After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having put down all enemies of every kind.* 25 For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. 26 And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For the Scriptures say, "God has given him authority over all things."* (Of course, when it says "authority over all things," it does not include God himself, who gave Christ his authority.) 28 Then, when he has conquered all things, the Son will present himself to God, so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.
29 If the dead will not be raised, then what point is there in people being baptized for those who are dead? Why do it unless the dead will someday rise again?
30 And why should we ourselves be continually risking our lives, facing death hour by hour? 31 For I swear, dear brothers and sisters, I face death daily. This is as certain as my pride in what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in you. 32 And what value was there in fighting wild beasts-those men of Ephesus*-if there will be no resurrection from the dead? If there is no resurrection,

This gives me great hope. I dont serve a dead dogma, dictator, or dead man. I serve a Living Saviour.


(Jesus) who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, {and} being made in the likeness of men.
Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Phillipians 2:6-11

Be Blessed today...