Sunday, April 29, 2007

After Easter – Witnesses of the resurrected Christ

“He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once …. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15:5-8).

“If Christ is not risen, your faith is empty!” The apostle Paul grabs our attention with this statement in his first letter to the Corinthians (15:14). When Paul set out to give evidence of the validity of the resurrection he established a list of witnesses, an actual count of observers who saw Jesus, those who talked with Jesus, even ate with Jesus, following His resurrection from the dead. (See 1 Corinthians 15:3-9.)

Prior to the first witness on Paul’s list, the Gospels record that Mary Magdalene and the other women with her came before daybreak only to find the tomb vacant. She delivered the news of the vacancy to the disciples. Peter and John came to investigate and then returned home. Fresh from the opened grave Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene as she lingered behind mourning the death and absence of her Lord. His appearance and words turned her sorrow into amazement and joy.

Luke tells the story of two believers journeying to Emmaus, their hearts filled with grief and sorrow for the tragic events of the recent Passover in Jerusalem. While they walked, a stranger joined them and soon heard the sad story of their sorrow. He began to encourage them with words of Scripture and passages from the prophets concerning Messiah and events that would surround his life and death. Upon arrival at their home they invited this stranger to eat with them. As He took the bread and broke it suddenly their eyes were opened that this was the risen Christ!

Later that day, Jesus appeared in a closed room gathering of fearful disciples who were unable to believe that Jesus was indeed living again. They refused to believe the report of the women, perhaps attributing their testimony as the result of overwrought emotions. However, their faith was soon validated and the report verified as Jesus stood in their midst displaying fresh scars from the wounds in His hands, feet, and side.

On another occasion Paul said there were more than five hundred at one time who saw Jesus alive after His resurrection. This could have been His last meeting with the believers on the Mount of Olives, the place of His ascension. There He gave His final instructions, challenging them to return to Jerusalem to receive the Promise of the Father. He told them they would be witnesses in all the world after they received the power of the Holy Spirit. In one final dramatic moment He was received up into heaven leaving the crowd with open-mouthed amazement.

The witnesses of faith include more than this brief list. The book of Hebrews documents a long list of faithful men and women through time that attest to the validity of faith and the assurance of the presence of our God working in us. “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2). Our faith is valid because of an empty tomb and a living Savior!

Sunday, April 22, 2007

After Easter – Forty days of Wonder

“He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).

Can you imagine the discussions and excitement that took place after the resurrection of Jesus? After the initial shock of seeing him alive after such a brutal death, it must have left the witnesses with a sense of wonder each time they saw Him living and breathing. After the ecstasy of seeing His victory over the grave there must have been an amazed euphoria with every visitation Jesus made.

In our minds we often place the ascension very close to the resurrection. It was like there was an appearance or two, and then away He went into the clouds never to be seen again. Actually, there were forty days and multiple occasions when Jesus met with His followers. That’s over a month of wonder and awe – He lives! He really lives!

He showed himself alive by “many infallible proofs,” as Luke says it. There was to be no doubt in the minds of His apostles and other believers that this was indeed the same one that suffered, died and now stood before them alive!

“I can’t believe you are here!” one might have said. “Can I see your hand again?” another may have asked. It took a few days for the reality of resurrection to really be grasped. Jesus spent that time with the believers so it would be firmly established in their own minds, in their teaching, and in their writings for future generations of believers.

Lest they should believe He was only a Spirit, a ghost that had returned to visit them, He showed them His wounds and ate fish with them. Jesus said, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, "Have you any food here?" So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence” (Luke 24:39-43).

Before the disciples could believe, Jesus had to open their understanding of the Scriptures so that they could see how He was indeed the fulfillment of the prophecies, the psalms and the writings. Revelation often dawns slowly rather than suddenly with the blinding flash of illumination in a moment’s understanding. As believers met together and talked of all that Jesus had done and said, a fuller understanding of His purpose began to be revealed. It was forty days of wonder, forty days of revelation, forty days of instruction that would forever shape the foundation of the church.

Jesus still gives us time. Time to know Him. Time to receive His revelation. Time to revel in His wonder. As we spend time in His presence He is revealed in our lives and the confirmation of His resurrection is made known to us also!

Sunday, April 15, 2007

After Easter – The Time of Realization

The gloom of the tomb is past, the Lord of life lives

The pain of birth is very real during labor and delivery. Thankfully, there are medications and procedures that help new mothers cope with the trauma of birth. Rash statements are sometimes made when the pain is severe. Some have said, “I’ll never have another child!” While at the moment she is very sincere, with the passage of time the memory of the pain fades and the joy of a new birth causes one to forget those rash promises. The joy of life overshadows the pain of suffering.

The same was true for the triumph of resurrection. As horrible and gruesome as the affliction of the cross was, it could not be compared with the jubilation experienced on Easter morning. In no way do we minimize the cost of Calvary or the intensity of Gethsemane’s intercession. It takes nothing away from the significant suffering and the supreme sacrifice of the Savior to magnify the joy of resurrection. The pain had passed, the task completed, and the resurrected savior was reunited with His disciples. There was ample cause for celebration and abundant reason to rejoice!

It was said of Jesus by the writer of Hebrews, “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Nothing about the cross itself could be considered joyous, but the end result brought satisfaction. The accomplishment of redemption and the triumph of life over death was the cause for His joy.

Timorous disciples were emboldened by the realization of Christ’s victory over death. No longer did they have to fear what others could do to them. After all that Christ had suffered, here He stood before them restored to life, radiant in power, and resplendent in glory. No wonder these disciples seemed like changed men in the book of Acts. They had witnessed the worst that the world could dish out and had seen Jesus return to them with only healing scars marking the wounds of His suffering. They must have been thinking of these events when they were “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41). They continued teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ publicly in the temple and from house to house. While they were threatened, and then beaten, and some eventually killed, there was a confidence in the knowledge that death is not the end. The grave is not forever.

He lives, He’s here, He’s alive forevermore. This gives us cause to proclaim His message to the world. There’s a whole lot of living beyond the present and the future joy will surpass the suffering we may endure. Paul said, “if indeed we suffer with Him, … we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:17-18).

Sunday, April 8, 2007

It’s Easter Time – The Time of Rejoicing

An empty tomb, a risen Savior, a living Lord

“And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, "Rejoice!" So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him” (Matthew 28:9).

For many, Easter is a reenactment of the crucifixion, a lifeless form on a rough hewn cross. It is remembrance of the brutal suffering and agonizing death that Jesus endured. The portrayal of the Easter story is replayed in churches throughout the world with children’s stories, dramas, cantatas, and sermons. The eulogy is rehearsed and the sordid sufferings of the passion of Christ are displayed.

While all these events are important in the telling of the gospel story, it should be remembered that the ultimate climax of the crucifixion is not the cross but the tomb. Even then, it is not the burial place but the vacuum that remained in the sepulcher on Sunday morning. The power of the story is not in the dying but the living. Other religious leaders lived and died and their remains are with us today. Other prophets preached and perished and all that remain are manuscripts and mausoleums. But this teacher not only left a written record but a living legacy. None other can testify of immortality, no one else has remained victorious over the grave.

Legends grow with the telling through time. It was known in the first century that the story of the resurrection would be embellished with the telling and eventually dismissed as legend or fable. Therefore it was imperative that many witnesses attest to the truth of this event. Luke wrote that Jesus, “presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). Paul added to this a virtual list of witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. “He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, …. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15:5-8).

The reality of the resurrection was cause for rejoicing. Unimaginable sorrow turned to inexpressible joy. The depth of despair endured just hours before was replaced with cautious euphoria. Can it possibility be true? Jesus lives? Those who did not see Him doubted. Thomas wasn’t the only one that needed proof of His resurrection. But Jesus freely offered His hands and side for inspection by the unbelieving. The healing scars were enough testament for the validity of His vitality.

Don’t let the Easter story end on a cross of suffering. Continue the telling to include the dark days of death but also the light of life shining from the dark tomb of yesterday’s tragedy. Rejoice in the existence of the risen Savior and worship the living Lord!

Sunday, April 1, 2007

It’s Easter Time – The Time of Suffering

Palm Sunday – A purpose for suffering, A plan for pain

“From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day” (Matthew 16:21).

The problem with being God is the knowledge of the future. Jesus prepared the disciples for the future by letting them know that suffering would soon come to Him in Jerusalem. He revealed that He would also be killed at the hands of the accusers. In that revelation of knowledge it is understood that He knew His own destiny. The grand plan of redemption was established from before the foundation of the world. Jesus was God in the flesh and the full implication of His sacrifice was well known.

Knowing the suffering and death that Jesus would suffer increased His pain in dreaded anticipation. Knowing His destiny did not lessen the agony but rather increased the suffering. No doubt the travail He endured in the Garden before His arrest and trial was more severe due to His knowledge of what was to come. His sweat became as great drops of blood as He envisioned the agony of the passion.

Divine destiny drove Jesus to accomplish the mission of propitiation. He resisted the temptation to circumvent the crucifixion. When Peter rebuked Him saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” Jesus quickly responded resisting the temptation, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (Matthew 16:22-23). Despite the knowledge of what was to come He was resolved to complete his mission.

The writer of Hebrews said it was “for the joy that was set before Him [He] endured the cross, despising the shame” (12:2). It was not with sadistic glee that He embraced the cross, but His joy was in knowing the benefit that His sacrifice would accomplish. He “endured the cross.” That was the necessary instrument of suffering that brought about redemption from sin and the promise of life. The joy was in the atonement, sinners set free from the bondage of sin. Those who were dead in their trespasses were brought back to life!

When you see the end result the process is palpable. If you want good teeth you must go to the dentist once in a while. If you want to remain healthy sometimes you may require surgery or painful treatment. But if your chances of a better life are increased you may be willing to suffer for the present. Jesus saw the suffering, admitted the violent treatment, conceded that He would die, but added that he would rise again on the third day. The story did not end with the cross or conclude with His passion. There was a simple statement of victory; He will be raised again on the third day!

Endure the cross; abide the suffering, a better day is ahead. The promise is worth the pain!