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Tag: Christ

  • I Have Seen the Lord!

    I Have Seen the Lord!

    Hear what so many witnesses to the Resurrection have to say about Jesus.

    The following first person accounts of the resurrection of Christ Jesus are not literal, but taken from the testimony of the Holy Gospels.

    The Gospel of John

    This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.

    John 21:24

    John

    I was not first to see our Lord Jesus risen. She came running to us with the Good News.

    Μαγδαληνή – Mary Magdalene

    We had been at the foot of the Cross where they crucified Jesus; three of us, all named Mary. (They alway called me, Magdalēnē, after my hometown by the seashore of Galilee). I heard the Lord cry out, “teleō (it is finished),” as His Spirit left Him.

    Later we wailed as a centurion pierced His already dead and lifeless torn flesh hanging on the Cross. Other disciples came to the skull beyond the gate where they gathered His body into a clean shroud and gently carried it to a nearby tomb.

    We followed Jesus’ body and the men carrying it to a newly carved tomb. Uniformed guards rolled a stone in front of the cave and they made us leave. As darkness fell upon us we knew it our duty to somehow complete His preparation once the daylight after the Sabbath allowed us to return.

    I returned on the first day of the week even before dawn. When I arrived at the tomb, expecting to ask the Roman guards to remove the stone at the entrance, I was amazed to see it had already been rolled away.

    What could I do? I ran back to tell Peter about the empty tomb.

    Mary returns to the tomb

    Peter and John had left after running to the empty tomb and examining it briefly. I returned to find them looking inside. They didn’t know what to make of the empty tomb and went back to town talking to each other. There I was alone, I thought.

    I cried as I fell to my knees. What had happened, I wondered? Then through my tears I looked into the darkness of the tomb and thought I saw the two guards sitting where Jesus’ body had been laid on the day before the Sabbath.

    “Woman, why are you crying,” one of them asked?

    “Because they’ve taken away my Lord,” I told them, “and I don’t know where they’ve put him.” I was about to tell them how I had to prepare His body for burial, how Joseph and Nicodemus had only brought the shroud and the myrrh, but we had to finish the preparation of our Lord for burial.

    The First Witness

    Then I turned to look beyond the door of the cave. It was brighter outside and there stood another man I had not seen before. He spoke to me as men always addressed women with work to do.

    15 “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it that you’re seeking?”

    This man probably also has work to do, I thought. But I continued to plea for my Lord’s body which was not there.

    “Sir, if you’ve carried him away, tell me where you’ve put him, and I will take him away.”

    Then I recognized His gentle smile and loving voice.

    “Mary.”

    I turned to embrace Him as I poured out my joy at the sight of Him:

    ““Rabboni!”

    “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus cautioned after I called Him teacher, “since I have not yet ascended to the Father…”

    It took every bit of obedience to restrain my joy to listen, but not to touch the Lord. As I struggled with my emotions, He continued:

    “… But go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

    Of course, I ran back to town and announced it to the Disciples. Jesus always called them His brothers and all of us His family.

    “I have seen the Lord!”

    John 20:18b CSB

    As quickly as I could I told them all I had seen, then Peter ran out the door followed by John.

    Σίμων Πέτρος – Simon Peter

    I am Simon, son of John the fisherman, owner of the fishing fleet on the Sea of Tiberias. Jesus calls me Cephas or Peter, but I denied knowing Him when the soldiers took Him away. It was just as He had said.

    The trial was no trial at all and they convicted Him of nothing. But they tortured and killed Him anyway, mocking Him before the crowds. I was afraid. We were all afraid and we hid from the authorities.

    On the first day of the week after His execution Mary Magdalene comes bursting in the door. “They’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him!”

    I took the lead, not waiting for anyone, and darted out the door. John followed closely, the young man running a bit quicker than me. When I arrived he was stooping down looking into the empty tomb. He was looking at something.

    I stooped down and went on in and saw the linen cloths lying there. 7 The wrapping that had been on his head was not lying with the linen cloths but was folded up in a separate place by itself.

    This makes no sense, I thought. John stepped in behind me and also saw the neatly folded linen cloths and the wrapping that Joseph had placed around Jesus’ head as we had carefully held His lifeless body.

    We left and went back to town.

    Ἰάκωβος – James, Son of Zebedee

    James, chosen randomly for this post-resurrection witness, represents any of the unnamed Disciples in the locked room where the Lord appeared.

    I am James the elder or the greater, as I am sometimes called so as not to confuse me with Jesus’ younger half-brother, son of Joseph. John, my younger brother and I were followers of John the Baptist until we met the Lord.

    John, Peter and I had all witnessed the transfiguration of our Lord when He appeared with Moses and Elijah. We knew He IS the Messiah of God.

    But I feared for my own life after Peter cut off the ear of a centurion arresting Jesus in Gethsemane. Even then He healed the man as if it had never happened. It was like so many miracles of Jesus we had witnessed the last three years.

    Most of us had gone back into town to the room where our Lord had washed our feet. And we kept the doors locked.

    On the first day of the week Peter and John had answered an early and urgent knock at the door. They left hastily, following Mary. When they returned my brother John told us he was certain the Lord was alive. Peter agreed and confirmed the evidence of all they had seen at the empty grave.

    We all discussed it, all, that is, except Thomas who was not there. But we once again began to hope and thought hard about scripture Jesus had so often discussed with us. Then in the evening an amazing thing happened, and as I said, the door was locked.

    Jesus came, stood among us and said, shä·lōm, that is, “Peace be with you.”

    Having said this, he showed us his hands and his side. I shed tears of joy, but also of sorrow as I looked upon the Lord’s hands and the place where the nails had been driven through. He also showed us his spear-pierced side. How was it possible? Yet there our Lord stood among us.

    And ever so briefly as we were all still rejoicing the Lord left, disappearing instantly as He had appeared in our room with the locked door.

    Θωμᾶς Δίδυμος – Thomas

    Jesus and the others called me Thomas or Didymos, which means, ‘the twin.’ My given name is Judas, but they call me Thomas so as to not confuse me with Judas, half-brother of Jesus or Judas Iscariot, who betrayed our Lord.

    Word had reached me that Jesus IS alive and had appeared to the others. I hurried back to Jerusalem to the room where we had celebrated the Passover feast before our Lord’s suffering and death. The door was locked, of course. I knocked and announced myself, ‘it is Didymos.’

    ‘Thomas,” Peter replied as he opened the door and quickly locked it once more. “Last week the Lord appeared to us here.” “Thank you for sending the messenger with the good news to me,” I responded.

    “We’ve seen the Lord!” all the Disciples were telling me.

    Yet even though I had come back with my heart full of hope I replied,

    “If I don’t see the mark of the nails in his hands, put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

    For they had all told me how they had seen the scars of His crucifixion.

    Jesus tells Thomas, “Put your finger here..”

    Suddenly, the Lord also appeared in the locked upper room to me. The Lord greeted us all, “Peace be with you.” Then He turned to me.

    “Put your finger here and look at my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Don’t be faithless, but believe.”

    I touched the bloodless indentation in the Lord’s right hand, buckled to my knees, weeping and looking into His familiar loving eyes.

    “My Lord and my God!”

    Jesus’ look accepted my belated worship. Then He said to all of us:

    “Because you have seen me, you have believed.”

    “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

    John 20:29B CSB – words of the risen Christ Jesus

    Μαθθαῖος לֵוִי – Matthew Levi

    The Gospel of Matthew

    The Hebrews know me by Levi and I collected the Roman tax for their leaders. But once the Lord called on me to follow Him, I was mostly called by my Greek name, Matthew.

    Besides John, I am one of the twelve witnesses to the incarnate life of the Messiah Jesus. We were all, of course, Jews, who spoke Aramaic and Greek with the Romans. My Gospel adds other detail to John’s Gospel.

    The Gospels of Mark and Luke

    You would probably call us second generation disciples of Jesus. Just a short time after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, Peter came to us after Herod executed James, John’s brother with the sword. John Mark began recording all that Peter witnessed and then interviewed other Apostles as well.

    The physician Luke also wrote a detailed Gospel of the events in Jesus’ life and a second scroll of the Acts of the Apostles, where Luke faithfully records the events of Pentecost. John also recorded the receiving of the Holy Spirit, as the Lord Jesus had promised.

    John – Much more to say

    The Apostle John closes his Gospel and resurrection account in this way:

    The Purpose of This Gospel

    Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

    John 20:30-31 CSB

    The young Apostle John would be the only Disciple to live to old age. (All others sacrificed their own lives for the sake of the Good News of Christ Jesus).

    John wrote three letters to the church as well as the closing book of the Bible about the apocalypse of the close of the age, Revelation.

    Παῦλος שָׁאוּל – Paul [Saul of Tarsus]

    Our witness of the risen Christ would not be complete without that of a zealous Jewish scholar and Pharisee once opposed to the Lord Jesus and a murderer of followers of The Way, Paul, known as Saul.

    Luke records Paul’s own witness in Acts 9:

    3 As he traveled and was nearing Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? ” “Who are you, Lord? ” Saul said. “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting,” he replied.

    Paul’s later letter to the church at Corinth speaks to us about the all-important witness of the resurrection of Christ.

    1 Corinthians 15

    Resurrection Essential to the Gospel

    Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand.

    .. that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

    • 4 that he was buried,
    • that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
    • 5 and that he appeared to Cephas [Peter]
    • then to the Twelve)

    Then he [the risen Christ Jesus] appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep.

    1 Corinthians 15:6
    • 7 Then he appeared to James,
    • then to all the apostles.
    • 8 Last of all, as to one born at the wrong time,a he also appeared to me.

    Resurrection Essential to the Faith

    13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised… 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins…

    If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone.

    1 Corinthians 15:19

    Christ’s Resurrection Guarantees Ours

    20 But as it is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep… If the dead are not raised, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

    Note that he does not call on us to party (as the world misquotes), but warns that to live in this way is fruitless, since we believe in the resurrection. Our certainty of eternal life in Christ guarantees that the fruit of this life becomes our reward for eternity.

    A closing thought for Easter

    John has told us that he could have told us many more convincing things to convince us that Jesus IS the Messiah. Many witnesses, even historians outside the Bible testify to Jesus.

    Paul continues his eloquent witness for Christ and the resurrection of Jesus, which I commend to your prayer and study.

    Question is: Do you believe in the Lord, Christ Jesus?

    I will close with Paul’s own further witness, which I pray you will take to heart for the sake of your eternal soul.

    Death has been swallowed up in victory.
    55 Where, death, is your victory?
    Where, death, is your sting?

    56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

    57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

  • Hebrews 10- Come in, Fear not

    Holy of Holies – The Inner Sanctuary

    Dominus autem in templo sancto suo sileat a facie eius omnis terra!

    וַֽיהוָ֖ה בְּהֵיכַ֣ל קָדְשֹׁ֑ו הַ֥ס מִפָּנָ֖יו כָּל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃ פ

    The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.

    Habakkuk 2:20 VUL, WlC, NIV

    Draw near to meet the LORD

    Hebrews 10:

    8 First he said, “You neither want nor are you pleased with sacrifices and offerings or with animals burned on the altar…

    11 Day after day every priest stands and repeatedly offers the same sacrifices that can never take away sins.

    The author of Hebrews brings the Law and well-known ritual of sacrifices of blood on the altar to compare the old and new covenants. He now asks us to approach the LORD in the sanctuary, the Holy Place.

    It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

    Hebrews 10:31 KJV

    He invites us into the Holy of Holies, a place of the presence of the LORD, a place where the priest offers blood sacrifices to cover our sin, a place so holy that only one high priest will enter humbly just once a year.

    Boldness in the Blood of Jesus

    Therefore, be bold, have confidence – fear not.

    Come into the sanctuary, the Holy Place of the Lord. For before you, Christ Jesus has entered with the Perfect Sacrifice as our High Priest – He IS our Perfect Sacrifice by His own Blood.

    We have climbed the holy mountain, entered the courts of the Temple with thanksgiving and sacrifice. And as the Lord’s chosen we have come to this place to worship the Lord. Our High Priest is no longer a sinful man, but Christ; and He invites us to enter the Temple.

    Walk toward the altar of sacrifice, that holiest of places just past the curtain. (For in fact, by the crucifixion of Christ on the Cross the curtain is torn.)

    Hebrews 10:19-39

    So let us come near to God


    22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith…

    With sincere hearts sprinkled clean, our evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water, because our hearts have been sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.  By the Blood of Christ, hold firmly to our confession of faith.

    Hold firmly, hold fast without wavering, since He who promised it is faithful.

    To do a good deed

    Here is our action and not our obligation or prescribed work for heaven.

    Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good.

    Hebrews 10:24 GNT

    [CSB] 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other…

    Others in the flock of faith, the congregation of believers, are important. Yet how can the saints encourage each other in Christ if they neglect time together?

    A teacher of the Law asked the Messiah, Christ Jesus, “What is the greatest Commandment?” He responded, ‘love the LORD and love one another.’ Of course the faithful want to love the Lord God, yet the second (a golden rule) often challenges us.

    The writer of Hebrews challenges Christians to incite each other to agape love AND good deeds. It is a personal love of others to do God’s good will. And he cautions of the Day when all will be judged.

    Jesus had warned: “Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.” – Matthew 24:12 NLT

    Justified or Judged?

    Even in the first century followers of The Way often detoured in their own way. The love of some in the beginning of these last days had already grown cold.

    Sinners in Zion are terrified;
    Trembling has seized the godless.
    “Who among us can live with the consuming fire?
    Who among us can live with continual burning?”

    33:14 פָּחֲדוּ בְצִיֹּון חַטָּאִים אָחֲזָה רְעָדָה חֲנֵפִים מִי יָגוּר לָנוּ אֵשׁ אֹוכֵלָה מִי־יָגוּר לָנוּ מֹוקְדֵי עֹולָֽם׃

    Isaiah 33:14


    Warning against Deliberate Sin

    Heb. 10:26 [NKJV] For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

    HELL! even for one who has accepted Christ, but turns away.

    [CSB] 28 Anyone who disregarded the law of Moses died without mercy…29 How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, who has regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

    Scriptural support

    Once again the writer of Hebrews quotes familiar Old Testament scripture to support his teaching of a new and better covenant he introduced in chapter 8.

    30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”

    Deuteronomy

    32:35  לִ֤י נָקָם֙ וְשִׁלֵּ֔ם לְעֵ֖ת תָּמ֣וּט רַגְלָ֑ם כִּ֤י קָרֹוב֙ יֹ֣ום אֵידָ֔ם וְחָ֖שׁ עֲתִדֹ֥ת לָֽמֹו׃

    Habakkuk

    2:4 הִנֵּה עֻפְּלָה לֹא־יָשְׁרָה נַפְשֹׁו בֹּו וְצַדִּיק בֶּאֱמוּנָתֹו יִחְיֶֽה׃

    Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. – KJV

    Remember the early days

    32 … you endured a hard struggle with sufferings.

    35 So don’t lose your confidence, since it holds a great reward for you. 36 For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will you can receive what he has promised.

    37 For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.. 38 My righteous people, however, will believe and live..

    We are not people who turn back and are lost. Instead, we have faith and are saved.

    Hebrews 10:39 GNT
    To be continued...

  • Hebrews 9- Covenant Ministry

    Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.

    Hebrews 9:15B NLT

    It’s not an exact translation from the Greek, but the heart of the author’s message from his letter to the Hebrews. He now proceeds from the main point in Hebrews 8 that Christ is our High Priest to the nature of a new and better covenant.

    Old Covenant Ministry

    Priest before Tabernacle
    High Priest in Holy of Holies

    Remember how the sanctuary is a holy place to the LORD, separated from the sin of the world. Only the priests may enter as the worshipers stand near and the unclean kept distant. To think of the sanctuary as ‘only a tent’ would be contemporary error, for it is the Tent Altar where the LORD meets with His worshipers, hopefully accepting their sacrifices through the appointed priest.

    Hebrews 9:

    Now the first covenant also had regulations for ministry and an earthly sanctuary. 2 For a tabernacle was set up, and in the first room, which is called the holy place, were the lampstand, the table, and the presentation loaves.

    He continues with description of the holy place familiar to all Jews from scripture.

    6 Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.

    The High Priest alone enters the Holy of Holies, the inner room of the sanctuary, and that just once a year. (A special place to meet the LORD, within the confines of a Tent or Temple.) Then this author of the letter to the Hebrews points to the holy sacrifice.

    And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.

    Hebrews 9:7B NLT

    A Revelation of the Holy Spirit

    We do not preach much about the Person of the Holy Spirit, once called the Holy Ghost. He is a revelation of the New Testament (or new covenant), which the writer of Hebrews unwraps here as when Christ is revealed.

    τοῦτο δηλοῦντος τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου μήπω πεφανερῶσθαι τὴν τῶν ἁγίων ὁδὸν ἔτι τῆς πρώτης σκηνῆς ἐχούσης στάσιν

    Hebrews 9:8 Greek NT
    • The Holy Spirit makes this the way into the Holy place.
    • The path into the Holy place had not been revealed while the outer or first Tabernacle was still standing. [This would also be evident by the succession from Tent to Temple to rebuilt temples made by man for worship of God.]
    • The author tells his first century Hebrew readers “[the first Tabernacle] is
      a symbol for the present time [the first generation after Christ’s anointing.]
    • Neither gifts nor sacrifices offered can make the worshiper perfect in conscience.
    • Since offerings [gifts or sacrifices to the LORD] are physical regulations and only deal with food, drink, and various washings.
    • God imposed ceremonial ordinances only until the time of reformation.

    This reformation of worship revealed by the Holy Spirit creates a new covenant with the Lord.

    But when the Messiah appeared as cohen gadol of the good things that are happening already, then, through the greater and more perfect Tent which is not man-made (that is, it is not of this created world), he entered the Holiest Place once and for all.

    Hebrews 9:11-12A Complete Jewish Bible

    I like this translation, for it provides a contemporary context to the readers of Hebrews. The Messiah appeared, the Tabernacle is a less perfect Tent and Christ entered the Holiest Place once and for all.

    Just a contemporary reminder for 21st century readers:

    “Christ” is not Jesus’ last name. For in Greek, the common language of the Roman Empire, Χριστός Christos is the anointed Messiah of God. We sometimes forget that faithful Jews had expected our Messiah for centuries ‘before Christ.’

    New Covenant Ministry

    Christ (the Messiah) appeared as High Priest. And He entered the Most Holy Place once for all time.

    Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood…

    Hebrews 9:12A KJV

    Think of the ritualistic sacrifices of the Old Covenant. Are we not repulsed by the slaughter and blood at the alter of sacrifice?

    Christ brings a cleansing of blood by His own Sacrifice!

    By His own Blood Christ obtained eternal redemption for the worshipers of God.
    פָּדָה Redeem your soul from sin through our Savior’s blood.

    then how much more the blood of the Messiah, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself to God as a sacrifice without blemish, will purify our conscience from works that lead to death, so that we can serve the living God!

    Hebrews 9:14 Complete Jewish Bible

    Jesus, our Mediator

    15 Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance..

    [Don’t miss this:]

    .. because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

    The writer of Hebrews now presents a legal case for dissolution of the old covenant.

    • a death has occurred
    • a will exists and is valid because of the death
    • (for a will is never in effect while the one who made it is living.)
    • Moses initiated the first covenant by blood (quoting Exodus 24)

    Moses took the blood, splattered it on the people, and said,

    “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you concerning all these words.”

    Exodus 24:8 CSB

    The writer of Hebrews words it as a vow or covenant reminiscent of marriage.

    20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. – KJV

    21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. – KJV

    In fact, according to the Torah, almost everything is purified with blood; indeed, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

    Hebrews 9:22 CJB

    Copies cleansed

    23 Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves to be purified with better sacrifices than these.

    Christ entered heaven itself (not a copy). He appeared on our behalf in the very presence of God. Once, not many times like a priest on earth.

    … But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself.

    Some versions translate this as the consummation or completion of the ages. Jesus speaks of the ages as both ending and forever. Believers would do well to consider it.

    And just as it is appointed for people to die once

    —and after this, judgment

    — so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many,

    will appear a second time, not to bear sin,

    but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

    Hebrews 9:27 CSB

    Do you look forward to the judgment? Have you considered the love of God to offer the Blood of His only Son to bear your sin? And do you await Christ’s completion of God’s new covenant?

    The writer of Hebrews continues with more good news in Christ’s sacrifice.

    To be continued...