He IS risen!

Scripture for the day: Revelation 1:17,18 "Then he placed his right hand on me and said: ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.’”

Thought for the day: He is risen! I know, we’ve already celebrated Easter and ought to be moving on to other important subjects; I just can’t figure out why we would not stop every so often to remember that we serve a risen Savior. What a sense of hope and triumph we get when we can say, without fear, "He is risen!" This was such an important part of the consciousness of the early believers that it quickly became their watchword. Upon entering a house for worship the guest would say, "He is risen!" and those in the house would answer back, "He is risen indeed!" Even when the persecutions began this greeting continued, if only whispered for fear of detection and persecution. But why was it so important to them? And should it be to us? Too often I'm afraid, when we enter our grand places of worship, or even the houses of other believers, we talk about everything but the fact that we serve a risen Savior. The weather, work, fishing, hunting, our favorite team sports and any number of other relatively meaningless subjects dominate our conversation for the first few minutes after we come together. Only after some time of "fellowship" do we get around to the real purpose of our gathering. Could it be because we're so far removed from the actual events surrounding the resurrection of Jesus that they no longer seem to carry the same weight they did for the early church? Could it be that they placed such great emphasis on the risen Christ because of the peril they were in as believers? After all, Saul began almost immediately to persecute this new sect, arresting them and standing by as some, like Stephen, were stoned to death.

Read the writings of Paul with this idea of the importance of a risen Savior and you'll soon see it was the dominant theme in much of what he had to say. The fact of His resurrection was the underlying idea behind all else Paul taught. Look what he says in 1 Corinthians 15:13-22: "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive." If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, nothing else Paul taught has any meaning to us at all. Everything hinges on this one fact: we serve a risen Savior.

Look again at the greeting they gave: "He is risen!" Not, "He was risen!" but IS risen. He didn't just come back from the dead and then head off to heaven, leaving us to fend for ourselves in this new-found religion. His purpose was not to perform some last, greatest feat of magic or miraculous power and then disappear into the Jerusalem sky without a trace. His purpose was to give us hope because, just as He rose and is alive forevermore, living daily with and in His disciples, we can hope to live with Him. All Paul's teaching concerning holiness, Christian character, hope for the future, endurance in the face to tribulation, preaching the Gospel, and all other things hinged on the one premise that Jesus is alive and active in every facet of our lives. Without that knowledge; without that certainty, we are but play-acting at a religion no more meaningful than wishful thinking. Perhaps that's why the modern church too often seems so impotent to impact her world; we've allowed ourselves to relegate the overpowering impact of a risen Savior to the recesses of our minds, being too caught up in the day-to-day chores of life to realize the full potential of our own salvation. Lord, help us to keep in the forefront the wondrous knowledge that You are alive and active in every aspect of our lives.

We are protected, cared for, reassured and promised victory because Christ is alive today. Let's not look back on the resurrection as an interesting, even powerful, fact of history. Let's remember that the resurrection is a today event as well. We don't just commemorate something that happened nearly 2,000 years ago. We celebrate something that is happening every day in the life of every believer.

Now go take on your world. - Bill