Christ Is Risen! He Is Risen, Indeed! Mark 16:9-18 When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him and who were mourning and weeping. (What a precious gift this redeemed woman of the world was given, to be the first to whom Jesus appeared. When we experience great trials and great failures, as we receive His healing and salvation, the Lord has even greater mercies and revelations in store for us. Jesus had accomplished in her life a great work of deliverance and salvation. Like her, we also should be quick to tell others around us of the life-changing encounter we, too, have had with Jesus.) When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen Him, they did not believe it. (In our sophistication and intellectualism, we often still treat what the Lord reveals to us through the truths He ministers to us in His Word with the same incredulity and skepticism and cynicism. May we put away doubt and simply believe what He has promised to us today!) Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either. (Even when we hear His message to us time and time again, even from different sources, we are still so reluctant to take Him at His Word and to believe He is Who He says He is in our lives.) Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; He rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. (The Lord still appears to us today in the everyday moments and times of our lives. Even when the Lord confirms His truths to us through a variety of sources, how often we, too, resist and refuse to receive what He is saying to us. May we listen to those He sends into our lives to reveal His truth and power. May we yield our stubborn hearts and minds to the presence of the Lord today!) He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. (Here is our mission yet today and "all the world" for us lies right here where we are today, beginning right here with the people around us and the situations with which we connect today.) Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. (Coming into relationship with Christ is our choice, plain and simple. The Lord empowers us with the responsibility for that choice and also allows us to experience the consequences of our choice.) And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My Name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." (As we walk out His mission to go into our world and to preach the Good News, using words when necessary, the signs of Christ's undeniable and miraculous works will serve as indisputable evidence of His mighty power and love as He uses us to fulfill His purposes. Today, in His Name, because of the authority He has given us, may we reach out to those around us to show Christ's power in miraculous ways to bring new life and hope to all of us!) Christ Is Risen! He Is Risen, Indeed!
