Christ is risen.. Truly risen

[Ebn Barbara]

Today we are gathered to celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead..
And we greet one another saying: Christ is risen.. and the others answer: He is truly risen.
Since my youth in the town where I was born and lived, I hear people repeat this greeting year after year, and the appearance of happiness and festivity prevails in every gathering. With time passing, we were rejoicing with this celebration..
But when I grew up, I started to know people more closely, and I saw the problems, worries and fears that they were wrestling with, and I discovered that the appearance of joy and happiness that prevailed during the festivities, was hiding a great deal of sadness, pain, problems, and difficulties..

Moreover, when I believed in the Lord Jesus, and I accepted Him as my Lord and Savior, and became His son, and I joined the assembly of believers, we were greeting one another with the same expressions: Christ is risen.. and the others answer: He is truly risen.

And today in this remembrance, while we are gathered as churches to celebrate together, I felt that the Lord wants to tell us special words from His loving heart, which will change the life of many..
He wants us to live the real resurrected life that He purposed for every one of us.

The apostle Paul said to the church in Rome:
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11).
The word of God assures us that the Holy Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is living in us..
But the question today is: Do our life, our body, and our personality reflect and confirm that the Spirit of Resurrection who raised the Lord from the dead is living in us, and renewed our body giving us good health, energy and vitality?
And did He renew our personality and made us enjoy peace, love, security, and high moral…?

If we were sincere in our answers, the answer should be “No”.
For most of us hide behind the smile and the greeting tired personalities, even if each one differs from the other, and our life does not reflect what the Lord has done for us, nor does it reflect the position He put us in, and generally speaking, we do not reflect in our life the defeat of Satan and the real place he is in after the death of the Lord and His resurrection..
The verses that declare those great truths, and that the Holy Spirit wrote down for us to live them.. are available in a certain place.. and we are in another place, most of the time far away from them..
But the good news today, is that after today we will not remain like that in the name of Jesus who is risen from the dead.

Beloved: most of our questions and prayers are as follows:
Why does this happen to me?
Why didn’t I get delivered yet?
Until when will I struggle with this bondage?
Until when will I struggle with sadness, fear, worry, anxiety, and discouragement?
Where are you Lord?

And these things are not strange to the Lord, for He knows them for sure, and many men of God through time struggled with that:
David told the Lord many times: Don’t just watch.. How long will You forget me?
And Gideon said to Him: I ask You my Lord, if You were with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all Your miracles which our fathers told us of.
And Mary and Martha said to the Lord: If You had been here, my brother would not have died.

But all this does not reflect what the Lord has done for us when He rose from the dead victorious, and it does not reflect the kind of life the Lord wants for us, and this is what we declare and are going to get today in Jesus’ name..

Beloved, let us allow the Holy Spirit to revive our memory with a few verses that tell us who we are, where we ought to be, and which life we should live, the apostle Paul said:
“… when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body… But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ… and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 1:20-2:6).

“Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15).

“And He said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.’ ” (Luke 10:18-19).
How great and precious is the word of the Lord, like a two edged sword..

Beloved: Satan, the world, our thoughts, our body, our past experiences and our present situation, the difficult circumstances, the people around us and the majority of believers unfortunately tell us:
This is our situation and it is not easy to get out of it, the war is fierce, the time is difficult, and the pressures many.. and so on and so forth of similar expressions.. but the word of the Lord says:
That my God crushed the head of Satan.
He disarmed principalities and powers, and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them at the cross.
He rose from the dead, and was seated at the right hand of the Father far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
And He put all things under His feet.
And what more?
He raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus..
He gave us the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt us.
And He made the Spirit of Resurrection who raised the Lord from the dead, living in us to renew our body, and our dead and decaying personality.

So who are we going to believe today?
The day of remembrance of the Lord’s resurrection from the dead with all that He did and that the word recorded for us?

But under the pressure of what you are going through today you might say to me:
“ I tried everything and read all these verses many times and nothing happened to me!!! “.
And I agree with you for there is a spreading phenomenon among believers today:
- We surrendered to despair, sadness, depression, self-pity and acceptance of our reality..
- We are waiting for something to happen and change things.
- May be are we waiting to grow up more.
- Or may be are we waiting for something we didn’t discover yet..

But allow me to say to you today: there is nothing that the Lord has not discovered for us, and there is nothing that the Lord has not done for us, for He said on the cross “it is finished” and there is no hidden secret that will be soon revealed, nor a new gospel written other than the one in our hands.. nor will any one around the world come up with something new or with a new wave that will sweep the churches and save the believers from their suffering..
Rather, what we need today is to hold on to the word of the Lord and simply believe like children that the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is living in us and wants to raise us from this death of ours..
And this Spirit who raised Christ from the dead will renew our body and our dead, sick, tired and desperate personality…

And I pray today like the apostle Paul prayed, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give us the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, that we may know what is the hope of His calling, and what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us, the ones believing according to the working of His mighty strength!!!

And this great apostle is the one who said:
“… that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:10).
He was insisting to lose all things and count all things loss, only to know the power of His resurrection that we are celebrating today..

The morning of the resurrection Sunday, Mary went to the tomb, and started to weep, and said to the two angels: they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him..
Then, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, ‘Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.
Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to Him, ‘Rabboni!’ (which is to say, Teacher).
(John 20:11-16).

Beloved: our situation is so much like Mary’s, most of us today, which is the resurrection Sunday, are still standing at the tomb crying, thinking they have stolen away Jesus and not knowing where they have laid Him.. Our life does not reflect nor tell that the Lord is risen from the dead, rather our life reflects and tells that someone has stolen the Lord and hid Him from us, and he wants to hide from us all that the Lord has accomplished for us through His death and resurrection..

Mary saw Him and did not recognize Him.. while He was standing behind her..
And today He is standing behind us, and in front of us and within us.. but the fog, the black cloud, the dust and the pressure of trials, wars, and our surrender to them, has blinded our eyes and made us lose the vision..
Nobody has taken away the Lord.. and nobody will ever be able to do that.. He is risen.. Truly risen..

And He wants this morning to raise us from our death, and remove this black cloud that is covering our eyes, so we can see ourselves today, living in Christ at the right hand of the throne of majesty, above all principality and power and above all the kingdom of darkness, so that we may realize that we have the authority to trample on serpents, scorpions, sadness, fears, tears, lament, and weakness, and to strengthen the feeble knees and the weak hands..
So we may live the victorious life.. and be released into the world around us, who is living without hope, just as the Lord has commanded us..
And we greet one another.. saying Christ is risen.. He has raised us with Him.. and He has sent the power of the Spirit of resurrection to live in us, reviving our body, and our dead and tired personality..

To the risen Lord be all glory today.