GOD OUR FAITHFUL REDEEMER
PROVED BY HIS RESURRECTION WHICH WAS PROVED BY HIS APPEARANCES
You might have heard it said, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating” - meaning that the true test of whether or not a claim is authentic is the end result, based on personal experience, of that which is claimed. It’s sort of like saying, “Try it, you might like it”! Which was most likely what the psalmist had in mind when he sang, “I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips” (Psalm 34) then challenged worshippers of God to a taste test: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
The challenge of “tasting and seeing” is what Jesus had in mind when he announced, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven . . . Whoever eats this bread has eternal life . . .The one who feeds on me will live because of me”. (John 6).
To “feed on” (to experience, to partake of) spiritual “bread” - which the Lord offers to people searching for new life – is to provide positive proof of truth as stated by John: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him (‘eats’ spiritual food necessary for spiritual life) should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Promised for centuries that the Lord God would send the Messiah to save the people from their sins, the incarnation (virgin birth of God the Son) occurred . . . was accompanied by the good news, “He shall save the people from their sins.”
Thus, He lived a life devoted to the saving purpose for which God sent Him; then, of necessity, He proceeded to Jerusalem for the finishing of his earthly task - the sacrificial shedding of his blood for the remission of sins. He had to die! “For, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.”
However, the Lord did not say, “Because I die, ye shall die, end of story” . . . “Whoever partakes of this spiritual bread will live, until they die” . . . “Anyone who ‘feeds on’ the Bread of Life will be disappointed”. No! “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world (to eternal death), but that the world through Him might be saved (to eternal life).”
Granted: Most of his closest followers thought his death on the cross was indeed the end of the story . . . went into hiding for fear of their lives . . . wondered if they had left all to follow him for naught . . . nevertheless considered it the right thing to do to give him a proper burial and to show their respects . . . BUT, why was Saturday such a day of depression?
Had they forgotten . . . “How Great Thou Art”? The Lord Provides . . . The Lord turned Marah into Rapha . . . The Lord protects . . . The Lord gives Peace . . . The Lord guarantees Victory . . . The Lord turns negatives into positives . . .The Lord always meant what he said? Maybe so, but, even so, all of that was about to change at the break of day on Sunday Morning - Luke 24:1-12 . . .
Lest we forget - as we are exposed to all the negatives toward Christianity - that our Lord’s Resurrection is as real today as it was that first Easter, let us here and now remember: Our Lord said what He meant, meant what He said, and proved it!
That very point was put to the depressed women who went to the tomb, planning to pour much more perfume onto the cloths that had been used to wrap the body of Jesus as if he were being mummified. (How the skeptics, agnostics, atheists of our day still strive to mummify Jesus, to dismiss Him, to dispose of Him!)
Frightened when they peered into the tomb and saw strips of cloth on a shelf in the shape of a body but no body, frightened again by the appearance of angelic beings who said to them, “He is not here, He is risen”, these very devout followers of Jesus were told by “the angel of the Lord” to remember what the Lord had told them when they were all together in Galilee!
Remember! You heard Him say: “It is necessary that the Son of Man be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and rise on the third day.” Now, you know He meant what He said! Folks:
The LORD is faithful . . . true to His Word! The LORD our God has proved Himself repeatedly to be the One and only God - Creator, Sustainer, Father, Redeemer. What He says He will do, He does.
When someone suggests to me that Jesus could not and therefore did not do what He said He would do – rise from the dead - my brain goes into high gear, and there surfaces from my reservoir of biblical knowledge stored in my memory, for such a time as this, certain facts supportive of the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
You see, reaffirmation of my belief in the resurrection goes beyond the mere presence of the still intact burial cloths, and the absence of his body - as was the fact of the matter when the women, and later, Peter and John, went to the tomb.
The women not only observed the empty tomb but were overwhelmed by the factual statement of the resurrection given to them by God’s messengers. John ran to the tomb ahead of Peter and, in his gospel account of their discovery, described how he saw with his own eyes what the women had told them, and then he concluded - from seeing what he saw - that the resurrection had indeed occurred as Jesus had said it would.
Peter examined the evidence inside the tomb and went away amazed at what he saw, although he still wondered about it. Many folks, like Peter, wonder about it before they are convinced of it, and commit to it.
In my coming to grips with the reality of the resurrection, I, like Peter, did a lot of wondering, but, after thoroughly researching and replaying over and over in my mind all the events associated in any way with the Resurrection, my belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus is rock solid. On Christ the Solid Rock I stand!
How did I arrive at that rock solid belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus?
Besides unanimous agreement (regarding the fact of the empty tomb and burial cloths lying in place in the shape of his body) that has existed among experts ever since the women’s discovery on that first Easter, the clincher for me would have to be the facts of His appearances + the fact of His ascension! No disputing of those facts!
Appearances - to individual apostles including Paul . . . to folks gathered in homes . . . to the two men on the road to Emmaus . . . to a band of disciples on the beach . . . to the crowd of more than five hundred!
At least a dozen or so appearances of Jesus in his physical body, yet with an uncanny, glorified ability to pass through walls and appear or disappear, until the day of His ascension when He departed from their sight physically but stayed with them in Spirit to live forever in their hearts and minds. These were all post-resurrection appearances. Now hear this:
During the past several sessions, we have been amazed by studies about the Lord’s pre-incarnation authentication of his pre-existence. Remember:
The pre-incarnate Christ intervened to provide a lamb for Abraham’s sacrifice to God . . . to provide the means by which bitter water was turned into healing water . . . to guarantee Joshua a great victory over enemies of God . . . to bring peace to Gideon and to all who would trust in the Lord for salvation so that one day we shall behold Him face to face! To summarize:
A chosen few found themselves face to face with the pre-incarnate Christ. Twelve then many more saw him, heard him, even touched the incarnate Christ. The Eleven plus hundreds more were there for his post-resurrection appearances.
Our Lord’s appearances – pre-incarnate, incarnate, post-resurrected – prove that our Lord will do what He says He will do. He said the Messiah would come. He did. He said He would die for the sins of the world. He did. He said He would rise from the dead. He did. He said He will come again. He will. Hallelujah!
Appearances of Christ turned -- wondering into wonder . . . cowardice into courage . . . fleeing into following . . . denying into declaring . . . persecuting into proclaiming . . . sorrow into joy . . . anxiety into anticipation!
Because of authentication of the resurrection by our Lord’s appearances - pre-incarnate, incarnate, post-resurrected - “We know”, as the Apostle John wrote, “that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (I John 3:2)
As the risen Christ ascended to the Father, His Disciples heard the angel say, “This same Jesus will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.” And all true believers say: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus”! Amen.
