LISTEN to one of the best arguments of Christians to refute the nonsense of supposedly “scientific” skepticism about the RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST after 3 days in a guarded grave.
“So if they were interested in affirming the fact of his death, all they had to do was take the body and put it in the middle of Jerusalem and say,
“Look, don’t let anybody live with any nonsense. Jesus is dead.”
BUT the body of JESUS was not in the tomb!
Pastor Begg makes a notable case about the RESURRECTION which makes so much more sense than EVERY objection by those who REFUSE to believe in Jesus Christ for their own selfish excuses.
You have heard this day called Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday or perhaps Pascha. But today, on the 17th day of April in the year of our Lord, 2022, I would simply like to look back at celebrating ‘the Lord’s Day’ as followers of Christ Jesus have done since His resurrection.
CLICK the link above to read some of what I have said before about Holy and weeks and festivals.
ALSO, Feel free to comment on anything from my fiery EDITORIAL which I have moved to Comments to get to my perspective about the Lord's Day of the first century Christ followers. - RH
LENT, we once set aside as preparation of repentance preceding the death of Christ for our sins.
Yet in this NOT so HOLY time, now universally referred to as, the “COMMON Era” (as opposed to years we once called, Before Christ, now known as Beforethe Common Era); HOW intolerant are we who insist that JESUS IS LORD (and no other), as the world continues in its most common and ordinary daily sin! HOW insensitive of followers of CHRIST to PROCLAIM: JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN TODAY!
In the Holy Week of our Lord, A.D. 2022
(In case you missed these posts which lead us to this Lord’s Day Sunday)
This epistle was most likely written in the first half of A.D. 55 from Ephesus (16:8, 9, 19) while Paul was on his third missionary journey.
John MacArthur :: Bible Introductions – 1 Corinthians via BlueLetterBible.org
Easter: a narrowed narrative that missed the Church
Why do I start with a Scripture about the Cross, rather than a traditional narrative of Resurrection morning from the Gospels?
(Think about this, now…)
The Gospels were NOT written as an immediate message from the pulpit of A.D. 30.
Yes, that’s about when the Lord Jesus was crucified, buried and rose in body and spirit from the grave!
But the Apostles Matthew and John, and later disciples Mark and Luke recorded their GOOD NEWS of JESUS’s Resurrection for a much later following of the Church.
On this Lord’s Day, in the year of our Lord 2022, we glance at just a few events of THEIR Church life.
Why the Gospel was Good News on the Lord’s Day
A.D. 32 – Stephen martyred & Saul persecutes Christ followers
A.D. 37 – Caligula declares himself a god
A.D. 44 – the Apostle James, brother of John, is martyred
A.D. 46 – Julian calendar changes the year
A.D. 49 – the jews expelled from Rome
A.D. 50’s (~20 years after Jesus’ Resurrection)
+ Mark writes his Gospel;
+ Matthew writes his Gospel
A.D. 54-68 – Nero is Emperor
A.D 64-68 Nero persecutes Christians after burning Rome
A.D. 60 + Luke writes his Gospel
A.D. 62 – James, brother of Jesus and head of the Jerusalem church martyred
A.D. 66 – Jewish revolt against Rome
+ Apostle Peter martyred in Rome
+ Paul, Apostle to the gentiles, martyred in Rome
A.D. 70 – Jerusalem falls to Rome and is burned
A.D. 80’s + John wrote his gospel ca. A.D. 80–90, about 50 years after he witnessed Jesus’ earthly ministry. – J.M.
The saints of the A.D. first century church gathered each Lord’s Day to worship the Lord God by the grace of Christ Jesus and though the power of the Holy Spirit.
Do YOU?
For many centuries the Lord’s Day was set apart as Holy to the Lord for morning and evening worship, as well as study of doctrine from the Bible, as the business of the world (reluctantly) remained CLOSED on Sunday.
They gathered frequently in each others homes to hear the Gospel and receive the letters of the Apostles.
These saints (small ‘s’) of the church, “Christians” (as Christ followers came to be known), delighted to serve one another in Christ-like love.
The saints of THE WAY, knowing that as one of the Lord’s SAVED and REDEEMED ones, suffering in a world violently opposed to JESUS CHRIST and the LORD GOD, endured for these brief times because of HIS DEATH AND RESURRECTION.
We have begun eternal life and need not suffer the WRATH of GOD’s punishment for our many, many sins against God and against man.
A.D. 90, The Lord’s Day
The aging Apostle, lone survivor of many trials for Christ among those who Jesus first chose some sixty years ago, concludes his Gospel; a fourth, following that which has already been proclaimed to tens of thousands throughout a world of Rome’s temporary ownership by Matthew and two faithful gentile servants of The Way.
The Apostle John writes of that glorious day:
Now when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were together due to fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, “Peace be to you.” And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side.
The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be to you; just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
If you should pause briefly near death’s vigil, you may see some soul precariously perched on a precipice above the dark shadows of hades; yet.. lifted to light of life after death.. another resurrection in Christ to eternal glory with God Who Saves.
Peter and another resurrection as witness
Even as Peter travels some distance to Lydda and Joppa, somewhere back in towns nearer to Jerusalem a disciple named Lazarus witnesses another resurrection than that of the Lord Jesus Christ: his own.
So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him!”
It’s one of the tenderest lines in Scripture.Roger@talkofJESUS.com
– on witnesses of Jesus at Lazarus’ funeral John 11:36
In the ever so brief time prior to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection Peter, the Apostles and many disciples of the Lord Jesus had witnessed this powerful sign of the Messiah as Jesus called out to Lazarus to come out of the grave!
Earlier in Jesus ministry the Apostle also had witnessed yet another resurrection of a young man sitting up in his coffin about to be carried to his funeral wake in Nain!
Resurrection of a body which has fallen from life into the valley of death is nothing new to the Apostles. To Peter another resurrection would be completely possible IF it is the will of the Lord.
Click above for Gevurot 9:35-43 Orthodox Jewish Bible; Living Bible; Living Bible; Living Bible; Arabic Bible:
Death’s appeal from Joppa
A young woman has died..
Her friends prepared her for burial and laid her in an upstairs room. 38 But when they learned that Peter was nearby at Lydda, they sent two men to beg him to return with them to Joppa.
Aeneas of Lydda: “I can walk!
Peter responds and ACTS
Aeneas who had been bedridden for eight years, because he was paralyzed, has been at Peter’s side; just as a lame man in Jerusalem who was healed also had stood with him and John as witness in the Temple.
35 And all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord..
37 But it happened [in those days] at that time that she [the young woman in Joppa] became sick and died; and when they had washed her body, they laid it in an upstairs room.
36 Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which when translated means [Gk. for gazelle] Dorcas);
this woman was excelling in acts of kindness and charity which she did habitually.
Peter arrives in Joppa
39 .. as soon as he [Peter] arrived [from Lydda with the two men who had summoned the Apostle to Joppa], they took him upstairs where Dorcas lay.
It’s the scene of grief – mourning the loss of a beloved servant of all, a friend, a young woman once vibrant in life who succumbs to one of the many maladies of this fragile flesh.
Like those Peter had seen — the boy in a bier in Nain and Lazarus wrapped in death’s cloths behind a closed tomb in Bethany — here the Apostle takes in the vigil of those watching this Gazelle’s lifeless body, as well as the Apostle’s own entry into their sad scene in an upper room perched above the the shadows ofvalley of death.
The room was filled with weeping widows who were showing one another the coats and other garments Dorcas had made for them.
40 But Peter asked them all to leave the room; then he knelt and prayed.
(Like in Nain, Joppa will cancel its funeral procession today,
DUE TO this next resurrection.)
Another Resurrection!
.. and turning to the body, he [the Apostle Peter] said, “
The familiar command of Peter (to a dead woman) in ACTS 9:40
And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.
41 Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive.
He Raised Her Up
You Raise Me Up – Selah – 5 min.
DEATH.. and all hope for flesh and blood lost.. except for the hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ! And once again, here and now, another resurrection — by the Apostle and not the Lord Incarnate.
Luke continues with the resurrection theme [45x] in his second account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ:
ἀνίστημι – Strong’s G450 – anistēmi – an-is’-tay-mee – to cause to rise up, raise up
42 The news raced through the town, and many believed in the Lord.
43 And Peter stayed a long time in Joppa, living with Simon, the tanner.
ACTS of the Missionary Journeys of Peter: To be continued...
