I pray that you will take some time away from the business of life to reflect on the resurrection of our precious Saviour!
5 The angel said to the women,
“[a]Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.
6 He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said.
Come, see the place where He was lying.
7 Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead;
and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.” Matthew 28: 5-7
A call, a mission, a sermon in three short verses. One from an angel at that; it has just four main words; Come, See, Go and Tell. How can a sermon be preached in a few words? Come, see we will go and I will tell you. Come we are told to come, will we listen? Come, we are told to come; will we listen to this Holy call coming from out of the angel’s mouth? Or are you being held back; if you are, by what? What is holding you back from the presence of the Holy God? Your sin, fear that you are not good enough, radical from others. You know that deep down inside you are searching for Jesus, but you are afraid. So He is calling you through these words out of the mouth of His messenger angel. Come He is saying to you, yet still we stand afraid, so even before that He has told us “Don’t be afraid.” Yes He knows you are afraid, so that is why He starts with these words to us “Do not be afraid.” So come and do not be afraid. Come and See why we need not be afraid to come. See where He was lying; as we Come and See. We see the place where He was lying. Why was He lying there? For you and for me. He was lying there bearing the terrible weight of our sins upon Him. See what He has done for us. He has taken our sins that cover us and has placed them upon Himself. We see the pain and torment that He has gone through, all because of us. But it does not end there, why for we see where He laid not where He is lying. He is gone; gone for us to. He is raised for us, risen so our sins could be paid for. Realization hits us. He did this for me, so that I may be free, free from sins and alive. No longer needing to be afraid to come to Him and see what he has done for us. With realization comes belief. We look back and wonder why we took so long. Why did I take so long to come? Why was I so afraid, because we did not see. But now we see and believe. Believe that this was done for us. We are humbled and feel gratitude to this great and awesome God that He would do such a thing for a sinner like me. Being so amazed all we can do is stand, gasping and trying to comprehend. We do not want to leave, but another commanded is on the angel’s lips. GO! Why do I have to go is the first thought that enters our minds, I just want to stand here a while longer. Maybe that is why there is that little adjective here telling us to go quickly. God knew that we were going to be very tempted to just stay around, full of wonder. So we are told to go quickly. Why to go quickly? So that we may tell; to go and tell it when our heart is still full of awe and amazement. A fresh telling, not one that has gone stale – for we left the yeast to long and it lost its entire raising agent. Do I really have to go and tell? Why do I need to tell? Cast your mind back to that day when you were five and you had just learnt to read and you came home shouting, “I can read!” “I can read!” when great things happen to us, is not the first reaction, let’s go and tell. As a kid we did it straight away, but as we have gotten older we tend to leave it for a while and when it comes to telling the joy and amazement are no longer really there. So what should we tell and how? Tell what you saw – That Christ really died and rose; that this was done for me and you, so that we may come without fear before a Holy God, complete and without sin; for our sin has been crucified and buried with Christ, and we have been raised anew and made alive in Him. Tell them that they can have this amazing transformation, if only they heard; Gods call to Come and See and with the seeing, believing that this was done for oneself. We are to tell from the heart; from our own experience of transformation and what it has done for you. Let it be a heartfelt message, coming from the deepest place within you. Full of the fresh love, gratitude, amazement and awe that it has filled us with. Tell that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. Preach a Gospel of Christ’s victory over the cross and sin. As you read you are beginning to think; I can’t do this, I have no guts, I will just mess up. This is why the angel ends with a promise “He (The Holy Spirit) is going ahead of you into Galilee” (7c); He will provide the strength for you, paving a path so you can go and tell. “There you will see Him” (7d) How will we see Him? By knowing who to tell, for He will guide you, going ahead to prepare the path and heart of the person. You may also be blessed with seeing Him come into the person. Do not expect them to come and see straight away. Be persistent in your telling, always stopping to renew your story in God’s word to keep it fresh. Now my friend; Come, See, Go and Tell; do not be afraid to Come and See. Do not wait to go and tell, do it quickly for the time of the second coming is at hand. Heed the word that you have been told, for no excuses will save you. As the angel says “Behold, I have told you,” You know, so now my friend heed these four little words; Come, See, Go and Tell.
This Easter Go and Tell once more of the saving work that Jesus Christ has done in your life. “Behold, I have told you.” So now heed the word of the Lord and continually come before Him and see what He has to tell you. Then Go and Tell those around you.; never stopping in this four word cycle. I repeat; Come, See, Go and Tell.
Dear reader, maybe you are thinking, but I never Came to See. So what does this mean for me. The call is there for you to. Come and See what Jesus has done for you. Read about in Gods own Holy word. Read the first four gospels of the New Testament and see what He has done for you. See what He has done for you and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe and have Faith and you will be saved. Saved from the torments of hell; being made alive in Christ.
So dear readers my prayer for you will be that whether you are a believer or not you may fully grasp the real message of Easter this year.
If we take the message of Easter and merely go out with a mystical gleam in our eye and say, “Oh, isn’t it wonderful that Jesus rose from the dead?” and let that be the end of it we are not much better than the liberal theologians. But if we say “Jesus rose with a real body in a real world and in a real way and with a real voice commissioned His disciples to do real work, until they in His own time die and are raised again also in real bodies to be with Him,” then we have grasped the point and can live differently. (The Christ of the Empty Tomb by James Montgomery Boice page 173)
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