Are You Looking For A Risen Savior?

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.”

John 20:1-3

Upon hearing the news, Peter and John raced for the tomb. John arrived first, but did not go in. Rather he stooped and looked inside to see the strips of linen lying near the place Jesus had been laid. Arriving shortly after, Peter entered the tomb and found it to be just as Mary Magdalene had told them. The tomb was empty! As I read the story again on resurrection morning, I was struck by this statement found in John 20:9 concerning Peter and John:

“They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.”

After witnessing His death and seeing the empty tomb, they still did not grasp that Jesus was risen! When Mary Magdalene informed them that He was not there, they did not respond as men who were running to meet Jesus! In a parallel passage found in Mark 16, Mary Magdalene, Mary, and Salome encountered a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting inside the tomb. The young man said to them:

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

Mark 16:6-7

It is evident that Peter and John’s faith had stopped at the tomb, because if they had been looking for a risen savior they would have ran all the way to Galilee. That is where Jesus told them He would see them. Many of you, today, have a very similar ‘resurrection morning’ type of faith. You believe that He died! You believe that the tomb is empty, but you are not seeking the risen savior.

You see, it is not enough to have faith in His birth, His miracles, His death on the cross, or an empty tomb. It is “eternally significant”, however, that you embrace His resurrection:

“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.”

1 Corinthians 15:17-19

If our faith stops at an empty tomb, then we are to be pitied as men who have no hope! Peter, one of the men who went looking for an empty tomb later wrote:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..”

1 Peter 1:3

It is clear from this passage that Peter realized that there was no hope in an empty tomb. He traveled to Galilee and had an encounter with the Risen Lord that forever changed his life. How about you? Have you allowed your faith to bring you to the Risen Lord? Or are you still stuck at the door of an empty tomb?



Pastor Scott Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com