The Story: Week 16

Recap:

The God-Man has been killed.

The Burial

With Jesus dead, many of the disciples went into hiding.

They didn't know what to do.

Chances were that the authorities would identify and capture the disciples, since they were affiliated with Christ.

At best, they would be flogged and locked in prison.

At worst, they would suffer the same fate as their teacher.

It was common for individuals executed by the Romans to be thrown into a mass grave.

Its likely they would have done this with Jesus’s body, if it weren't for a man named Joseph.

The NET Bible (Second Edition) Chapter 27

57 Now when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus.

58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered that it be given to him.

59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,

60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut in the rock. Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance of the tomb and went away.

61 (Now Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there, opposite the tomb.)

The religious leaders of the time were concerned that Jesus followers would try to steal the body.

So they requested that Pilate, the Roman governor would appoint guards to keep the tomb secure.

Pilate agreed and placed guards at the entrance.

After the end of the Sabbath, a few women returned to Jesus tomb to mourn.

The NET Bible (Second Edition) Chapter 24

24:1 Now on the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women went to the tomb, taking the aromatic spices they had prepared.

2 They found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb,

3 but when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men stood beside them in dazzling attire.

5 The women were terribly frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?

6 He is not here, but has been raised! Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,

7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”

8 Then the women remembered his words,

9 and when they returned from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

10 Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles.

11 But these words seemed like pure nonsense to them, and they did not believe them.

12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. He bent down and saw only the strips of linen cloth; then he went home, wondering what had happened.

Now, there is something really interesting about this account.

In that days culture, the testimony of a woman wasn't viewed as a good thing.

Essentially, they believed that women were more like children.

They might imagine or make something up.

You couldn't really trust their word on things.

Now, of course, we know that isn't true.

A woman's testimony is just as valid as a mans.

But scholars refer to this as an embarrassing detail.

Essentially, if someone were to make this whole story up back in the day.

They wouldn't have said that women were the first witnesses of the risen Christ.

And they wouldn't have pictured the disciples as cowardly and in hiding.

If you were to make this up back then, with the intention of people believing your fake story, you would have written that one of the male disciples was super brave and went up to the tomb to fight off the guards.

And that Male witness would have seen that the body wasn't there and would have spoken with the divine beings.

The fact that women were the first witnesses would be embarrassing for your story back in ancient times.

Your story would have lost credibility just because of it.

But this is what they wrote, an embarrassing bit about these women's testimony and the men off in hiding.

It serves as strong evidence that the Gospel writers didn't make this up, but simply wrote what they remember happening.

Over a small period of time, Jesus appears physically to the disciples and over 500 different people.

One of the disciples, named Thomas doesn't even believe that Jesus is there until he feels the wounds in Jesus hands and feet.

Once he does, he falls to the ground proclaiming “My Lord, my God”.

Hardly anyone could believe it, but the impossible had happened.

The God-Man was alive again.

Now, Jesus didn't have to rise from the dead in order to accomplish His goal.

The resurrection was a proof to us that Jesus is who He claimed to be.

If He was a liar or a blasphemer, God the Father would have left His body in the grave.

But instead, since God has risen the body of Christ, it showed that Jesus was telling the truth.

God approved of what Jesus preached, and Jesus preached that He was YHWH in flesh.

Before ascending to the heavenly realm Jesus left His disciples one last command:

The NET Bible (Second Edition) Chapter 28

16 So the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain Jesus had designated.

17 When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.

18 Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

20 teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The Church Age

Obviously, this was a serious task for the disciples.

They had now been entrusted with the spread of the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth.

But with Judas out, there was only 11 of them.

How were 11 men supposed to convince all of humanity that Yeshua is in fact God in flesh, and that He is alive again, and that He will be coming back, and that we all need to turn to Him and accept His sacrifice on the Cross?

First things first, they decided to select someone to replace Judas as an apostle.

They ended up selecting a man named Matthias who was a witness of Jesus ever since the Baptism by John.

Then they all decided the best move is just to proclaim what they saw.

They all gathered together to start teaching when:

The NET Bible (Second Edition) Chapter 2

2:1 Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.

2 Suddenly a sound like a violent wind blowing came from heaven and filled the entire house where they were sitting.

3 And tongues spreading out like a fire appeared to them and came to rest on each one of them.

4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.

5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven residing in Jerusalem.

6 When this sound occurred, a crowd gathered and was in confusion, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.

7 Completely baffled, they said, “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?

8 And how is it that each one of us hears them in our own native language?

9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and the province of Asia,

10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, and visitors from Rome,

11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own languages about the great deeds God has done!”

12 All were astounded and greatly confused, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

Led by the Spirit, the Apostles began performing miracles, Just like Jesus had done.

These miracles would serve as proof to their claim.

However, people don't take kindly to change.

Over several years, the apostles preach exactly what they saw, but the Religious leaders of both Jewish and Gentile peoples don't appreciate the message that was being given.

They begin hunting down and slaughtering the disciples in pretty terrible ways.

One of the men most determined to kill members of this new group called “Christians” is named Saul.

Saul was a Jewish Pharisee who set his life's goal as hunting and killing Christians.

Until...

The NET Bible (Second Edition) Chapter 9

9:1 Meanwhile Saul, still breathing out threats to murder the Lord’s disciples, went to the high priest

2 and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, either men or women, he could bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

3 As he was going along, approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

5 So he said, “Who are you, Lord?” He replied, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting!

6 But stand up and enter the city and you will be told what you must do.”

7 (Now the men who were traveling with him stood there speechless, because they heard the voice but saw no one.)

8 So Saul got up from the ground, but although his eyes were open, he could see nothing. Leading him by the hand, his companions brought him into Damascus.

9 For three days he could not see, and he neither ate nor drank anything.

After this incident, Saul, the most avid “Christian killer” converts to the Faith.

Saul ends up being adopted as a disciple himself, and has his name changed to Paul.

Paul would end up writing a very large portion of the New Testament, and is eventually beheaded for the Faith in Rome.

Despite all the opposition, the Gospel spreads.

Many people from all around start witnessing the Miracles, and you can only deny those so much.

An offshoot of Christianity begins to rise called Gnosticism.

Gnosticism taught all sorts of heresies and a good portion of the Apostles letters to the church warn not to follow the Gnostics.

Something interesting to note, is that many non believers today claim that the apostles made all this up in order to get money, fame, and power.

But every disciple lived in abject poverty. The only one who wasn't killed for his Faith was John. Instead, he was exiled alone on an island.

And not one of them recanted. All of them, to their dying breath, said that Jesus is God, that they saw Him alive again, and that one could only find salvation through Him.

The Church had been started, and Kingdom Of Heaven was now on Earth.

Alone on an Island, the last surviving disciple, John recieved a vision.

God revealed to Him, briefly, what would happen in the last days.

John wrote it down, as best he could, and it would serve as a final reminder and warning until that time came.

That is, the book of Revelation.

We will finish “The Story” next week...