It has been two weeks since Easter, but in some ways it seems like a long time. Just like all Sunday mornings, the fact of Easter remains the same. We serve a risen Savior! Let’s notice what the Emmaus disciples said. “He is risen INDEED!” This carries great significance with the word indeed being used. They wanted others to know that Jesus had actually risen. He really did rise from the grave. We should never lose sight that he IS risen. It brings it home to us on a personal level, into our heart and mind. We live each day in the face of a living, risen Savior. He IS risen, still risen INDEED!
Luke 24: 12Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. 32And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? 33And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, 34Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.
We read verse 12. Peter is at the empty grave. Twenty verses later the Emmaus disciples referred to Peter. John and Peter ran to the tomb after Mary brought the news to them. John outran Peter, but Peter went on inside. He saw the empty tomb. He knew that Mary said he was alive, yet with all that evidence before him he didn’t know what to think. We can be like Peter. We believe it doctrinally. We believe it biblically. It’s different though to take it personally and with an open heart take it in. Sometime that day Jesus made an appearance to Peter. He had denied the Lord three times during the time of his arrest. Jesus forgave him, and Peter’s life was changed.
He didn’t go to the group as a whole. He went to Mary and the women and then to the most wayward disciple, the one who kept getting into trouble—Simon Peter. We are confronted by Satan every day in a personal manner. He works in many ways to bring us down. Jesus gets more personal than that. A person can say “yeah, he’s risen,” but not until that person meets Jesus and feels it for himself is there is a direct, personal effect. The Emmaus disciples realized it after the fact that their heart burned within them while they spoke to this “stranger.” When they realized the stranger was Jesus, he disappeared. It was then they got excited. We ought to feel the resurrection INDEED. This means without doubts. This means the heart is moved. It means your life is affected. In this use of the word, indeed means certainly, truly, emphatically, infallibly. He has truly risen. It’s certain. I’ve experienced it. He’s really here! Do you believe it like that?
Don’t think of the resurrection as a past event that happened 2,000 years ago. He IS risen today just as much as he was then. Paul said but now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. We treat him as if he’s not as alive as we are. Jesus is completely here. He remains risen indeed. It should still move us. It’s easy for us to show emotions that we shouldn’t. Why is it so hard for us to feel good about salvation and show it? We don’t have to spruce salvation up for it to be good. Jesus died for us and because he is alive now, we are alive spiritually. Peter knew it INDEED. He personally saw him and knew it in his heart. It carried him to the end of his life. You can have a plain old religion or you can have a living Jesus. You can feel him. He is risen now to give us life.
If you are to believe on Jesus, quit wasting time and missing out. Believe it with all your heart. Paul said that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. When you personally believe that he arose for you, you can be saved. Open your heart in faith and Jesus will come in. Whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saved. We are right with the Lord because he is INDEED risen from the dead. We live because he lives. We’ll go home with him because we trust in what he did for us.
For you personally: is Jesus just risen or is he risen INDEED?
Adwolfe Freewill Baptist Church 