Monday: Proclaiming the Risen Christ
It was early Sunday morning, and the two Marys hastily made their way to the tomb of Christ. They were not going to ask Him for anything. What could a dead man possibly give them? The last time they saw Him, His body was bloodied, bruised, and broken. The scenes of the cross were deeply etched in their minds. Now they were simply doing their duty. Sorrowfully, they made their way to the tomb to embalm His body. The gloomy shadows of despondency engulfed their lives in the darkness of despair. The future was uncertain and offered little hope.
Image © Providence Collection at GoodSalt.com
When they arrived at the tomb, they were startled to find it empty. Matthew records the events of that resurrection morning in these words: “But the angel answered and said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen’” (Matt. 28:5-6, NKJV).
The women were now overwhelmed with joy. Their dark clouds of sadness faded into the sunlight of the dawning of resurrection morning. Their night of sadness was over. Gladness graced their countenances, and songs of rejoicing replaced their tears of lament.
Read Mark 16:1-11 What was Mary’s response when she discovered Christ was risen from the dead?
After Mary met the resurrected Christ, she ran to tell the story. Good news is for sharing, and she could not be silent. Christ was alive! His tomb was empty, and the world must know it. After we, too, meet the resurrected Christ along the highway of life, we, too, must run to tell the story, for good news is for sharing.
How fascinating, too, that despite all the times Jesus had told them what would happen, that He would be killed and then resurrected, the disciples — those ones Jesus specifically chose — refused to believe Mary’s testimony. “And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe” (Mark 16:11 NKJV). Thus, if even Jesus’ own disciples didn’t immediately believe, we shouldn’t be surprised if others don’t immediately accept our words, either.
| When was the last time you were rebuffed in your witness? How did you respond, and what have you learned from that experience? |
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It is no use shouting, "Jesus is Risen!" to a world that simply does not even have the vocabulary. We live in a secular world that simply discards the supernatural. The only hope we have of telling others about a risen Saviour is if we let people see Jesus risen in us. I have said it before and it needs to be repeated that Jesus has not risen if he has not risen in our lives.
Not only do secular people not believe in the risen Jesus, they have been turned away from him by those who have claimed they were Christians but have lived hypocritical, self-centred lives. To claim the high moral ground but live with disregard to the way Christ taught is the very antithesis of Christianity.
We have work to do. We need to live the risen Christ, long before we start talking about him. If we do not teach the vocabulary of love by our living, we have no hope of preaching love by words.
In conjunction with that, I believe that the message that "Babylon is fallen" is largely given by the lives of Christians who truly reflect the loving character of God in their lives. The people of the world need to see a contrast between the false and the true. As long as God's professed people are just as self-centered as the world, they have nothing to share. Preaching the "Sabbath truth" is meaningless if we don't demonstrate the the Lord of the Sabbath is the Lord of our lives. Sabbath-keeping without Jesus as Lord of our lives will not save us or anyone else.
The Good News is that He stands at the door of every heart, just waiting to be let in. 🙂 But I find it significant that in the Revelation Jesus is pictured as standing outside the door of Laodicea, the last church. Could it be that most of us who believe we are part of the last church have not yet let Jesus in to be our Lord?
I want to caution against feeling that u have to be perfect to witness about Gods grace and mercy.
Indeed! But we can only "witness" if we have a living relationship with Jesus because, by definition, a witness testifies from experience.
Remember that the Gadarene demoniacs had evil spirits cast out of them and had no more than maybe a few hours with Jesus. But He commissioned them to tell what they had experienced.
In the same way, we are to tell what we have experienced.
If we have nothing to tell, we need to ask ourselves whether we are fooling ourselves about our own state of salvation.
Good morning, thank you for your opinion, is interesting your words: Jesus has not risen if he has not risen in our lives. I will share it.
Maurice, I read your comment and felt like you must have been listening in on our breakfast conversation this morning. We were saying almost those exact same words. We live in a different”spiritual climate “ than the apostles did. Our witness has to be our lives, which, if we are closely connected to the God, will draw others to inquire. But we first have to know, and live like Jesus. If we don’t, then what are we witnessing about? Our lives are a witness either way, good or bad.
Will everyone believe you when you share the good news? Remember Jesus' parable of the sower who sowed the seed on all the different types of soil, soft and hard, Jesus through the Holy Spirit supplied the sun and the rain.
Could we assist Him in preparing people's hearts to receive the seed? Could we help nurture the growing plant?
Yes, absolutely, it is a team effort, the LORD manifests His acceptance and love and transforming power through us. The beauty of the LORD's method is that He often uses one of His coworkers to sow, another to feed and another to remove the choking weeds. If we surrender our will to Him, He will show us our share in the process.
What Spiritual Gifts has Jesus through the Holy Spirit given you? Are you developing and using it/them? Are you an extrovert that can start a conversation with anyone? Or do you quietly provide nourishment physically or spiritually?
I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me.
Proclaiming the Risen Christ
What dawned on me is; the witness of the woman at the well and Mary at the tomb.
Both were women, both were caught up in questionable lives with men, both met Jesus and was ostracized/had doubts by others, both went hurriedly to call others, both were shunned by others. As a woman myself, whenever these women were around, I can imagine the singled and married women held a tight grip on their spouses with eyes fixed as a light beam. All women saw these two women as dangerous when it comes to men. How can two such women's lives be changed when they encountered Jesus? These two women's behavior can be read in Prov 6:24-26.
But when these two women came in contact with Jesus everything was different. What made the difference? What was about Jesus that the hearts of these women were changed? We are told anyone who met Jesus their lives are never the same. Self dies. Not I but Christ be honor, love exalted.
Jesus has the power to change every sinner's life.
The vilest offender who truly believes, That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
Let us don't write off anyone, everyone has equal opportunity to be saved. He is in the saving business.
My personal witness is not about myself but about the amazing, wonderful LORD who loves me and wants to dwell with me and all the benefits of that relationship.
This is just an extract, read the whole Psalm as I proclaim his goodness in the personalized words of David.
I would like to extend the lesson study of unlikely witnesses to today.
Woman despised by the culture at that time is the one anointed to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Those specifically chosen by Christ himself had rejected the claim of resurrection.
Praise God, He does not give up on us.
STARTLED, I think that the disciples did not believe Mary Magdalene's report about seeing Jesus, 1) because she was a woman, and 2) because she had been a "super" sinner, whom Christ had cast out seven demons. With DESPONDENCY, they probably have thought "why would Jesus first appear to a person like that?" Sometimes we are REBUFFFED by others because people do not believe in our change. It might be harder to convince people around us, because they know our defects! But we have to continually struggle in our journey in the "shadow" of our master. Jesus is a fountain of infinite water/life, anyone who thirsts for Him can get relief!
Instead of the pandemic being an obstacle to our sharing Jesus with others, we need to see this as an opportunity. We have the golden opportunity to share the Bible truths through the Internet. I am doing this with people around the world. I may never be able to meet these people, but I expect to see them when the Lord comes to save his people.
Greetings
After going through the lesson this morning I was so excited that my excitement over flowed in my prayer. Here is a part of the prayer.🙏 Let us pray🛐
O Daddy I am so excited as I just read through the Quarterly lesson for today. It is entitled "Proclaiming the Risen Saviour". It depicts Mary's joy and excitement at the tomb and as she carried the new that Sunday when she realized that Jesus was not dead but risen. Father I can just imagine the J O Y. I still feel the fire of my first encounter with Him and I am still excited. Glory to your name. Help me to share my excitement everywhere I go. A no time I plan to keep my mouth shut.May all with an experience with Jesus be like Mary, to run and tell the world that we serve a Risen Savior. I pray in the name of Jesus.
Amen
Glory to God
Yes, CHRIST IS RISEN - this is the message the world still NEEDS to hear. Only God determines when this ends! This is Christ's Testimony to all who have ears to hear! Matt.5:13-16 - We are called to share HIS Testimony. HIS Testimony is the salt of the earth and the light of the world - we are called to testify because we have a *share* in HIS Testimony.
Yes, this is a matter of Heaven's powers overcoming the curse the earth experiences.
Luke19:39,40 - 'I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out'. The stones would not cry out for the sake of the apostles, but for the sake of the holy, all-life-saving message God sent Jesus into the world to give to all that is lost and to testify of Himself, our Father!!!!
Matt.5:16 - Let your light *so* shine before men, that they may see your good works, and GLORIFY YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN - works need to always point to God, the *Source* of all that is good. Men is called to glorify God when receiving from Him that, which is *good*.
Yes, we are left with representing Truth to a world that does not want to hear - has it ever been different? 'Resurrection from the dead' - who would/could/want to believe in this!? After all, the one who claimed this was cruicified by those that should have known Him because they were told before it happend!!
We remember that this selfsame message was entrusted to leaders in previous generations. They were commissioned to share it with their people. When the leaders became corrupted, the Light of the Word of God became obscured.
The reasons for the failure of those who received the Ligh are the same as today. When Jesus' time to be manifested as the Christ had finally arrived, they could not recognize Him; they had failed to keep the spirit of the message of His arrival in their hearts.
Rev.3:13-22 - v.15: I know they works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. v.16: So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Would we not repeat/experience the same travesty should we keep the Testament of Jesus to ourselves because we became 'satisfied' after receiving its worldly benefits/goods? God forbid - in addtion to the prophecies fortelling His arrival on earth, we have now also the evidence of Christ's resurrection!
Having accepted His gift of Salvation, we are called to first and formost share His testimony, not necessarily only ours - not out of obligation, but because we BELIEVE it to be true and have the evidence.
Jesus' resurrection left us sharing His Testimony in word and deed with anyone we come in contact with in one way or another.
Integrity: 'the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles, moral uprightness.
We are called to spiritual integrity - our words and deeds should not differ from Christ's whom we confess, the One who inspires us and whose teachings we follow. Should we falter, we continue to experience grace/forgiveness through repentance!
Matt.24:45-49 - v.47: 'And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem'. He has not left us without help. We are not left to testify out of our own strength, we are 'endued with power from on High'.
Mark 28:19,20 - assures us that He is with us always, 'even unto the end of the world'.
Are there any circumstances that prohibit or discourage us from sharing Christ's testimony? NO! Even if we find it impossible to share in word or deed, we still have our prayers to speak to God about the circumstances we encounter and ask Him to intervene for the sake of His Name's Honor and Praise.
The lost are saved to the Honor and Praise of the God that saved them. Eph.1:6; Eph.1:10-14 .
Isaiah 54:1-17; Isaiah 55:1-13 tells us "my Word shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it".