Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 24:44
And he said unto them, These [are] the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and [in] the prophets, and [in] the psalms, concerning me.
44. These are the words ] i.e. this is the meaning of the words.
which I spake unto you ] Luk 18:31; Mat 16:21.
while I was yet with you ] Important as shewing that the forty days between the Resurrection and the Ascension were not intended to be a continuous sojourn with the Disciples, or an integral portion of the Lord’s human life.
which were written ] See on Luk 24:26-27.
the law…the prophets., the psalms ] This corresponds with the (possibly later) Jewish division of the Old Testament into the Pentateuch, Prophets, and Ketubhim (Hagiographa).
These are the words – Or this is the fulfillment of what I before told you respecting my death. See Luk 18:33; Mar 10:33. While I was yet with you – Before my death. While I was with you as a teacher and guide. In the law of Moses – The five books of Moses – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Among the Jews this was the first division of the Old Testament, and was called the law. The prophets – This was the second and largest part of the Hebrew Scriptures. It comprehended the books of Joshua, Judges, 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, which were called the former prophets; and Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve smaller books from Daniel, to Malachi, which were called the latter prophets. The psalms – The word here used probably means what were comprehended under the name of Hagiographa, or holy writings. This consisted of the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and the two books of Chronicles. This division of the Old Testament was in use long before the time of Christ, and was what he referred to here; and he meant to say that in each of these divisions of the Old Testament there were prophecies respecting himself. The particular subject before them was his resurrection from the dead. A most striking prediction of this is contained in Psa 16:9-11. Compare it with Act 2:24-32; Act 13:35-37. Verse 44. The law – the prophets – the psalms] This was the Jewish division of the whole old covenant. The LAW contained the five books of Moses; the PROPHETS, the Jews divided into former and latter; they were, according to Josephus, thirteen. “The PSALMS included not only the book still so named, but also three other books, Proverbs, Job, and Canticles. These all,” says the above author, “contain hymns to God, and rules for the conduct of the lives of men.” Joseph. Cont. App. i. 8. This account is imperfect: the common Jewish division of the writings of the old covenant is the following, and indeed seems to be the same to which our Lord alludes: – I. The LAW, thorah, including Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. II. The PROPHETS, , nabiaim, or teachers, including Joshua, Judges, the two books of Samuel, and the two books of Kings: these were termed the former prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi: these were termed the latter prophets. III. The HAGIOGRAPHA, (holy writings), kethuvim, which comprehended the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the two books of Chronicles. The Jews made anciently only twenty-two books of the whole, to bring them to the number of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet; and this they did by joining Ruth to Judges, making the two books of Samuel only one; and so of Kings and Chronicles; joining the Lamentations to Jeremiah, and making the twelve minor prophets only one book. The Jews ordinarily divided the Old Testament into the law, the prophets, and the holy writings, which they called the Hagiographa. The Book of Psalms was one of the last sort, and one of the most noted amongst them. So as by these three terms our Saviour understands all the Scriptures of the Old Testament. He tells them, that he had before his death, while he conversed with them, told them that all things (which were very many) which were found in any of these books concerning him must be fulfilled: he had told them so, Luk 18:31; Mat 16:21; 17:22; 20:18; Mar 9:31; 10:34. 44-49. These are the words,&c.that is, “Now you will understand what seemed so darkto you when I told you about the Son of man being put to death andrising again” (Lu18:31-34). while . . . yet with youastriking expression, implying that He was now, as the dead and risenSaviour, virtually dissevered from this scene of mortality, and fromall ordinary intercourse with His mortal disciples. law . . . prophets . . .psalmsthe three Jewish divisions of the Old TestamentScriptures. And he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you,…. Or this is the substance of them, the sense and meaning of them; for what follows, we do not find any where expressed in so many words:
while I was yet with you; that is, whilst he was in his state of humiliation, whilst he dwelt among them, and had his abode with them; otherwise he was now with them, but not to continue with them; in a short time he was to ascend to his God, and their God, to his Father, and their Father:
that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me: concerning his sufferings, and death, and resurrection from the dead, spoken of in Ge 3:15
Ps 16:10 and in this he refers to what he had said to his disciples in Mt 16:21 and alludes to the usual distinction among the Jews of the books of the Old Testament into the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa; among which last stands the book of Psalms, and is put for the whole; a division often to be met with in both their Talmuds a, and other writings b.
a T. Hieros. Shekalim, fol. 47. 3. T. Bab. Moed Katon, fol. 15. 1. & 18. 2. & 21. 1. Roshhashana, fol. 32. 1. Taanith, fol. 8. 1. & 16. 1. & 20. 1. & 30. 1. Megilla, fol. 21. 2. & 24. 1. Bava Bathra, fol. 8. 1. & 13. 2. & Sanhedrin, fol. 106. 1. b Zohar in Lev. fol. 39. 2.
While I was yet with you ( ). Literally, Being yet with you . The participle takes the time of the principal verb. The words. The best texts insert my. Must [] . See on ought not, ver. 26.
1) “And he said unto them,” (eipen de pros autos) “Then he said directly to them,” after He had revealed Himself to them and eaten in their presence, v. Luk 24:43.
2) “These are the words which I spake unto you,” (houtoi hoi logoi mou hous elalesa pros humas) “These are my words which I spoke to you,” Luk 24:6; Luk 9:22; Luk 23:31, or fulfillment of what I taught, or tried to teach you all, if you would only search and verify the Scriptures, Joh 5:39. This is the meaning of what I taught you.
3) “While I was yet with you,” (eti on sun humin) “Being yet in colleague with you all,” before my crucifixion, Mat 17:22; Mat 26:30-31.
4) “That all things must be fulfilled,” (hoti dei plerothenai panta ta) “That all things are necessary to be fulfilled,” finished or completed, as declared by Peter, Mat 20:18; Act 10:43.
5) “Which were written in the law of Moses,” (gegrammena en to nomo Mouseos) “That have been written in the Law of Moses,” the Pentateuch, Moses’ Law, Deu 18:15-18.
6) “And in the prophets, and in the Psalms,” (kai tois prophetais kai psalmois) “And the prophets and the Psalms,” the books comprising the other two major sections of the Old Testament body of truth, that endure forever, Psa 118:29; Psa 119:60; Mat 16:21; Mat 20:19; Mat 27:35.
7) “Concerning me.” (peri mou) “Concerning me,” that concern or relate to me, as the “Spirit of prophesy” Rom 1:3; Rev 19:10.
44. These are the words. Though it will afterwards appear from Matthew and Mark that a discourse similar to this was delivered in Galilee, yet I think it probable that Luke now relates what happened on the day after his resurrection. For what John says of that day, that he breathed on them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost, (Joh 20:22) agrees with the words of Luke which here immediately follow, that he opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. By these words Christ indirectly reproves their gross and shameful forgetfulness, that, though they had long ago been fully informed of his future resurrection, they were as much astonished as if it had never been mentioned to them. The import of his words is: “Why do you hesitate as if this had been a new and unexpected occurrence, while it is only what I frequently predicted to you? Why do you not rather remember my words? For if hitherto you have reckoned me worthy of credit, this ought to have been known to you from my instructions before it happened.” In short, Christ tacitly complains that his labor has been thrown away on the apostles, since his instruction has been forgotten.
All things which are written concerning me. He now rebukes them more sharply for their slowness, by declaring that he brought forward nothing that was new but that he only reminded them of what had been declared by the Law and the Prophets, with which they ought to have been familiar from their childhood. But though they had been ignorant of the whole doctrine of religion, nothing could have been more unreasonable than not to embrace readily what they knew to have undoubtedly proceeded from God; for it was a principle admitted by the whole nation, that there was no religion but what was contained in the Law and the Prophets. The present division of the Scriptures is more copious than what we find in other passages; for besides the Law and the Prophets, he adds, in the third place, the Psalms, which, though they might with propriety have been reckoned among the Prophets, have, something distinct and peculiar to themselves. Yet the division into two par which we have seen elsewhere, (Luk 16:16; Joh 1:45,) embraces notwithstanding the whole of Scripture.
CRITICAL NOTES
Luk. 24:44. These are the words.I.e., this is the meaning of the words. Probably in Luk. 24:44-49 St. Luke gives a summary of Christs discourses during the time between the Resurrection and the Ascension. Law of Moses, etc.Perhaps here we have a reference to the Jewish division of the books of the Old Testamenti.e., into the Pentateuch, the Prophets (Joshua, Judges, four books of Kings, and the Prophets, except Daniel), and the Hagiographa.
Luk. 24:45. Then opened.Cf. Luk. 24:27.
Luk. 24:46. And thus it behoved.Omit these words; omitted in R.V.; probably an explanatory note.
Luk. 24:48. These things.I.e., His death and resurrection.
Luk. 24:49. The promise of My Father.The allusion is to Old-Testament prophecies and to the discourses in John 14-16. Tarry ye.Lit. sit ye down. City of Jerusalem.Rather, the city (R.V.). Endued.Rather, clothed (R.V.). Cf. Jdg. 6:34, where the same figure is used in the original.
Luk. 24:50. Led them out.I.e., either from the house in which they were, or from the city. As far as Bethany.Not quite to the village itself, but over the brow of the Mount of Olives, where it descends on Bethany; see Act. 1:12 (Alford). On the wild uplands which immediately overhang the village, He finally withdrew from the eyes of His disciples, in a seclusion which, perhaps, could nowhere else be found so near the stir of a mighty city; the long ridge of Olivet screening those hills, and those hills the village beneath them, from all sound or sight of the city behind; the view opening only on the wide waste of desert-rocks and ever-descending valleys, into the depths of the distant Jordan and its mysterious lake. At this point the last interview took place. He led them out as far as Bethany; and they returned probably by the direct road over the summit of Mount Olivet. The appropriateness of the real scene presents a singular contrast to the inappropriateness of that fixed by a later fancy, seeking for a sign, on the broad top of the mountain, out of sight of Bethany, and in full sight of Jerusalem, and thus in equal contradiction to the letter and the spirit of the gospel narrative (Stanley, Sinai and Palestine). Lift up his hands.Rather, lifted up His hands (R.V.), lift being archaic. The attitude was that of prayer and benediction.
Luk. 24:51. Was parted from them.Rather, parted from them (R.V.); the verb is not in the passive. Carried up.Not by an angel or by a cloud, but absolutely and without reference to any particular agent. We must imagine our Saviour slowly rising above His disciples, with His hands still raised in the attitude of blessing, until a cloud conceals Him from the eyes of His followers.Speakers Commentary.
Luk. 24:52. Worshipped Him.This can only mean here the adoration which is offered to a Divine Being. With great joy.The joy of the disciples in consequence of their Masters exaltation, which was a pledge of the victory of His cause, already fulfilled the saying of Jesus, If ye loved Me ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father, for My Father is greater than I (Joh. 14:28) (Godet). A prelude to Pentecost (Bengel). Amen.Omit this word; omitted in R.V.; probably a liturgical addition.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Luk. 24:44-53
The Church Below, the Lord Above.These closing verses of the Gospel are a summary of all our Lords instructions during the forty days before the Ascension. The Gospel reaches its climax in the Resurrection. The space between it and the Ascension, as well as the Ascension itself, are but the results of the Resurrection manifested in act, and as a kind of border-land between the two halves of our Lords activity, are even more properly narrated as the foundation of all that Jesus continued to do and teach since then, than as the crown of His earthly ministry.
I. The teachings of the forty days (Luk. 24:44-49).
1. First was taught Christs relation to the Old Testament. He recalled His former declarations, which had sounded so enigmatical then, and were so clear now. The teaching here summarised bore both upon His dignity and office as the Christ and the Fulfiller of the Old-Testament revelation, and on the inmost purpose and contents of that revelation as in all its parts pointing onward to Him. Law, Prophets, and Psalms make up the whole Hebrew Scriptures. So Jesus saw Himself in all the sundry times and divers manners of the older Word of God. The fact of prediction of Him as Messiah, and of His death and resurrection as being the very heart of the Old Testament, is attested by His own authority, which cannot be waived aside as of no moment in the controversies now raging as to these books. Nor can we understand the significance of the Old Testament by dint of learning only. There must be a moral and spiritual preparation; Jesus must open our minds, that we may understand the Scriptures.
2. Instruction in the universal blessings flowing from His death and resurrection. If any gross idea of outward dominion, secured by the sword, lingered in the disciples minds, this teaching would end them, unfolding, as it did, the sublime prospect of a universal monarchy, of which the instrument was the proclamation of the Cross and Resurrection, and of which the blessings were repentance and the remission of sin. The weapon seems feeble, but it is mighty, because it is in His name, based on His revealed character and nature, wielded by His authority, and in dependence on His might, and in a very real sense as representing Himself.
3. The personal duty of the disciples. Ye are witnesses of these things. For the first disciples that was true in a way that it cannot be for us. And it is significant of much that the office was declared by Jesus to be that of witnesses; for witness implies fact. Not theories nor principles, nor speculations, nor dogmas, still less imaginations and fancies, had they to speak. The gospel is a veracious record of things that actually happened, and is established, not by argument, but by testimony. In a sense, each generation of Christians has the same office and responsibility. We cannot say we have seen, but we can say we have felt. Every man who has himself tasted that the Lord is gracious, is able, and therefore bound, to proclaim Him to others. The Church, in all its members, is Christs witness.
4. The gift of the needful qualifications. The promise of My Father is that Holy Spirit which is the last of all the Fathers promised gifts, of which He had spoken so abundantly in the last discourses in the upper room, and which, according to St. John, He had breathed upon them when He rose. The possession of that gift is our fitness for the office of witnessing.
II. The departure.Did the disciples know, like Elisha, that the Lord would take away their Master from their head that day? At all events He knew, and the knowledge would breathe peculiar tenderness and urgency over His unrecorded words. He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Like the high priest when he had finished his service, He lifted up His hands over the congregation to give the blessing. The hands which had been pierced with nails, the arms which had been stretched out upon the cross, were spread above the bowed heads of the little group, and dropped gifts which fulfilled His benediction. His whole work is summed up, and His whole heart revealed, in that last attitude and act. Sweet, and ever to be remembered, are the last looks of our dear ones. Jesus would have this remembrance of Him stamped deepest on all our hearts. In the act of blessing, our Lord withdrew a step or two, and then, possibly, with arms still lifted in benediction, was carried up into heaven. The word employed implies a slow, continuous motion, which we cannot but contrast with the whirlwind which swept Elijah to heaven. The mortal needed to be lifted by an external and forcible agency from his native earth. But Jesus was going to His own home, and needed no aid to raise Him thither, whence it had needed the strong compulsion of His infinite love to bring Him down. The Ascension witnesses to the completeness of His sacrifice, to its acceptance by the Father, to the presence within the veil of our all-powerful Intercessor, to the elevation to supreme authority of the Man who is our Brother. The eternal Word ascended where He had been from before the beginning, but the manhood is new to the throne of the universe. Where He is, there shall also His servants be; and as He is, so shall they, too, become. The disciples showed us how we should think of the Ascension, when they worshipped Him, thus declaring Him to be the Son of God, and then turned all the more joyfully to their homely tasks, and drowned the pain of parting in the flood of joy which poured over their spirits. They made all life worship, every place a temple, and every act and word adoration.Maclaren.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk. 24:44-53
Luk. 24:44-49. The Last Instructions.
I. He recalls His earlier teaching, and causes them to understand the fulfilment He had effected of the prophecies of the Old Testament.
II. He gives directions for the future, and promises help to enable them to accomplish their task.
Luk. 24:44. While I was yet with you.The expression is worthy of notice, for it proves that Jesus felt that His departure was already accomplished. He was no longer with them otherwise than exceptionally. His abode was elsewhere.Godet.
Luk. 24:45. Opened their understanding.This teaches us
(1) that Christ has immediate access to the human spirit and power over it; and That they might understand the scriptures.The Word of God by itself is not sufficient; for our due understanding of it we need the illumination of the Spirit.
Luk. 24:46-47. The Substance of Christian preaching.
I. Good tidings founded upon the work of the SaviourHis sufferings and His resurrection.
II. The duty of repentance.
III. The privilege of the remission of sins.
Luk. 24:46. To suffer and to rise.Here, as everywhere, suffering and glory are inseparably connected.
Luk. 24:47. Beginning at Jerusalem.
1. Jerusalem was the centre of the then existing kingdom of God. Luk. 24:48. Ye are witnesses.That which renders testimony valuable is its being given by witnesses who are
(1) possessed of full information; Luk. 24:49. The promise of the Father.The gift of the Spirit as bestowed on the day of Pentecost. This gift promised in Isa. 44:3; Jer. 31:33; Eze. 36:27; Joe. 2:28.
An Equipment of Power.
I. The Lords servants must be men of power.
II. An equipment of power is provided.
1. It is power. III. Power is to be waited for.Roberts.
Ministerial Power.Some of those powers of the Spirit which experience teaches us to be of most avail in meeting the exigencies of ministerial life in our time.
I. The power of holiness.
II. The power of knowledge.
III. The power of a single aim.
IV. The power of sympathy.
V. The power of the Divine commission.Vaughan.
Luk. 24:50-53. The Ascension.
I. The identity of the crucified and risen Saviour.
II. We, too, must ascend, to be judged, to stand before the throne.
III. The goal of the Churchs hope is the return of the ascended Christ.Markby.
Christs Departure.
I. He ascended by His own power and His own will.
II. He alone left behind Him a finished work.
III. He ascended to begin the second work.That of intercessiondistinct from the work on earth, but yet of one piece with it, and serving to accomplish the same great end.
IV. By His Spirit, He still works in the world.
V. He has marked a way for us into heaven.A track of light goes through the darkness into the very heart of heaven.Nicoll.
The Ascension.
I. The gospel is all fact.All our gospel mysteries, are, in their basis and substance, facts. The Christian year is a commemoration of facts. The Ascension is an event, a historical fact.
II. It is something more.It is not mere history; it is a life. Like each gospel fact, it presupposes or else predicts every other. The Ascension presupposes the Incarnation, and predicts the Advent. The Ascension says:
1. Your home is not here. Yonder is your rest and your home. Home is a presence more than a place. Where Christ is, is the souls true home. Luk. 24:50. Christs Last Hours on Earth.
I. The last meeting.
II. The last journey.
III. The last promise.
IV. The last blessing.
V. The last glimpse.W. Taylor.
He lifted up His hands.As a father, who is about to leave his children, gathers them together once more, speaks to them, and then raises his hands to bless them, so, at the moment of re-entering into the invisible world, Jesus imposes a benediction upon the head of His apostles which will remain upon the whole Church until His return.Godet.
Luk. 24:51. While He blessed them.As Elijah left his mantle with Elisha, by whom he was seen when taken up, so Christ, at His ascension, left a blessing with His apostles and with His Church.Wordsworth.
Carried up into heaven.By His resurrection He had taken up again His human life which He had voluntarily given up to death; by His ascension He resumes His celestial life, His life in the form of God (Php. 2:6), which He had laid aside on becoming incarnate in human form. And in the new condition in which His exaltation places Him, His human life is so interpenetrated by His Divine life that it becomes the adequate and eternal manifestation of it. I see, said the dying Stephen, the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God (Act. 7:56). The fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him in a bodily form (Col. 2:9).Godet.
The Parting Blessing.The Saviours life had been one of continual blessing. And here we have the last impression left on the apostles minds of their Lords feeling towards them. His last thoughts were with them, His last energies were for them.
I. This thought is the inheritance of the Church.The while bound Christ and the Church together, in the power of a last impression, for the rest of their earthly lives. His ascent on high does not sever Him in blessing from us.
II. But besides connection there is activity.The ascended Christ is a blessing Christ, unchanged by His exaltation. He uses His exaltation for the benefit of His friends.
III. The thought we should have of the other world is, therefore, one of joy.To the Christian the unseen must ever be a place of blessing. The place whither Jesus went must partake of His aspect in entering it. The disciples knew, from their Masters teaching, something of the awfulness of the other world. But now He leaves them something better to think of. He is to bless from heaven. It was to be henceforth a place in which they had the dearest interest. He blessed in ascending, and if so, what but blessing could they look for from that other sphere?Power.
Luk. 24:52. They worshipped Him.No one can reasonably doubt that this worship was offered to Him as a Divine being. St. Luke only uses this word in another place in his gospel (Luk. 4:7-8), and there it is used in the sense of rendering the honour due to God alone. In the Acts it is employed in the same sense (Luk. 7:43, Luk. 8:27, Luk. 24:11, Luk. 10:25-26).
Luk. 24:53. In the Temple.The narrative of St. Luke begins in the Temple and ends in the Temple.
Praising and blessing God.The two essential elements of worship.
I. Adoration.Acknowledgment of the Divine perfections.
II. Thanksgiving for all the benefits He has bestowed.
Butlers Comments
SECTION 4
Eleven Commissioned, Again (Luk. 24:44-53)
44 Then he said to them, These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled. 45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and said to them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high.
50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. 52And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53and were continually in the temple blessing God.
Luk. 24:44-49 Divine Declaration: In Jerusalem, at some time between His appearance to James and His ascension, Jesus met with His apostles and reiterated His commission to them. We do not know how much time elapsed. We do know it was forty days between His resurrection and His ascension.
k. Still laterunknown time, at Jerusalem (Luk. 24:44-49): Eleventh appearance: Both Wieand in his, A New Harmony of The Gospels, and Shephard, in his, The Christ of the Gospels, place this appearance separate from fifth appearance (Luk. 24:36-43). The same appearance is described in Act. 1:3-8. Evidently Jesus spent many hours during these forty days in intense instruction to the apostles and disciples concerning the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies in His redemptive incarnation. The two great lines of evidence appealed to in apostolic preaching (Acts) and apostolic writing (Epistles) are the empirical facts witnessed in His death, burial and resurrection, and the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies in His deeds and teachings.
It is interesting to note that Jesus summarized the entire message of the Old Testament as a prediction that the Messiah should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Yes, that was what God was saying in the Old Testament-redemption and evangelism. There is little doubt that the Old Testament is filled with predictions that Gods redemptive deeds will be to all people when one reads the prophetsespecially Isaiah (cf. Isa. 2:1-4; Isa. 19:16-24; Isa. 25:6-9; Isa. 42:1-4; Isa. 49:5-7; Isa. 51:4-6; Isa. 60:1-3; Isa. 61:1-9, etc.). All this God chose Israel to do. It was Israels destiny to give birth to the Redeemer and to be a kingdom of priests in order to take the message of redemption to the whole world. The majority of the Israelites defaulted on that destiny. But Gods redemptive program was not thwarted. He called upon a small minority, a remnant, eleven apostles and a few disciples, and they answered. He sent them to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins to all the nations. And that message of repentance and forgiveness was validated by the testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (cf. Act. 2:22-42; Act. 3:12-26; Act. 17:30-31, etc.). There is no reason for men to repent if Christ is not raised; there is no hope for forgiveness if Christ is not raised. So Jesus said, You are witnesses of these things. They witnessed only His death, burial and resurrection. They preached repentance and forgiveness because He promises it and His promises are absolutely trustworthy because of His resurrection. Repentance (a change of direction, both in mind and deed) and forgiveness of sin (release from guilt and reconciliation to God) is mans most fundamental need. Jesus says it is available in His namethat is, by His authority, and in His way of life.
Jesus said to the apostles He would send the promise of the Father upon them. That promise was, of course, the supernatural powers and privileges enumerated by Jesus at various times (Mat. 16:17-20; Mat. 19:28-30; Joh. 14:1-31; Joh. 15:1-27; Joh. 16:1-33; Joh. 17:1-26; Joh. 20:20-23, etc.). These eleven apostles (and one to be added) would open the doors to the kingdom, establish it, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, and leave with the infant church an infallibly inspired set of documents known as the New Testament. To these apostles would be granted great privilege, great responsibility and great persecutions (Mar. 10:30). All those were promises of the Father.
This same conversation in the book of Acts reveals to us that the apostles were still clinging to the materialistic view of the kingdom of God. They asked Jesus if He were, at this time, about to restore the kingdom to Israel, (Act. 1:6). They must, therefore, have the power of the Holy Spirit to accompany their preaching. The Holy Spirits miraculous powers working through the apostles would be necessary not only to keep them aware that the kingdom was spiritual and to guide them inerrantly in their teaching, but also to verify their message of the spirituality of the kingdom for the whole world. The spiritual nature of the kingdom of God is foreign to the carnal mind of man. Without the inspired revelation of the Holy Spirit, men would not believe it!
Luk. 24:50-53 Dedicated Devotees: After admonishing them to stay in the city of Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high, He led them out as far as Bethany (on the Mount of Olives, cf. Act. 1:12), and lifting up His hands He blessed them.
1. Last of May (Hebrew month, Iyyar), A.D. 30: Twelfth appearance: While He blessed them, He parted from them. Greek manuscripts Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, Ephraemi, Washingtonius and Koridethi, et al, add, and was carried into heaven. We do know that He ascended into heaven because this same gospel writer, Luke, records the event in his Acts of the Apostles (Act. 1:9-11). The apostles saw Him go, bodily, up into the heavens and disappear from their sight. He appeared, once more, bodily, to Saul of Tarsus, near Damascus, Syria (1Co. 15:8; Act. 9:3-9).
For a while the apostles remained, staring into heaven, awed, shocked, wondering and probably confused. But two angels appeared and directed them, Why are you standing here staring into the heavens, this same Jesus who was received up from you into heaven, will come back from heaven in the same manner you saw Him go. This filled them with great joy, and they returned to Jerusalem in obedience to their Lords word, worshipping in the Temple as they awaited the beginning of their great task to preach His name to the whole world.
The record of Gods redemption according to Luke does not really end here. It continues through the Acts of the Apostles, for the good news resulted in the establishment of Christs church first at Jerusalem, and then in the uttermost parts of the civilized world. The Holy Spirit did empower the apostles; He did validate their message with miracles and signs (cf. Heb. 2:3-4; Act. 2:1 ff.). The Holy Spirit did call to their remembrance all Jesus taught them as recorded in this Gospel and the others; He did lead them into all the truth necessary for the establishment and satisfaction of the church. And the apostles (and thousands of other believers) did go and bear witness to the redemptive plan of God as it was accomplished in Christ.
Jesus did and said many other things than those recorded in Lukes gospel or Johns gospel or in the other two (cf. Joh. 20:30-31; Joh. 21:25), but all that is necessary for any man to believe and obey Christ unto salvation is recorded in the New Testament. What is recorded in the gospel accounts is sufficient to produce faith in Christ as the Son of God in the heart of any honest-minded individual. We will discuss the matter of believing the gospel accounts in the addendum to this chapter. You will want to read that next!
Tradition says that Luke lived until he was 84 years of age never marrying, and after his death he was buried in a city called Thebes, in Bithynia. We do not know the certainty of all that but we do know Lukes name will live on while this earth remains and his great faith and dedication to produce an orderly and accurate account after having followed all things closely has resulted in millions of people coming to believe Jesus is the Son of Man and the Son of God and may result in millions more believing also. We here express our gratitude to God for His divine providence that would call and empower such a man as Luke to put into writing the deeds and sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ. The uniqueness of Lukes record, compared to the other three records, is a classic example that God wishes to communicate His good news to all men, whatever their culture or whatever their inclinations.
ADDENDUM ON THE BODILY RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD
The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the fundamental fact of Christianity. Without it there can be no Biblical Christianity. Without it there is no hope for mankind. Paul makes it the one absolute essential to faith, morals, brotherhood and proclamation (1Co. 15:1-58). Without the bodily resurrection, in time, in space, in history, established on empirical evidence, the death of Christ is vain, the faith of the Christian is vain, the preaching of the church is vain, and Christians are, of all men, most to be pitied. So we here offer this study in the hope that believers will have their faith founded on this fact of history and that unbelievers will, in honesty and openness, be persuaded to believe in the living Christ.
I.
BASIC ATTACKS ON THE RESURRECTION
A.
Denial of the authenticity of the gospel accounts, or a denial of their credibility.
B.
Explaining the gospel miracles as myths.
C.
Making faith in God a matter of subjective experiences or feelings and, therefore, declaring the factuality of miracles and the bodily resurrection irrelevant to being a Christian.
II.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE LAWS OF EVIDENCE APPLIED TO THE QUESTION OF THE FACTUAL TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY (excerpts from an article by John Warwick Montgomery, entitled, Legal Reasoning and Christian Apologetics, Christianity Today, 21475).
A.
The ancient documents rule:
1.
Ancient documents will be received as competent evidence if they are fair-on-their-face (i.e. if they offer no internal evidence of tampering) and have been maintained in reasonable custody (i.e. if their preservation has been consistent with their content).
2.
Applied to the gospel records, and reinforced by responsible lower (textual) criticism, this rule would establish their competency in any court of law.
B.
The parol (i.e., oral, word of mouth) evidence rule:
1.
External, oral testimony will not be received in evidence to add to, subtract from, vary, contradict an executed written instrument such as a will.
2.
Applied to the Biblical documents which expressly claim to be executed and complete (Heb. 9:15-17; Rev. 22:18-19), this rule insists that Scripture be allowed to interpret itself and not be twisted or contradicted by external, extra-biblical data (such as comparative New Eastern religious texts and practices, new hermeneutics, Form Criticism methods, etc., etc.).
C.
The hearsay rule:
1.
A witness must testify of his own knowledge, not on the basis of what has come to him indirectly from others.
2.
This demand for primarysource evidence is fully vindicated in the New Testament documents by the constant claim of its authors to be setting forth that which they have seen and heard and handled (touched) concerning the Word of Life. . . (1Jn. 1:1-4).
3.
In the document of Luke, he nowhere claims for himself eyewitness primacy, but he does so for his sources, (Luk. 1:1-4).
D.
The related cross-examination principle:
1.
All trials proceed upon the idea that some confidence is due to human testimony, and this confidence grows and becomes more stedfast in proportion as the witness has been subjected to a close and searching cross-examination.
2.
Applied to the New Testament message of the first century, this rule underscores the reliability of testimony to Christs resurrection which was presented in the very teeth of opposition (in Jewish synagogues and among Greek and Roman philosophers and rulers) among hostile cross-examiners who would certainly have destroyed the case for Christianity had the facts been otherwise.
Just such rules of evidence sufficiently settle issues of life and death in human societyand always haveeven in the most primitive societies. They are sufficient for believing in historically documented facts upon which to establish faith and action in religion (as they are for scientific and legal matters).
III.
TREATISE ON THE LAW OF EVIDENCE (excerpts from the writings of Simon Greenleaf, 17831853, U.S. legal educator, head of Harvard Law School in 1846; drafted original constitution of Independent Republic of Liberia; classed with the worlds greatest legal minds such as Kent and Blackstone; president of Massachusetts Bible Society for many years; wrote, the Testimony of The Evangelists).
A. Principles
1.
To establish the historicity of the facts of Christianity, nothing more is demanded than is readily conceded to every branch of human science!
2.
Christianity does not profess to convince the perverse and headstrong, to bring irresistible evidence to vanquish every question. All it professes is to propose such evidence as may satisfy the disciplined, teachable, honest, serious searcher for truth.
3.
The foundation of Christianity is based on facts. These facts are testified to as having occurred within the personal knowledge of the Gospel writers. Christianity, then, rests upon the credibility of these witnesses. Are they worthy of implicit belief? This is the question in all human tribunals in regard to persons testifying before them.
B.
Precepts
1.
Every document apparently ancient, coming from the proper custody, and bearing on its face no evident marks of forgery, the law presumes to be genuine, and devolves on the opposing party the burden of proving it to be otherwise. We are entitled to assume the texts of the Gospels are genuine until the contrary is shown conclusively with empirical evidence.
2.
If it be objected that the originals are lost, and that we have only copies, the principles of municipal law apply here also. For if any ancient document concerning our public rights (our Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc.) were lost, copies which had been as universally received and acted upon as the four Gospels have been, would have been received in evidence in any court of law without the slightest hesitation.
3.
In trials of fact, by oral testimony, the proper inquiry is not whether it is possible that the testimony may be false (as critics approach it) but whether there is sufficient probability that it is true!
4.
In weighing the evidence of any proposition of fact, the question to be determined is, when may it be said to be proved. A proposition of fact is proved, when its truth is established by competent and satisfactory evidence beyond reasonable doubt.
a.
Competent: Such as the nature of the thing to be proved requires. (seeing, hearing, touching, etc.).
b.
Satisfactory: Amount of proof which ordinarily satisfied an unprejudiced mind beyond any reasonable doubt.
c.
Sufficiency: Enough to satisfy the mind and conscience of an honest man and cause him to act upon that conviction.
When one has this degree of certainty, it is unreasonable to require more.
5.
In the absence of circumstances which generate suspicion, every witness is to be presumed to be credible, until the contrary is shown. The burden of impeaching his credibility lies upon the objector.
6.
Honesty: All witnesses are entitled to the benefit of the axiom that men ordinarily speak the truth, when they have no prevailing motive or inducement to the contrary. If the testimony of the gospel writers is false why would they have lied to bring upon themselves all the misery and persecution of Christianitys enemies?
7.
Ability: The ability of a witness to speak the truth depends on the opportunities he has had for observing the fact, the accuracy of his powers of observing and discerning, and the faithfulness of his memory in recalling the facts. We can at least grant to the gospel writers the abilities of most human beings until the contrary is shown. This is the procedure of legal justice. Matthew was a tax-collector; Luke was a physician; both were trained in such abilities to remember and record facts.
8.
Number and consistency of witnesses: Enough disparity is needed in the witnesses (as to time separations, geographical separations, etc.) to show there was no collusion. Enough agreement in the documents of the witnesses is needed to show they were independent recorders of the same great events.
9.
Conformity of testimony with experience: What the gospel writers witnessed and testified to was experienced or seen and heard by others (cf. Act. 2:22, etc.).
10.
Coincidence of testimony with collateral and contemporaneous facts and circumstances:
a.
Had the evangelists been false historians, they would not have committed themselves on so many particulars.
b.
Had the evangelists been false historians, they would not have furnished their enemies with such documents for bringing them into discredit with their audiences.
c.
It is not possible for the wit of man to invent a story, which if closely compared to the actual occurrences of the same time and place, may not be shown to be false.
d.
Comparing the gospels to the histories of that era proves their authenticity.
e.
False witnesses will not willingly or consciously detail any circumstances in which their testimony may be open to contradiction. Nor will they multiply circumstances where there is danger of comparisons that could be made and exposure made.
f.
False witnesses deal in general statements and broad assertions. When forced to use names and particular circumstances they will try to invent such as will be out of reach of all investigation and opposing proof. THIS IS NOT SO WITH THE GOSPELS!
It should be clearly settled in the mind of honest investigators that the Biblical documents known as the Gospels meet all the principles and rules of legal and scientific evidence herein proposed.
IV.
THE GOSPELS ARE NOT MYTHS
A.
Rudolph Bultmann, celebrated theologian, says, the message of Christ provides religious truth, but not historical facts.
1.
Jesus of Nazareth, according to Bultmann, was merely a man about whom we know very little.
2.
Whatever the Gospels say about Jesus cannot be taken as historically true except for a few facts such as his life in first century Palestine, his trial under Pontius Pilate, and his death by crucifixion. The rest must be myth and fable created and compiled by the early Christian believers.
3.
These early believers used the religious myths of the virgin birth and the resurrection to ascribe divinity to Jesus. The myth concept is popularized in books like The Passover Plot.
B.
Myths compared to the Gospels
1.
In Homers Odyssey there is the myth of Circe, an evil enchantress who lured men into her garden and then changed them into pigs. In the same Greek mythology is the myth of Polyphemus, the one-eyed Cyclops who killed and ate some of Odysseus men who hid in his cave. Aesops Fables are a form of myth.
2.
But the gospel accounts are factual documents describing a man named Jesus who lived and died and was resurrected completely and bodily within the realm of history.
3.
Mythological gods lived in the imaginary realm of the unseen on Mount Olympus or some other unknown and unseen place, and never performed their alleged deaths or resurrections in real life as real-bodied beings. They could never be verified historically.
4.
Christs resurrection happened only once! Mythological gods were resurrected constantly, according to the annual changes in seasons.
5.
J. Gresham Machen in The Origin of Pauls Religion, says, most of these mystery religions did not exist in the form which the critics say is like Christianity.
6.
Only some forty days after the death of the historical person Jesus, His disciples were proclaiming to their contemporaries the detailed facts of His return to life in the same body buried in the tomb. Mythological characters took many generations and often, centuries, to develop and gain followers.
7.
Even if the disciples of Jesus had borrowed (which no evidence shows they did) from the myths prevalent in their day it would have taken longer than forty days to establish the Jesus-myth. Extant portions of copies of manuscripts of the Gospel accounts date back to within 50 years of the eyewitnesses of Christs life!
8.
The history of the Jews (and Jesus apostles were Jews) during the first century A.D. and before shows they were violently opposed to Greek and Roman religious mythology. So Jesus apostles would have been seriously anti-mythology.
9.
If the resurrection of Christ was a myth, why encumber it with the details of a common human existence which made it open to investigation by its enemies! Placing the hero of this alleged Christ-myth in their own time, instead of saying it happened centuries before their time, these apostles would have robbed their story of the enormous prestige of antiquity. Surely, they would have been as intelligent as other myth-makers.
10.
If the resurrection of Christ had been nothing more than a myth, the witness to it would have been just as palatable as the hundred other myths were to the pagan civilization of their day. Myths required no sacrifice to believe, hardly ever did they involve persecution, and they usually permitted gross indulgences of the flesh. History shows that the message of Christs atonement and resurrection was not palatable to those devotees of contemporary mystery religions and the same is still true today! CHRISTS RESURRECTION IS NO MYTH!
V.
SUBJECTIVE OR FEELING RESURRECTION IS ALL THAT IS NEEDED
A.
We cannot prove the resurrection as an historical fact and we do not need to . . . what the church needs . . . is the testimony of persons who . . . say that Christ has appeared to them . . . and that they have experienced his presence in some of the crises of meaningful experiences of their lives. by Dr. J. Daniel Joyce, dean of the Graduate Seminary, Phillips University, in The Christian, 3301969.
Christians need not affirm that Christ rose from the dead at all . . . so far as its having literal historical significance, it has become excess baggage for most of us . . . Dr. D. W. Ferm, Presbyterian minister in Newsweek, 33-1972.
Rev. John Burke, P.O., executive director of the Word of God Institute, a Catholic organization, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, 95-1977: said he did not know of any credible biblical scholar who would hold for a bodily Resurrection. Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, Supplementary Volume, article by F. W. Saunders says the earliest form of Resurrection accounts among the first Christians may have been the experience of Peter and his brethren in coming to faith, seeing that Jesus was not a martyred prophet but in very fact Lord and Christ enthroned in glory. The mystery of that conviction is the mystery of faith. B.
The greatest derangement of the human mind is to believe because one wishes it to be so. Louis Pasteur
The heart cannot delight in what the mind rejects as false. . . . The beauty of the gospel in the avalanche of competing religious claims is precisely the possibility we have of checking it out historically and factually. Clark Pinnock, in, Set Forth Your Case. The gospel is good news of God, not news of man . . . it has as its first concern not what man must do, but what God has done. It asks, Since God has so acted, what ought we men do? The Christian message demands attention not because it may be helpful, but because it is true. . . . Sidney Cave, in, The Christian Way.
C.
Facts Testimony Faith Feeling, in that order and none other! Because the power of faith (like prayer) rests not in the faith (or in prayer) itself but in the object (God and Christ) of the faith.
It is not choosing nor refusing; it is not loving, hating, fearing, desiring or hoping; it is not the nature of any power or faculty or capacity of our being, nor the exercise of them but the objects or things upon which they are exercised which give us pleasure or pain; which induce us to action, or influence our behavior.
The nature of God, demonstrated by the deeds of God, transmitted to us and imprinted upon our nature through the testimony of language transforms us into His image. Alexander Campbell, in, The Christian System.
D.
The validity of Jesus rests not on how he makes us feel but on the historical facts of the first century. Getting high on Jesus is a dangerous step toward emotional insecurity. Christianity is not limited to our subjective feelings . . . else whenever we are depressed or frustrated, our faith is almost worthless. Christianity is sure no matter how many times we fail because it is factual. Christianity is not invalidated by our lack of success. Dr. James North in San Jose Bible College Broadcaster, March 1974.
E.
Our hope in the resurrection is not based on subjective feelings.
1.
Christianity based on subjectivism or existentialism is like impressionistic artits beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Such Christianity is validated by feelings, not by facts.
2.
Any outlook which over emphasizes the subjective in religion and disregards rational objectivity can neither invalidate a false revelation nor validate a true one. If you are sincere in your search for the Real, you must not repudiate the Rational.
3.
Man trusts, has assurance, loves, acts morally, and hopes on the basis of what God has done, historically, in the past. God has given man a trustworthy record of His redemptive action.
4.
Validating ones religion primarily by ones subjective feelings makes one his own god and that is no better than any other form of idolatry.
F.
The Gospels (and the whole New Testament) are authentic, trustworthy historical records by eyewitnesses that God entered history in the Person of Jesus Christ, died to atone for sin, arose from the dead bodily, and ascended into heaven. The Bible does not ask us how we feel about that, but rather, do we believe it and are we willing to obey it! Redemption does not depend on what one feels about these things, but on what one believes and does about them. This is objective faith.
G.
The difficulty many people face is that subjective faith is almost like objective faith in what it professes. But subjective faith shifts faith to feeling and says we really dont have to concern ourselves with the historical details of the gospel so long as we feel all right inside. It shifts faith from what God has done, as its focus, to what God is doing now inwardly. Salvation has changed focus, here, from the cross and the resurrection to the emotional experience of the person. This is the existential leap in the dark whether preached by Barth or Graham!
VI.
REFUTATIONS OF ATTACKS ON THE HISTORICITY OF THE BODILY RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD
A.
The Empty Tomb
1.
Attack: The earliest attempt to explain away the empty tomb was that of the Jewish leaders giving money to the guards to say the apostles had come and stolen His body while they slept (Mat. 28:11-15).
Refutation: To imagine that the disciples could have done that without waking the guards is incredible. To imagine the guards could verify the disciples had stolen the body while they slept is unacceptable. To imagine the disciples did steal the body and then laid their necks on the block for what they knew was a hoax is preposterous!
2.
Attack: Another attempt to explain the empty tomb is that Jesus enemies (the Jewish rulers) or Roman officials removed His body.
Refutation: Seven short weeks after His death Jerusalem was seething with the preaching of the resurrection. If the Jews or Romans had known where His body was it was rather stupid of them to keep it hidden and allow credence to this uproar. And the Jews were upset about this preaching! Why didnt they produce His body and squelch that preaching once for all? Quite clearly, they could not because His body was not in the tomb and they did not know where it was!
3.
Attack: Another theory is that the women, strangers in Jerusalem, half awake, half scared, blinded by tears, went to the wrong tomb. A young man was hanging around there, and guessing what they wanted, said, You seek Jesus . . . He is not here (pointing to the tomb they were looking at) . . . Behold the place where they laid Him (pointing to another tomb). The women became frightened and ran away. Subsequently they decided that the young man was an angel proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus.
Refutation: First, this attack is a dishonest statement of what the gospel record saysit leaves out the statement of the angel, He is risen! As we see from the gospel records the women were at the tomb more than once and knew precisely where it was. They witnessed the burial. Joseph knew where his own tomb was. Why did he not come forth and correct the women if the resurrection story was built on a simple mistake about the place of burial?!
4.
Attack: Finally, there is the theory that Jesus did not die, but fainted. They thought He was dead so they allowed Him to be taken down, placed in a cool tomb where He revived and was able to come out of the tomb and appear to His disciples. They, being the ignorant men they were, could not believe that He had just fainted and gotten over it so they went out preaching that He was raised from the dead.
Refutation: If Jesus had not died on the cross He would have to have died eventually of some cause, so the enemies of Christianity merely had to take note and point out the dead body to stop the story of a bodily resurrection. Furthermore, a man already physically exhausted, hanged on a cross for 6 hours, run through with a spear, allegedly gets up after three days and nights in a tomb and rolls back a huge stone that several women could not handleagain it is incredible! The crucifying soldiers declared Jesus dead. How could men whose business was execution make such a mistakewhen their own reputation, and perhaps their lives were at stake with their superiors. Pilate checked their report and was satisfied Jesus was dead. The Jews were satisfied He was dead and not merely swooned when the soldiers reported all that had happened.
The record says there was an empty tomb. Either it was or the documents are false. The record says the reason the tomb was empty was that its occupant arose from the dead and was seen alive after dying. This is the record of eyewitnesses. Some have theorized explanations for an empty tomb other than a resurrected occupant. The gospel writers claim to be writing eyewitnessed accountswhich are most believable to you? In the public preaching to non-believers in the book of Acts there is enormous emphasis on the resurrection but not one reference to the empty tomb. Why? Because there was no point in proving the empty tomb since everyone, friend and foe alike of the first century, knew it was empty.
B.
The Appearances of Jesus After His Resurrection.
1.
Attack: Unbelieving critics explain the gospel accounts of Christs appearances as hallucinations or some form of psychological or pathological experience. Refutation:
a.
Hallucinatory experiences commonly conform to certain rules which do not apply in the case of Jesus appearances:
(1)
Only certain types of persons have experiences called hallucinatory (the type we call high-strung-highly emotional, nervous). Do all the hundreds of eyewitnesses to the appearances of Jesus (over 500 at once) fit into this category?
(2)
Hallucinatory experiences are highly individualistic (that is, private) because they are linked to the subconscious and the peculiar past of individuals. Two different people, with different pasts, will not have the same hallucination. Yet over 500 plus the eleven, plus the ten (Thomas absent), plus the seven, plus three or four women, plus Peter, had the same hallucination, all within forty days, and over 500 all at the same time! More difficult to believe than the actual bodily resurrection!
(3)
Hallucinations commonly concern some expected or eagerly anticipated experience. Yet the gospels are emphatic in declaring the witnesses did not expect a resurrection.
(4)
Hallucinations usually occur in suitable surroundings and circumstances. But look at the resurrection appearances: one at the empty tomb, very early in the morning; one during an afternoon walk in the countryside; one or two in the full light of day.
(5)
Hallucinations usually keep appearing to individuals over and over until some crisis occurs. At the end of forty days not one of these men or women claims to have had such an experience again, until we come to the one-time appearance of the risen Christ to Saul of Tarsus.
2.
Attack: Unbelieving critics try to explain the gospel accounts of Christs appearances as the practice of spiritism, seances, etc.
Refutation: There is not one medium mentioned or anything resembling a seance. Jews were strictly forbidden to practice necromancy. When Jesus appeared, according to the record, He was not some ghost-like apparatus like smoke or a sheet, but a real-life person in a body who ate with them and showed them the scars in His hands and side and feet. Such an attempt to explain away the bodily resurrection of Jesus as it is recorded in the gospels is desperate grasping at straws.
3.
Attack: The Telegram Theory which says The ascended Lord (ascended in His spirit, not in his body) telegraphed back pictures of Himself to the minds of the apostles in such a vivid way they were led to believe they had seen the risen Lord in their midst.
Refutation: This is almost more miraculous than the actual resurrection. It makes Christ a deceiver of the apostles and the apostles deceivers of the whole world. Then the apostles and millions more of Jesus followers gave up their lives gladly for such a deception.
Through the twenty centuries since Jesus arose, attacks upon the gospel records have come and gone. They keep repeating themselves. There is really nothing new under the sun from the unbelieving attacks upon the gospels. If an unbeliever says Jesus was not raised from the dead, bodily, I say, prove it! The burden of proof is with the doubterhe must produce evidence, historical, empirical, scientific evidence which, beyond any reasonable doubt, contradicts the eyewitnessed testimony of people who were there, who saw and heard. Theories, assumptions, speculations and philosophies will not be satisfactory. It is not a question of whether a resurrection could or could not occur. The question is, did it or didnt it. The question is not to be resolved theoretically or philosophically, but scientifically, empirically and legallyon the basis of evidence and testimony. The answer is, Yes, beyond any reasonable doubt, the resurrection, bodily, of Jesus Christ, did occur.
VII. RELEVANCY OF THE RESURRECTION
A.
If Christ arose from the dead, then the Bible is Gods revelation of Himself and His redemptive system for man and creation.
1.
The Bible is the only direct revelation of God to man, and it is the final one.
2.
Both Old and New Testaments are confirmed, verified and fulfilled in Christ and His redemptive work.
3.
All of this is established on the basis of Christs historical, bodily resurrection.
B.
If Christ arose from the dead, then the Church of the New Testament is Gods divinely appointed institution on earth in which His redemption is to be appropriated.
1.
Without the resurrection of Christ as its basis, the church becomes simply another social institution founded by unredeemed and dying men.
2.
There is only one church sanctioned in the New Testamentthat is the one obeying the precepts and principles of the New Testament.
3.
Any man or woman in the world may become a member of that church by believing that Christ is who He claims to be and by being immersed in water in obedience to Christs command.
4.
There is no promise of redemption to anyone not a member of Christs church.
C.
All that men do as members of the church is relevant only because Jesus arose from the dead (1Co. 15:58).
1.
There is no psychological benefit to anyone in baptism, or the Lords supper, or stewardship or prayer, if Christ is not alive and if His resurrection is not an historically provable event.
2.
His death on a cross in Palestine in the days of Pontius Pilate is not only tragic, but irrelevant to me or anyone else if He is still dead, and not bodily resurrected from the dead.
3.
There is no reason for me to be immersed in water, attend worship services, live a morally clean life, pray or read the Bible if He is not risen from the dead.
4.
In fact, there is no such thing as any moral absolute if He is not risen from the dead.
D.
Jesus is coming again, bodily, as the apostles saw Him go into heaven.
1.
The only verification that He is coming again is His resurrectionnot signs of the times (cf. Mat. 24:36; Mat. 24:42; Mat. 24:44; Mat. 25:13, etc., with Act. 17:30-31).
2.
Heaven is real, hell is real, justice will be done, men and women are lost, the world is doomed to destruction supernaturally.
3.
Evangelism is imperative.
4.
If Jesus had not risen bodily from the dead, none of the above would be worth believing or doing.
5.
The resurrection of Christ is the message, redemption is the result.
E.
Man has one alternative to the imperatives of the resurrection.
1.
That alternative is not stoicismthe grin and bear it way. There is too much trouble and injustice for that way.
2.
It is not Pharisaismthe playing like Im holy way. That does not get rid of guilt, hopelessness or frustrationit only intensifies it.
3.
It is not humanism or altruismbelieving in the prevailing goodness of man. Man is not prevailingly good. That is demonstrated every day of mans existence. He is not creating any utopias for himselfonly problems.
SO WHAT IS THE ONE ALTERNATIVE?
F.
The one alternative to believing and living in accordance with the way of the resurrected Jesus is:
1.
Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die (1Co. 15:32).
2.
If Christ is not raised, lets not play church or play good or play anything but self-indulgence.
3.
Barbaric, animalistic hedonism is the only alternative to faith in Christ.
But in Christ, living by faith in the testimony of His bodily resurrection, and living in the hope of your own resurrection to eternal life, my friend, there is fulfillment, satisfaction, joy and accomplishment.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain (1Co. 15:58).
May God make this the blessing of your life for having studied and believed the gospel, according to Luke.
STUDY STIMULATORS:
1.
Name the four possibilities the women might have considered as an answer for the empty tomb. Are there any other possibilities? Which do you think you would have thought about had you been one of the women?
2.
Why did the apostles and other disciples of Jesus not remember His predictions of His resurrection? Why do people not believe it today?
3.
Why were the two disciples on the way to Emmaus so despondent?
4.
Would you walk seven miles to tell someone you had evidence that Jesus was arisen from the dead? Why?
5.
What do you think about the idea that Jesus materialized and/or became invisible instantaneously as He wished to after His resurrection?
6.
What did Jesus spend His time doing during the forty days between His resurrection and ascension? Does this give us any clue how important such activity is?
7.
What were the powers the Father promised the apostles? Are they promised to any other Christians?
8.
When Jesus parted from the apostles, where did He go? Do you think of Jesus as alive nowas much alive as He was when He companied with the apostles in a fleshly body?
9.
If someone said to you that religions faith is different than matters of proving something scientifically or legally, what would you answer?
10.
What if your brother or sister, or your child, returned from college and told you he/she had been taught by a religion professor that Christianity is based on ancient mythwhat would be your answer?
11.
Has one of your neighbors ever told you that religion is all feeling and the facts do not really matter? How did you answer? What do you think nowis it important to answer that allegation?
12.
If you were challenged with the proposition that the tomb where Jesus had been buried was never empty, but that the women went to the wrong tomb, how would you answer?
13.
What would you say if someone said that what the disciples saw when they reported having seen Jesus, were hallucinations?
14.
What about all these theologians, churches and christians who deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus but continue to go to church and consider themselves followers of Jesus? If you did not believe Christ actually arose from the dead, bodily, would you be a Christian? What would you live like if you didnt believe it?
FIRE IN MY BONES
(Jer. 20:7-8; Jer. 20:14-18)
A Biographical Sermon on Jeremiah for OBC Chapel, Dec. 4, 1979 I preached this sermon 16 years ago in Chapel, September 24, 1963. There is some revision now, but since only about 6 or 7 of you could possibly have heard it then, its repetition-should not offend too many of you.
INTRODUCTION
I.
DISCOURAGEMENT AND DESPONDENCY
A.
About 2600 years ago a discouraged, despondent, despairing preacher (the son of a clergymanpriest) sat struggling with the innermost conflicts of his soul.
He was ready to quit the ministry! In fact he was cursing the fact that he had ever been born. B.
There are a lot of people who ask, How can a preacher ever get discouraged? There is a lot of pseudo-Christianity being hawked by the hucksters today which gives the impression that being a Christian is one continual highif ever you have a low you cannot be a man of God.
1.
Francis Schaeffer has this to say: Anybody who asks that has never been in the midst of the battle; he understands nothing about a real struggle for God.
2.
And . . . It is possible to be faithful to God and yet to be overwhelmed with discouragement as we face the world. In fact, if we are never overwhelmed, I wonder if we are fighting the battle with compassion and reality, or whether we are jousting with paper swords against paper windmills.
Death In The City, p. 68.
II.
DARKNESS
A.
From a human perspective, Jeremiah had every reasonable, justifiable, emotional excuse possible for doing just thatGIVE UP, QUIT THE MINISTRY!
B.
Political darkness: He probably was born and reared in the reign of Manassehthe most ungodly king Judah ever had; lived through the so-called reforms of Josiahs reign; prophesied during the reign of the weak, worldly-minded, compromising Zedekiah.
The powerful, pagan empire of Babylon was poised to destroy Jeremiahs homeland and carry his family, friends and countrymen far away into exile. Jeremiah knew it was inevitable and plead with all his soul but no one would believe him.
C.
Social darkness: Widespread exploitation of the poor; sexual promiscuity (each neighing for his neighbors wife); civil justice totally corrupt; materialism rampant; murder, robbery, cruelty, indifference everywhere. Do not trust your family or your neighbors Jeremiah was told.
D.
Religious darkness: idolatry; Canaanite naturism; Phoenician Baalism; Babylonian astrology; and an utterly meaningless Jewish formalism; SACRIFICE OF HUMAN BEINGS (CHILDREN).
Priesthood dedicated to making money by urging people to sin. False prophets crying peace, peace when there was no peace.
III.
DIABOLICAL DANGER
A.
Jeremiah takes 18 chapters (220) to characterize the ungodly people to whom he was sent to preach.
He characterizes them as: idolatrous, stupid, adulterous, liars, obstinate, deluded, untrustworthy, malicious, good for nothing, backsliders, stubborn. B.
Consider these personal tribulations of the man himself: Read also Lam. 3:1-66.
1.
His message was almost totally unpopulareven hated; ridiculed (Jer. 20:7-12).
2.
His own family sought his death (Jer. 12:6).
3.
He was forbidden the possible support of marriage (Jer. 16:1-4); and social life (Jer. 16:8).
4.
His countrymen continually clamored for his death (Jer. 18:18 f.Jer. 26:7 f.)
5.
His book of warnings from God was cut to pieces and burned (Jer. 36:21 f.).
6.
He was arrested as a common criminal (Jer. 26:7-12).
7.
He was locked in the stocks and beaten (Jer. 20:1-2).
8.
He was pronounced a traitor and hunted by all the authorities (Jer. 32:2-3; Jer. 33:1).
9.
He was thrown into a pit to starve to death (Jer. 37:11-16).
10.
He was later thrown into a cistern up to his chin in mire and muck and left to die (Jer. 38:4-6).
11.
Later, in his old age, he would be kidnapped and forced to flee as a hostage with his wicked countrymen to Egypt (Jer. 43:1 f.).
12.
So far as we know, he had only one person in the whole nation he could call friend and trustBaruch, his secretary. Perhaps one other prophet or two (Uriah Jer. 26:20) and Ezekiel.
One biographer says of this man: A more crushing burden was never laid upon mortal man. In the whole history of the Jewish race there has been no such example of intense sincerity, unrelieved suffering; fearless proclamation of Gods message, and unwearying intercession of a prophet for his people. But the tragedy of his life is this, that he preached to deaf ears and reaped only hate in return for his love to his fellow-countrymen. He was lightly esteemed in life, and sank into the grave a broken-hearted old man. From being of no account as a prophet, he came to be regarded the greatest of them all. IV.
DETERMINATION
A.
This is not the end of the story. Hear Jeremiah again:
If I say, I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name, there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot (Jer. 20:9).
O Lord of Hosts, who triest the righteous, who seest the heart and the mind, . . . to thee have I committed my cause (Jer. 20:12).
B.
Not since the days of Noah (when every thought of man was evil continuously) had morality and the fear of God ebbed so low on the entire face of the earth.
1.
Yet this preacher, in the face of monstrous adversity, was compelled by a fire in his bones to preachhe could not quithe must go on!
2.
The fire in his bones was the Word of God!
2.
Thy words were found, and I ate them, and thy words became to me a joy, and the delight of my heart . . . (Jer. 15:16).
3.
Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer which breaks rocks in pieces? (Jer. 23:29).
4.
. . . behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire . . . (Jer. 5:14).
NO SLICK PSEUDO-ENTHUSIASM HERE . . . NO FACADE OF SUCCESS-ORIENTATION OR POSSIBILITY THINKING HERE . . . JUST PLAIN OLD, GUT-LEVELLAST RESORT DEPENDENCE ON THE REVELATION OF GOD. DISCUSSION
I. FIRE OF CONVICTION
A.
There was a fire in Jeremiahs bones because he knew the word of God was true.
1.
The veracity of Gods word burned away all doubt. He did not conquer doubt by the power of positive thinking, but by conviction that Gods Word was actually, literally, historically true and accurate.
2.
Jeremiah based his message upon the historical deeds of God recorded as Gods revelation (cf. Jer. 2:4-8; Jer. 7:21-26; Jer. 11:1-8, etc.).
3.
Jeremiah appealed to the evidence from creation for argument against false religion and in support of God and his message (cf. Jer. 10:12-16; Jer. 32:17 ff; Jer. 33:19 ff.).
4.
The conviction that the Word of God was true was the fire in the bones of all the prophets.
a.
When Isaiah wanted to save a remnant for the Messiah, he said to those who would listen, To the teaching and to the testimony (Isa. 8:20).
b.
When Daniel wanted to encourage the people of the Babylonian captivity he went to the scroll of Jeremiah (Dan. 9:2).
5.
The fire in Jesus bones was the conviction that the Word of God was absolutely and unalterably true, The Scripture cannot be broken . . . (Joh. 10:35).
6.
The fire in the bones of the apostles was their conviction of the historical certainties of the resurrection of Christ and fulfilled prophecy.
a.
Evangelism, Act. 17:30-31 . . . he was given assurance to all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
b.
Edification, 1Co. 15:1 ff. (the historical certainties of the cross, the resurrection and fulfilled prophecy)
B.
Jeremiahs fire was not based on feelings.
1.
It was his feelings that kept trying to put out the fire!
2.
Had Jeremiah allowed his moods and feelings to become his motivation he would have quit the ministry.
3.
If Jesus had let His feelings rule Him He would have refused to go to the cross. . . . O Father, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will but thine be done (Luk. 22:42).
C.
Jeremiahs fire was not based on the pragmatic workability of religious activity.
1.
The Word of God is not relevant because it works, but because it is true.
2.
Jeremiah said, Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in it (Jer. 6:16).
THINGS DIDNT ALWAYS WORK FOR JEREMIAH! AND ONLY BECAUSE THE FIRE IN HIS BONES CAME FROM CONVICTION THAT THE WORD OF GOD WAS TRUE WHETHER THERE WAS ALWAYS VISIBLE SUCCESS OR NOT WAS HE ABLE TO STAY WITH HIS MINISTRY!
D.
There are two fundamentals necessary to bring man to Godneither of them have to do with emotions of pragmatics.
1.
He that cometh to God must believe that He is (exists).
2.
And that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
3.
The fire in mens bones is not a result of religious activity or the practice of a systematic religion. The Jews of Jeremiahs day were busier in religion than any people have ever been! BUT THEY WERE TOTALLY DEVOID OF THE FIRE IN THEIR BONES WHICH JEREMIAH HAD.
4.
The God who is There is the God of the Bible. He cannot be reduced to our moods and feelings nor to our systems and traditions.
If you want Jeremiahs fire in your bones you will not find it by conjuring up a god of your own moods and whims or a god reduced to religious activitybut in saturating your mind and life with Scripture for that is where He reveals Himself. It is in believing and obeying His Word that we come face-to-face, mind-to-mind, and heart-to-heart, Spirit-to-spirit with God. II.
FIRE OF HOLINESS
A.
Jeremiah was a man, a human being, not a robot.
1.
He had feelings, moods, physical drives, urges, temptations, trials, tribulations, ups and downs, just like any one else.
2.
He complained, doubted, cried, became angry, afraid, lonely one time and tired of having others always around on the other hand.
3.
He had to go through life without the strength and comfort of a wife, Jer. 16:1-2, so he had to control his sexual self.
4.
He had to go through life suffering persecution and defamation unjustly, so he had to control his urge to retaliate. Jer. 11:20 . . . to thee have I committed my cause.
5.
He had to go through life without merrymaking or fun, Jer. 15:17 . . . I did not sit in the company of merrymakers, nor did I rejoice. He sublimated the urge for fun for the higher goal of being found pleasing to his Lord.
6.
He had to go through life being very unpopular. He could not know the admiration or acceptance of his peers. They all shunned him. He had to forget about the human ego which demands to be recognized, appreciated and applauded!
B.
What was this fire in his bones that purged him of human weakness and gave him power to overcome temptation? IT WAS THE WORD OF GOD.
1.
Who has commanded and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and evil come? (Lam. 3:37-38)
. . . my affliction and my bitterness . . . my soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me . . . but this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness (Lam. 3:19-23).
2.
Jeremiah knew a man could not trust in his own heart or feelings or reasoning:
Cursed is the man who trusts in man. . . . Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. . . . The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? (Jer. 17:5-10)
C.
My friend, this is your only hope of overcoming; my only hope of overcomingPUTTING THE WORD OF GOD IN YOUR MIND AND HEART THAT YOU MIGHT NOT SIN AGAINST HIM.
1.
It comes down to a gut-level faith. We refuse to fall into any temptation simply because the word of God says it is wrong!
2.
We may philosophize, analyze and rationalize adultery and fornication all we want, but the ultimate choice will be made against it by you or by me because Gods Word forbids it; or for it because we do not care what Gods Word says.
3.
We may hold seminars, write books and pay psychiatrists to counsel people on marriage and divorce, but when it comes right down to it people will stay married because Gods word commands it; or people will get divorced because they do not think God means what He says!
4.
We either obey our feelings or the Word of God!
5.
James Oppenheim, an American writer of the 1920s characterized the attitude of the man who refuses to let the Word of God be a fire in his bones.
Let nothing bind you; if it is duty, away with it. If it is law, destroy it. If it is opinion, go against it. There is only one Divinity, Yourself; only one God, You.
HUMANISM HAS TRIED TO DEAL WITH THE SIN-HOLINESS PROBLEM BY PSYCHOLOGY, GOVERNMENTAL REGULATIONS, HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY FOR MATERIAL WELFARE, ENTERTAINMENT, COMMUNISM. . . . EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN EXCEPT THE WORD OF GOD.AND NONE OF HUMANISMS PANACEAS HAVE WORKED. . . . IN FACT, THEY HAVE ONLY INTENSIFIED THE PROBLEM OF SIN A THOUSAND-FOLD.
D.
Jesus demonstrated that it is possible for human beings to resist sin and be holy by the fire of the Word of God in us.
1.
Jesus was tempted to distrust God to feed Him after 40 days fasting and work a miracle, but He said, It is written.
2.
Over and over Jesus said, It is written. . . .
3.
Although He was a son, he experienced obedience through what he suffered, and was heard for his godly fear.
4.
Jesus did not feel like going to the cross. . . . O, Father, I dont feel like going to the cross, nevertheless, not how I feel, but thy will be done.
I believe that we can live on earth according to the teachings of Jesus, and that the greatest happiness will come to the world when man obeys His commandment, Love ye one another. I have four things to learn in life:
To think clearly without hurry or confusion; If ever there was anyone with justifiable reason to be bitter, to hate, to be selfish and demand pity, it was the woman who said thatHelen Keller. IF THAT MOTHER AND FATHER HAD NOT PUT THAT FIRE OF HOLINESS, HONESTY, INTEGRITY, GOODNESS AND LOVE IN THE BONES OF THEIR CHILDREN THROUGH THE WORD OF GOD, YOU AND I MIGHT NOT BE HERE TODAY! III.
FIRE OF EVANGELISM
A.
Jeremiah preached 23 years in Jerusalem before he was taken hostage down into Egypt and even from there he preached on, apparently until his death. He never retired. The fire of the word of God never went out or died down in his heart.
1.
He ran through the streets of Jerusalem preaching, trying to locate one righteous man (Jer. 5:1 ff.; Jer. 11:6).
2.
He preached in the Temple courts (Jer. 20:1 ff.; Jer. 26:1 ff.).
3.
He preached in the gates of the city (Jer. 17:19).
4.
He went to the Euphrates river in Gods service (Jer. 13:4).
5.
He went to the shops of the craftsmen (potter) to preach (Jer. 18:1).
6.
He went to the city dump (Hinnom) to preach (Jer. 19:1 ff.).
7.
He preached in the kings palace (Jer. 22:1 ff.).
8.
He preached while imprisoned (Jer. 32:1 ff.).
9.
He preached in war (while Jerusalem was under attack) (Jer. 34:1 ff.).
10.
He preached in Egypt (Jer. 43:8 ff.).
11.
He wrote sermons in letter form to the exiles in Babylon (Jer. 29:1; Jer. 30:1).
In every place conceivable, in every circumstance, in every method possible, Jeremiah preached. B.
Jeremiahs fire was kindled by his hope in the promises of God. He preached because he believed in Gods absolute faithfulness.
1.
Without the absolute faithfulness of Gods Word there is no hope.
2.
The fire in our bones for evangelism must be based on the absolute faithfulness of Gods wordnot in our religiosity, not in our ancestry, not in our human skills.
3.
We are responsible only for sowing the seed; God is responsible for the success and the growth; God has put the growth factor in the seed (The Word) not in human skilfulness.
4.
The world thinks there is hope only in the elimination of absolutes. The Christian must rest his only hope in the absolute God! and His absolute word.
5.
Without the absolute faithfulness of the Word of God in our heart there would be no motive strong enough to keep anyone faithful in evangelism.
C.
Christianity is not a modern success story, says Francis Schaeffer, in Death in The City, It is to be preached with love and tears into the teeth of men, preached without compromise, without regard to the worlds concept of success. If there seem to be no results, remember that Jeremiah did not see the results in his day. They came later. If there seem to be no results, it does not change Gods imperative. It is simply up to you and to me to go on, go on, go on, whether we see the results or whether we dont. Go on.
1.
Jeremiah saw by faith the fulfillment of Gods promises to bring to his people a new David (the Messiah), a new covenant, a new nature. So he preached. And, as Heb. 11:4 says of Abel, he died, but through his faith he is still speaking . . . it is true of Jeremiah.
2.
And it may be true of You. Jenkin Lloyd Jones in an editorial in the Joplin Globe of Sept. 16, 1979, writing of the present trends all over the world of growing persecution of Christianity, wrote, The missionary of tomorrow will be met, not by cringing awe, not by smiles and outstretched hands, not even by spears and leather shields, but by automatic weapons. Martyrdom is coming back, and it will be a testing time for Christianity.
3.
No sooner had Martin Luther begun his great reformation of the church when he received word about the first Protestant martyrs. Some monks had read Luthers work, turned to this way of thinking, and were burned alive in the Grand Place in Brussels. When Luther heard that, he began to walk the floor and he said, I cant go on. I cant do it any more. Because of me other men are being killed. I cant go on! Then as he wrestled with it, he understood that because it was truth, no matter what the cost to himself or anybody else, he must go on. And so he did, and we follow in his train.
CONCLUSION
Dwight L. Moody tells of an aged missionary of the Free Church of Scotland named Duff who had been in India most of his life preaching the gospel and establishing schools. He came back to Scotland a broken man physically. He was permitted to address the Edinburgh General Assembly to make an appeal for men to go to the mission field. (44) These are the words which I spake unto you.As with the travellers to Emmaus, so now with the Ten who were present, our Lord leads His disciples to the true method of interpreting the prophecies which foretold the Christ. And that method was not an afterthought. It had been given in hints and outlines before; now they were led to see it in its fulness. The three-fold division of the Law, the Prophets (including most of the historic books), and the Psalms (the latter term standing for the whole of the Kethubim, the Hagiographa or holy writings, of which the Psalms were the most conspicuous portion), corresponded to that which was in common use among the Jews. (See General Introduction I.The Books of the New Testament.)
44, 45. Carefully tracing the entire passage, (Luk 24:12-53,) the reader is likely to see no break in the narrative, and will at first conclude that the ascension took place upon the night (or next morning) of the meeting of the two travellers to Emmaus with Jesus, namely, the day of the resurrection. And sceptical critics have stoutly maintained that Luke believed that the ascension took place on the same day with the resurrection. But we shall be relieved, perhaps, from this apparent difficulty by duly taking into view the manner of Luke.
The passage in the Acts (Act 1:1-12) actually goes over the same ground with this chapter, Luk 24:44-53. But if from the passage in Acts you strike out the two words “forty days,” you would suppose that the whole takes place on the day of the ascension; just as in the present Gospel passage you would suppose that all (ascension included) takes place upon the day of the resurrection. Transfer the words “forty days” to any place in the present passage which the syntax would allow, and you instantly see that the entire passage may as readily stretch over the forty days as the parallel passage in Acts. The “forty days,” therefore, explains both passages.
Some commentators suppose that Luk 24:43 terminates the Emmaus narrative, and that Luk 24:44-49 is a general summary of the teachings of Jesus during the “forty days.” Others extend the narrative and make the break at Luk 24:49. For reasons that will appear, we close the Emmaus narrative at Luk 24:45. In Luk 24:44 Jesus explains to them that the present events do but verify his past words and fulfil the Old Testament Scriptures. Luk 24:45, tied to Luk 24:44 by the then, avers that the Lord closed by opening their understanding to comprehend and digest at future leisure the Scripture fulfilments. Thus much looks to the past; what follows (Luk 24:46-49) looks to the future.
44. These are the words Words, by a Hebraism, signifies the things or events signified by the words. These refers to the events of his death, resurrection, and reappearance. No longer need the apostles doubt, when this whole train of strange events is but the fulfilment of his sayings and of the Scriptures.
‘And he said to them, “These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me.”
The first essential ingredient of the message of the early church was that fact that what they taught was based on the Scriptures. And this was Jesus’ emphasis here. He points out that while He was with them He had revealed that everything that was written about Him had to come to their full fruition. The word for ‘fulfilled’ indicates being ‘brought to completion’, being ‘filled full’. It is not just a question of them happening, they will happen to the full and bring God’s promises and purposes to completion.
Note especially His emphasis on ‘what is written’. Then in Luk 24:45 He speaks of ‘The Writings’ (the Scriptures), and again in Luk 24:46 He speaks of what is written. To Him the written word was clearly very important. He gave no place to the oral law (the traditions of the elders). In view of this we can hardly believe that the early church saw the writing down of Jesus own words as less important. It is probable therefore that they were recorded from the beginning by such people as the ex-public servant Matthew whose business record keeping had been. Those records were probably one of the sources from which Luke derived Jesus’ teaching.
(When Papias said that he preferred the living voice to what was written what he, of course, meant was that he preferred going to the source rather than receiving it second hand. He wanted to hear it first hand. He was not talking about what Justin Martyr later called ‘the memoirs of the Apostles’ which would be first hand).
‘Which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me.” Jesus saw the whole of the Old Testament as pointing to Himself. Compare commentary on Luk 24:27 which see for examples of His applications.
Jesus then defines the Scriptures as ‘ the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms’. The first refers to the first five books of the Old Testament which were seen as the Law of Moses, the second to the prophetic writings which included Joshua to Kings excluding Ruth, and what we call the prophets from Isaiah to Malachi (excluding Lamentations). The only question is as to whether Daniel was included with the prophets or was included with the third section, the ‘holy writings’. There seem to have been differences of opinion. But whichever way it was Jesus clearly used it as Scripture, for it is the source of some of His teaching concerning the Son of Man. ‘The psalms’, which were the largest book in the third section of Scripture, ‘the other writings’ (often later called the hagiographa), was a title often given to the whole of those writings which consisted of the remainder of the books in the Old Testament. Thus Jesus was aligning Himself with the Jewish canon and not including the Apocrypha or the other Apocalyptic writings as Scripture.
The New Message And The New Power (24:44-51)
In Mar 1:15 the Gospel is summarised as, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the Kingly Rule of God is at hand, repent and believe in the Good News.’ In other words ‘the time spoken of by Scripture is here, God’s Kingly Rule is at hand, and the conditions for entering that Kingly Rule are repentance and faith.’ In the speeches in Acts this is expanded by introducing the Good News concerning Jesus into the pattern, for by His enthronement in Heaven He has become the essence of the Kingly Rule of God. He has become the King. But otherwise the message follows a similar pattern. (See The Speeches in Acts).
The same pattern is now revealed in the closing verses of Luke. In accordance with it we are told that the Scriptures must be fulfilled (Luk 24:44-45), a brief summary of the work of Jesus is given describing His death and subsequent rising to God in resurrection (Luk 24:46), and this is then followed by the call to repentance and forgiveness (Luk 24:47). Here then is the pattern of early preaching in miniature, and the basis on which Peter patterned his own messages, following the example of Jesus Himself, and building on the experience that he had had during Jesus’ earthly ministry. This is the content of the message to which the Apostles are to be witnesses (Luk 24:48). All that is then required is for them to wait to receive power from above with which to carry out the task (Luk 24:49). This is then followed by Jesus’ final farewell and ascension into Heaven (Luk 24:50-51).
The New Message And The New Power; A Final Summary Preparing For Acts (24:44-53).
Having presented what he sees as the ultimate revelation of the earthly Jesus in describing the appearance of Jesus to His Apostles Luke moves rapidly on to His ascension, ignoring most of what took place in the following days in his usual way. Instead he prepares for the opening chapters of Acts by revealing in microcosm the message that was to be preached by His Apostles. It is quite possible that by this time he was running out of space. But it is equally possible that he does not want to spoil the effects of the opening of the new story in Acts by providing too much information here.
Notice for example how Luke appears deliberately to avoid mention of the Holy Spirit here, while at the same time indicating the importance of awaiting His coming as ‘power from on high’. The patent coming of the Holy Spirit is to be the first emphasis of his new book. He also ignores the departure of the Apostles for Galilee after the seven day feast was ended. The revelation of the risen Jesus to His Apostles has been made, now the next thing is instruction as to what they are to do, and the ascension into Heaven, the explanation of which can be left to Acts.
We should not, however, that once the seven days of the feast were over, the return to Galilee is something that they would normally have done naturally even if Jesus had not told them to go there. So we should not be surprised to discover that they did so. But Luke ignores all the subsequent appearances in Galilee, for that would take his readers attention away from Jerusalem, and he feels that what he has said has been quite sufficient. He is not writing to sceptics who will analyse his account and compare it with that of others. He is finally proclaiming the truth of the resurrection, which he has adequately done. Now he wants attention to be concentrated on Jerusalem For Acts is to begin in Jerusalem (in accordance with Isa 2:2-4), and will gradually result in a move out from there, first to the wider locality, and then to Rome, the centre of the known world. So, ignoring the visit to Galilee, he takes up his brief narrative from when they return to Jerusalem in accordance with Jesus’ instructions, and are told to wait there until they receive the power from above, the power that is to come on them and endue them for what they have to do.
We will in fact learn at the beginning of Acts that there were forty days between Jesus first appearance to His Apostles and His final departure from them (Act 1:3), days which are unaccounted for by Luke, and about which he here gives us almost no information. All he does tell us is that during this time Jesus spoke to them of the Kingly Rule of God (Act 1:3). He was preparing them for their future.
That suggests that what now follows is to be read in that light. For the purpose of the book of Acts is to describe the story of the spread of the word concerning the Kingly Rule of God, which is in fact all about Jesus (Act 28:23; Act 28:31), from Jerusalem to Rome. Most of the information that he gives below is therefore preparation for this ministry in Acts.
Analysis.
a b Then He opened their mind, that they might understand the Scriptures (Luk 24:45).
c And He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luk 24:46).
d “You are witnesses of these things” (Luk 24:48).
c “And behold, I send forth the promise of My Father on you, but tarry you in the city, until you be clothed with power from on high” (Luk 24:49).
b And He led them out until they were over against Bethany, and He lifted up his hands, and blessed them, and it came to about that while He blessed them, He parted from them, and was carried up into heaven (Luk 24:50-51).
a And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, blessing God (Luk 24:52).
Note how in ‘a’ they learn that in Him the promises of the Scriptures concerning the Coming One have been totally fulfilled, and in the parallel, in response, they worshipped Him and rejoiced, and were continually in the Temple blessing God, a totally transformed community. In ‘b’ their minds were opened to understand the Scriptures (the equivalent of their special reception of the Holy Spirit in John, fulfilling the promises in the Upper Room) and in the parallel He blessed them and was carried up into Heaven before their eyes, which were opened to see His ascension. In ‘c’ He proclaims what their message is to be, that through His death and resurrection repentance and remission of sins has been made available to all, and is to be preached to all nations, and in the parallel they are told of the power from above that they will receive in order to fulfil this task. And centrally in ‘d’ they are informed that they it is their great privilege to be His witnesses.
Luk 24:44. In the law of Moses, and in the prophets, &c. The Old Testament was in those days divided into three parts; first, the law, which contained the five books of Moses; secondly, the hagiographa, which contained divine hymns and moral instructions, and went under the general title of the Psalms, because they were esteemed the most eminent, and were placed at the head of those writings; and thirdly, the prophets, which contained not only the books merely prophetical, but those likewise which were historical, written by prophetic men.
Luk 24:44 . ] after the eating; a continuation of the same scene. According to the simple narrative, it is altogether unwarrantable to place an interval between these two passages. [277] No impartial reader could do this, and how easy would it have been for Luke to give a hint to that effect!
. . .] these (namely, that I as ye have now convinced yourselves after my sufferings and death have actually arisen) are the words (in their realization , namely) which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, to wit, that all things must he fulfilled , etc. (the substance of the ). Jesus assuredly often actually said this to them, according to the substance generally. Comp. Luk 18:31 f., Luk 22:37 ; Mat 26:56 , and elsewhere.
.] for by death He was separated from them, and the earlier association with them was not, moreover, now again after the resurrection restored. [278]
. . . . ] certainly contains in itself that which is essential of the Jewish tripartite division of the Canon into law ( ), prophets ( ), and Hagiographa ( ). Under the law was reckoned merely the Pentateuch; under the prophets , Joshua, Judges , 1 James , 2 d Samuel, 1James , 2 d Kings ( ), and the prophets properly so called, except Daniel ( ); under the Hagiographa , all the rest of the canonical Scriptures, including Daniel, Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah (the two reckoned together as one book), and Chronicles. See Bava Bathra f. xiv. 2; Lightfoot, p. 900. Yet, according to the use of . and . elsewhere (comp. Luk 20:42 ) from the mouth of Jesus, it is not to be assumed that He by these two designations intended to express that definite literary historical extent of the , and the whole of the Hagiographa. He means the prophets proper who have prophesied of Him (Luk 24:25 ), from whom He certainly, moreover, did not think Daniel excluded (Mat 24:15 ); and by . , the actual Psalms in the accustomed sense as that portion of the Scripture in which, besides the law and the prophets, the Messianic prophecy is chiefly deposited. Moreover, observe the non-repetition of the article before . and . , whereby the three portions appear in their connection as constituting one whole of prophecy.
[277] But to say, with Ebrard, p. 596, that the passage vv. 44 49 depicts in general the whole of the teaching communicated to the disciples by Christ after His resurrection, is just as marvellous a despairing clutch of harmonistics. So also older harmonists, and even Grotius. Wieseler, in the Chronol. Synopse , p. 423 f., like Bengel and others, places between ver. 43 and ver. 44 the forty days , after the lapse of which ver. 44 ff. is spoken on the day of the ascension. But his proof depends on the presupposition that in the Gospel and in Act 1 . Luke must needs follow the same tradition in respect of the time of the ascension. The separation of ver. 44 from what precedes ought not only to have been prevented by the use of the (comp. on ver. 50), but also by the use of the , referring as it does to what goes before. Lange, L. J. II. 3, p. 1679, represents ver. 45, beginning with . . ., as denoting the forty days’ ministry of Jesus begun on that evening; for he maintains that the unfolding of the knowledge did not occur in a moment . But why not? At least there needed no longer time for that purpose than for the instructions of ver. 27. Rightly, Hofmann, Schriftbew . II. 2, p. 5, declares himself opposed to separations of that kind; nevertheless, he afterwards comes back to a similar arbitrary interpolation of the forty days in vv. 45 49. If the place for the forty days has first been found here, there is indeed sufficient room to place the direction of ver. 49, . . ., first after the return of the disciples from Galilee, as Lange does; but Luke does not, since he here absolutely excludes a withdrawal on their part to Galilee. Ewald rightly recognises ( Gesch. des Apost. Zeitalt . p. 93) that Luke limits all appearances of the Risen One to the resurrection Sunday. So also, impartially, Bleek, Holtzmann.
[278] Grotius well says: “nam tunc tantum illis aderat.”
“And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. (45) Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, (46) And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: (47) And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (48) And ye are witnesses of these things. (49) And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”
Though I venture not to enlarge on those very blessed words of the Lord Jesus Christ, for all comments must fail, in attempting to shew their full blessedness, yet I entreat the Reader to ponder deeply every sentence, and consider how the solemnity of the season, when Christ so addressed his disciples, rendered all he said peculiarly affecting. What a moment it must have been! What holy awe the disciples must have felt! How differently the words of Jesus must have operated upon their minds, to all his former discourses before his death; now they beheld him risen from the dead, and as coming from the other world to give them this endearing interview; and by opening their understanding, in giving them suitable apprehensions, both of the vast importance of his mission, and of his unceasing love towards them! And, as all the Lord Jesus then said had respect to his whole Church, as well as to them, the then representatives of his Church, I pray the Reader not to overlook the boundless grace and mercy of Jesus, when giving his parting commission to them, to go forth in his name, as soon as the Father’s promise of the Holy Ghost should descend upon them, and in particularly charging them to begin at Jerusalem! Observe, Reader! how the Lord manifested his watchful care over the still beloved city! Jesses had many whom the Father had given to him there. Those Jerusalem-sinners, whose hearts were to be called by sovereign grace on the then approaching day of Pentecost, were there; many of whom had joined the Scribes and Elders in his crucifixion, and were now triumphing in having shed his blood. Yet, to this Jerusalem, this slaughter-house of his Prophets, and himself also, Jesus will have the first proclamation of mercy in his death made! Oh! the riches of his grace! Oh! the boundless love of Christ, which passeth knowledge!
The Reader will, I hope, observe how Jesus hath expressed himself concerning the coming of the Holy Ghost. He calls him the promise of my Father. Sweet consideration! God the Holy Ghost, in one and the same moment is the promise of the Father, Christ’s promise, and the sovereign agent, God the Holy Ghost, in his own Almighty power, from his everlasting love, engaged in covenant offices. These things will appear more fully from the consultation of those numberless scriptures which refer to the subject. I beg the Reader to turn to a few in point. Isa 44:3-4 ; Joe 2:28 , etc. Isa 59:21 ; Joh 7:37-39 . and Joh 14:15 and Joh 16 Act 13:2-4 , etc.
XXXII
CHRIST’S APPEARANCES AND COMMISSIONS (CONTINUED)
Harmony, pages 228-231 and Mat 28:16-20 The next commission is found on page 228 of the Harmony, Matthew’s account, Mat 28:16-20 : “But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth, go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” By the side of it is Mark’s account, also a statement by Paul about five hundred being present. This is what is called the Great Commission. The points of it are: (1) Before he was put to death he appointed this place, a mountain in Galilee, for the assembling of his disciples; and Paul says five hundred brethren were there, and we have already seen that the women were there also. In his appearances to the women he told them to be present, so we must put the number at anywhere between five and six hundred. The gathering is a specially appointed one. He appointed the women after his resurrection to remind them of it. It was to be the gathering of the general body of his disciples apostles, other men and women. The supposable reasons for assembling them at this particular place are: (a) Most of his disciples were Galileans, and (b) by having this big gathering in Galilee, it would avoid creating a disturbance, for if a meeting had been held in Jerusalem, not so many could have attended, and there they would be liable to interruption by the excited people. (2) The next point is that this was the most eventful, far-reaching, important gathering of God’s people between his death and his ascension. (3) Let us analyze the Commission itself. Dr. Landrum once preached a sermon on the Commission, calling attention to the “alls”: (a) “all” authority; (b) go to “all” the nations; (c) observe “all things”; (d) “I am with you all the days,” as it is expressed in the margin.
The reference to the authority which he received is to show them that in telling them to do something, and so great a something, and so important a something, he had the authority to do it; “all authority” in heaven and on earth, is given unto him. That is because of his faithful obedience to the divine law, and particularly because he had expiated sin by his own death on the cross. Now he is to be exalted to be above all angels and men; the dominion of the universe is to be in his hands, and from this time on. It is so now. He today sits on the throne of the universe and rules the world; all authority in heaven and on earth is given unto him.
That is the question which always is to be determined when a man starts out to do a thing: “By what authority do you do this?” If you, on going out to preach, should be asked, “By what authority do you preach, and are you not taking the honor on yourself?” you answer that he sent you.
We are to see what he told them to do, and we will compare the Commission to a suspension bridge across a river. On one side of the river is an abutment, the authority of Jesus Christ. And at the other end of the bridge we will take this for the abutment: “And lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end of the age.” On one side of the river stands the authority, and on the other side stands the presence of Jesus Christ Christ in the Holy Spirit. That is to be until the end of the age. Suspended between these two, and dependent on these two, and resting on these two, is the bridge. Let us see exactly, then, what they are to do: First, to “go therefore.” The “therefore” refers to the authority; second, “make disciples of all the nations.” So there are three parts to this first item of the Commission: To go, what to go for, and to whom. If we are Missionary Baptists indeed, this Commission is the greatest of all authority.
One of the deacons, when I took charge of the First Baptist Church at Waco, said to me on one occasion, when I was taking up a foreign mission offering, “Brother Carroll, I am interested in helping you reach these Waco people, and I will help some on associational missions, and state missions, but when it comes to these Chinese and Japs, if you will just bring me one of them, I will try to convert him.” I said to him, “You don’t read your Commission right. You are not under orders to wait until somebody brings you a Jap; you are to go; you are the one to get up and go yourself. You can’t wrap up in that excuse.”
This Commission makes the moving on the part of the commissioned the people of God; they are to go to these people wherever they are. If they are Laplanders, go; if Esquimaux, go; if they are in the tropics, you must go there; if in the temperate region, you must go there; anywhere from the center of the earth to its remotest bounds. That is what makes it missionary one sent, and being sent, he goes. And we can’t send anybody unless he goes somewhere. The first thought, then, is the going. It does not say, “Make the earth come to you,” but “you are to go to them,” and that involves raising the necessary means to get you there. The command to go involves the means essential to going. That is the going law. If the United States shall send one of its diplomats to England, that involves the paying of the expenses of the going.
The next thing is, What are you to do when you get there? You are to make disciples. There are two words here in the Greek one, matheteusate , which means “to make disciples”; the other, didaskontes , which means “teaching.” You do not teach them first, but you make disciples out of them. Now come the questions: How make a disciple? What is discipleship? That will answer the other question, What is necessary to the remission of sins? When is a man a disciple? How far do you have to go in order to make him a disciple? The way to answer that question is to look at what John the Baptist and Christ did. The Gospel of John tells us that John the Baptist made and baptized disciples; that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John did. John made disciples before he baptized them; Jesus made disciples before he baptized them, not afterward. John did not baptize them before he made them disciples; he did not leave off the baptism after he disciplined them. The question of order here is one of great importance. There are three things to be done: (1) Make disciples; (2) baptize disciples; (3) then teach them all things whatsoever Christ commanded. And you must take them in their order. It is not worth while to try to teach a man to do everything that Jesus did when he refuses to be a disciple. Don’t baptize him before he is a disciple. You must not baptize him in order to make him a disciple; you must not attempt to instruct him in Christian duties until he is a disciple.
How important is the answering of that question: “How do you make a disciple?” John made disciples this way: Paul says that John preached repentance toward God, and that they should believe on Jesus to come, i.e., a man who has repented toward God and exercised faith in Jesus Christ, was a disciple; then John baptized him. The Pharisees came to be baptized, but John refused, saying to them: “Think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our Father: for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” “Do not think that entitles you to baptism; that does not at all entitle you to baptism; but you bring forth fruits worthy of your repentance, then I will baptize you, ye offspring of vipers.” And Jesus went forth and preached: “Repent ye, and believe the gospel.” So that from time immemorial the Baptists have contended that the terms of discipleship, or the terms of remission of sins, are repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said that he everywhere testified to both Greeks and Jews, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. I sometimes change that a little by putting first the contrition, or godly sorrow; the Spirit convicts a man, and under that conviction he becomes contrite, has godly sorrow; that contrition leads him to repentance; that leads him to faith, then he is a child of God, right there: “We are all the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”
This is a great part of your qualification to be a preacher that you know how to tell a man what to do to be saved; to know what to tell him. You don’t bury a man to kill him. Baptism is a burial. You bury dead men, but not till they are dead. Nor do you bury a live, raw sinner. You must wait till the Spirit kills him to sin.
Major Penn told of a man who had been lost in the woods. It was in the heat of the day, and he was very thirsty. Late in the day he found his way to a shady little nook, where, bursting from a rock, was a cool mountain spring, and hanging up over the spring was an old-fashioned gourd. He dipped that gourd in the spring and held the water up a little and let it run down his throat, and gloried in drinking out of a gourd. Major Penn made such an apt description of it that one man came up and said, “I’ll go and get me a gourd; that is the best drinking vessel; I know by the way you talk about it.” So he went to a farmer and asked for a gourd. The farmer picked him a green gourd. He cut off the top of it and dipped it into the water. He commenced sipping and drinking. When he discovered the bitter taste he asked, “What in the world is the matter with this gourd?” An old woman said to him, “Why, you were not such a fool as to drink out of a green gourd, were you? You let that gourd get thoroughly ripe; then open it, take out the insides, boil it, let it get dry, and it will be fit to drink out of.” Major Penn said to baptize a man a dry sinner is to bring him up a wet sinner, and it is like drinking out of a green gourd.
This is the answer to the question, What are the terms of discipleship, or, How do you make a disciple? He has godly sorrow. That godly sorrow leads him to repentance a change of mind; that leads him to the Saviour, and when he accepts Jesus Christ he is a child of God. Now you know how to approach a sinner, but don’t you put him under the water at the wrong time and with the wrong object in view.
This brings up another question: Who is to do this baptizing? Is the command here to be baptized, or is it to baptize? Which comes first? Any lawyer will tell you that the command to do a thing, in which you must submit to the act of another, must specify the authorized party to whom you must submit in that act. For example, suppose that after you had come to the United States from a foreign country, you speak to your friends and ask, “How did you settle in the United States?” They tell you that they took out naturalization papers. Then you meet a man and ask him, “Will you give me some naturalization papers?” He gives you the naturalization papers, and says, “You are a citizen of the United States.” Being now a citizen, you come up to vote, but the judge of the election says, “Are you a foreigner?” “Yes, I was till I was naturalized.” Then he asks for your papers. Looking at them he says, “Why, this man was not authorized to do it. The law tells how you shall be naturalized, and you have just picked up a fellow on the streets here that did not count at all.” The law tells us in every state who shall issue naturalization papers, otherwise the citizenship of the state would be vested in a “Tom-Dick-and-Harry” everybody and nobody. It is just that way about baptizing.
I know some who teach that the command is simply to be baptized. I said to one of them once, “Does it make any difference who does the baptizing?” “Well,” he said, “no it doesn’t; the command is simply to be baptized.” I said, “I will give you $100 if you will show me a command to be baptized, with no authorized administrator standing there to administer the ordinance.” “Well,” he said, “look at Paul’s case: Ananias said, ‘Arise and be baptized.’ ” I said, “Who sent Ananias? Ananias had authority from God to baptize Paul. Who sent Philip into the desert? The eunuch said, ‘Here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized?’ but there was the administrator talking to him, a sent administrator.”
And this question is thereby raised: Jesus ascended to heaven and vested this authority to disciple and to baptize, in whom? Here’s a big gathering, not apostles only, because here are five hundred besides those women. Not in that particular crowd alone, for he said, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”
There is no escape from it, that when he gave this Commission, he gave it to an ecclesiastical body the church. That is why the great church gathered. It is a perpetual commission. No man can deny that these disciples were acting representatively.
“But,” says one, “the Commission was given to the apostles.” But I say, “Where were the apostles?” Paul says that God set them in the church (1Co 12:28 ; Eph 4:11-16 ). He did not set anybody out in the woods. Ask those free lances who run out on the prairie, or in the woods, who set them.
God put these apostles, pastors, etc., in the church, and from the time that God gave this commission he has done the baptizing through the church. You cannot give it just in your own way or notion; you cannot just pick people up and put them in the creek, and say, “I baptize you.”
Here are the things that are essential to a valid baptism: (1) A man must be a disciple, a penitent believer in Jesus Christ; (2) The act of baptism, whatever that commission means. If it means to sprinkle, sprinkle them; if to pour, then pour; if to immerse, then immersion is the act. (3) The design or purpose: Why do it? If we baptize to “make a disciple” or in order that he may become a disciple; that he may be saved; that his sins be remitted, then I deny that it is baptism. It lacks the gospel design, or purpose. (4) It must be done by authority, and that authority is the church.
The church authorizes; the subject must be a disciple, and the act is immersion. The purpose is to make a public declaration, or confession, of faith in Jesus Christ, to symbolize the cleansing from sin, a memorial of Christ’s resurrection, and a pledge of the disciple.
According to your understanding of this commission you bring confusion into Israel, or keep it out.
While I was pastor in Waco, we received a member from another Baptist church. He heard me preach on this commission and came to me and said, “Look here, I want to preach; I believe I am called to preach, and the way you state that, I have not been baptized at all.” I said, “How is that?” “A Campbellite preacher baptized me.” “Did the Baptist church receive that baptism?” He said, “Yes.” I said, “Now suppose you want to preach, and you come before this church for ordination, and they find out that fact, they won’t ordain you. But suppose they did ordain you, wherever you go that would come up against you. They would say, ‘There is a man not scripturally baptized.’ It will hamper your whole ministerial life, and bring confusion into the kingdom of God.” “Well,” he said, “what ought I to do?” I said, “Don’t do anything until you are convinced it is the right thing to do. You study this again, and let me know what your conclusions are.” About a week after he came and said, “I don’t think I have been baptized: he baptized me to make me a disciple. I did not claim to have been a disciple before he baptized me.” “Well,” I said, “did it make you one?” He said, “I do not think it did.” So the blood you must reach before you reach the water. The way is the blood. It has to be applied before you reach the water. It must be reached before you can be saved. So, the blood is before the water. A preacher’s whole future depends on how he interprets this commission.
You will see by referring to the Harmony that Dr. Broadus puts Mark’s commission beside this great Commission on Matthew, thereby indicating that they refer to the same occasion. Assuming this to be correct, I do not discuss the commission of Mark except to say that the first eight verses of Mar 16 are in the manuscripts of Mark’s Gospel, but the latter part of this (Mar 16:9-20 ) which includes the statement, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,” is not in any of the ancient manuscripts. I have facsimiles of the three oldest manuscripts the Sinaitic, the Vatican, and the Alexandrian. Whenever those three agree as to what is the text of a passage we need not go further. It is usually right. But whenever those three leave out anything that is in the text, we may count it spurious. The best scholars among preachers never preach from Mar 16:9-20 , because it is so very doubtful as to whether it is to be received as Scripture. Dr. Broadus says it certainly does not belong to Mark’s Gospel, but that he believes it records what is true; and I am somewhat inclined to believe that too. I think it is true, though it was added by a later hand. Certainly, Mark did not write it. The manuscript evidence is against that part of it. Therefore, I do not consider this as a separate commission of our Lord.
We now take up the fourth commission, that is to say, the commission recorded by Luke, found in Luk 24:44-49 and 1Co 15:7 ; Harmony, pp. 229-230. The remarks upon this commission are these:
1. It is to the eleven apostles.
2. He introduces it by reminding them of his teachings before his death of the witness to him in the law, the prophets, and the psalms, especially concerning his passion, his burial, and his resurrection.
3. Especially to be noted is the fact that he gives them illumination that they may understand these scriptures, and shows the necessity of their fulfilment, in order to the salvation of men.
4. On this necessity he bases the commission here given, which is, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
5. He constitutes them his witnesses of these things.
6. He announces that he will send the promise of the Father, namely, the Holy Spirit, and commands them to wait at Jerusalem until they receive this power from on high to enable them to carry out the work of this commission.
7. The reader should note that, as in the commission recorded by John (Joh 20:22 ) he inspired them to write the New Testament Scriptures, so here he illumined their minds to understand the Old Testament Scriptures. Mark the distinction between inspiration and illumination: The object of inspiration is to enable one to speak or write infallibly; the object of illumination is to enable one to understand infallibly what is written.
8. Further note the unity of the Old Testament and New Testament Scriptures, and their equality in inspiration.
9. Note also the very important item that illumination settles authoritatively the apostolic interpretation of the Old Testament as to the true meaning of these Scriptures. As he inspired men to write the Old Testament, and inspired these men to write the New Testament, so now he illumines these men to understand the Old Testament and to interpret it correctly. In other words, as the Holy Spirit is the real author of the Old Testament, which he inspired, by illumination he shows these men just what he meant by those Old Testament writings. We cannot, therefore, put our unaided interpretation on an Old Testament passage against the Spirit’s own explanation of that passage by the illumination of the apostles’ minds. Due attention to this one fact would have prevented many false expositions of Old Testament Scriptures, particularly in limiting to national Israel what the Spirit spoke concerning spiritual Israel. Very many premillennial expositions of the Old Testament prophecies go astray on this point. They insist on applying to the Jews, as Jews, a great many prophecies which these illumined apostles saw referred to spiritual Israel, and not to fleshly Israel. In the same way do the expositions of the Old Testament passages by modern Jews and the limitations of meaning which destructive critics and other infidels put on the Old Testament Scriptures, go astray. It is wrong, and contrary to sane rules of interpretation, to say that you must not read into an Old Testament passage a New Testament meaning. In that way they wish to limit it to things back there only, but the Holy Spirit illumined the minds of the apostles to understand these Old Testament Scriptures better than the prophets that wrote them. Oftentimes the prophets did not know what they meant, and were very anxious to find out what they did mean. The meaning was revealed to New Testament prophets, and their minds illumined to understand them. I have just finished reading a book which as certainly misapplies about two dozen Old Testament prophecies as the sun shines. In other words, this book interprets them as a modern Jew would interpret them, and exactly contrary to what the apostles say these passages mean. When an illumined apostle tells us the meaning of an Old Testament passage, we must accept it, or else deny his illumination, one or the other. You have no idea how much you have learned if you let this one remark sink into your mind.
10. Yet again, you should especially note in this commission the inseparable relation between repentance and the remission of sins, or forgiveness. The first, repentance, must precede remission of sins, and the relation is constant and necessary in each case of all sin, whether against God, against the church, or against ourselves. If you read carefully Act 2:38 ; Act 3:19 ; Psa 51 , where the sin is against God, you find that a repentance of that sin is made a condition of forgiveness. Then if you read carefully Luk 17:3 and Mat 18:15-17 , where the sin is against ourselves or against the church, the law is, “If he repent, forgive him.”
I saw a notice in The Baptist Standard once where it was assumed that we must forgive a sin before the person who committed it against us has repented of the sin. That would make us out better than God, for God won’t do it. He won’t forgive sin against himself until there is repentance, and he says to Peter, concerning a brother’s trespass against a brother, that if he repent, forgive him. And in Mat 18:15 , it says, “If thy brother sin against thee, go right along and convict him of his sin, and if he hear thee thou hast gained thy brother; if he does not hear thee, tell it to the church; if he does not hear the church, then he is unto thee as a heathen man and a publican.” There are men who insist that you must forgive trespasses against you whether they are repented of or not, meaning that you must be in a forgiving and loving attitude; and that is correct. You must cultivate that spirit which at all times is ready to forgive when repentance comes. But the majority of people who take that position take it in order to get out of some very troublesome work resting on them, and that work is to go right along to convict a man of that sin. It is much easier to say, “I forgive,” and let him alone, than it is to go and show him that he has sinned, and lead him to repentance. And they thus dodge their duty. The largest part of the back-sliding in the church comes from that fact. “If thou seest thy brother sin, then what? Forgive him? No. If thou seest thy brother sin, whether it is a private offense or a general one, report it to the church? No, but go right along and convict him of that sin; and if you fail, take one or two brethren with you; if they fail, let the church try the case. If the church fails, forgive him? No. Let him be to thee a heathen man and a publican.” That is Bible usage.
On the other hand there are some people who rejoice in the thought that they do not have to forgive a man until he repents, and they keep right on hating him. You are not to hate him; you are to love him. You are to have toward him a keen desire to gain him, and under the spirit of that desire, the obligation to gain him is on you personally, and there is no excuse for you. God will not hold you guiltless if you see a brother sin on any point, whether against you, the church, or the state, and do not try to bring him to repentance. It is our duty, as Dr. Broadus puts it, “to go right along and not rave at him,” but convict him that he has sinned, saying, “Now brother, this is wrong, and I have come, not in the spirit of accusation, nor in a disciplinary manner, but as a brother interested in you, and with the earnest desire in my heart to make you see that wrong, and if you ever see it and get it on your conscience and repent and make amends, I will save my brother.”
He says that repentance and remission of sins shall be preached in all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Paul says about that, “I have testified everywhere, both to the Jews and to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The weakness of modern preaching is that the preachers leave repentance out.
So the modern churches leave out the faithful and loving labor which should always precede exclusion. Especially should you note in this commission the unalterable relation between repentance and remission, or forgiveness of sins. The first must precede the second, and the relation is constant and necessary in the case of all sin, whether against God, the church or against ourselves.
The fifth commission is the commission at his ascension. The scriptures bearing on this are: Act 1:6-12 ; Mar 16:19 ; Luk 24:50-53 , and the account of it is found in the Harmony on pages 229-231. Upon this last commission, given just before Jesus was taken up out of their sight, note:
Act 1:8 indicates a “gathering together,” different from any of the preceding ones, and at which they asked this question: “Dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Act 1:9 shows that the occasion of this commission was his ascension into heaven.
Act 1:15 implies that 120 were present at this time. This specific number necessitates that the occasion when 500 brethren were present, mentioned by Paul, must have been at the appointed mountain in Galilee, where the great commission to the church, recorded in Mat 28:16-20 , was given. A very distinguished scholar has said, “Maybe these five hundred brethren were present at the time of his ascension.” It could not be, because one hundred and twenty is given as the number. It could not even have been at any other time than at that appointed in Galilee, where most of his converts were, and where be could get together so large a number as that. The form of the commission here is: “Ye shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” That is the test for the Commission.
The place where the Commission was given is thus stated: “And he led them out until they were over against Bethany,” and “from the mount called Olivet.” Another commission was given at that place. The place from which he led them is the place of their gathering, to which they returned (Act 1:13 ), and they returned to Jerusalem, to the upper room, where were a multitude together, about 120. And then the writer gives the names of those who abode there, and Peter got up and spoke to these 120.
The commission to be his witnesses suggests the simplicity and directness of their work. I heard a preacher say once with reference to what he did when he went out to an appointment, “I snowed.” He said the Spirit was not with him, and it was just like s snow. Another preacher said, “I ‘hollered,’ and I ‘hollered.’ ” Preachers lose sight of one important function of their office, and that is to be witnesses. That is a simple thing to testify. You are to stand with uplifted hands, and with elbows on the Bible you are to witness before God and to bear witness to what you know to testify.
They were to testify to his vicarious passion, his burial, and his resurrection. Paul makes these three things the gospel. He says, “I delivered unto you first of all that which also I have received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day.” Of what they were eyewitnesses we will see a little later, in some other testimony.
We come now to his sixth commission. This commission is found in Act 9:15-16 ; Act 22:10-15 ; Act 26:15-18 ; Gal 1:15-16 ; Gal 2:7-9 . These scriptures give you the commission of Paul, on which note:
While both Peter and Paul, on proper occasion, preached to both Jews and Gentiles, yet we learn from Gal 2:7-9 that while the stress of Peter’s commission was to the circumcision, the stress of Paul’s commission was to the uncircumcision. He was pre-eminently the apostle to the Gentiles.
The elements of his commission may be gathered from all these scriptures cited. Read every one of them, and you will gather together the elements of his commission. Let us see what these elements were:
(a) He was set apart to his work from his mother’s womb, and divinely chosen.
(b) Personally he must suffer great things.
(c) He received the gospel which he was to preach by direct revelation from the risen Lord. He did not get it from reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Paul’s letters were written before the Gospels were written.
He did not have them to read. He did not go to Jerusalem to talk with them, but he went into Arabia, and therefrom ;the Lord himself, and from the site of the giving of the law, whose relation to the gospel he so clearly cited, he received direct from Jesus Christ the gospel which he wrote.
(d) He was chosen to bear the Lord’s name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.
(e) He was chosen to know God’s will, and to see and hear the Just One, and then to witness to all men what he saw and heard. Now, here comes in Paul as a witness, and this is a part of his commission: “What are you testifying to, Paul?” “I know God’s will; it was revealed to me; I saw Jesus; I saw him with these eyes; Jesus raised; I heard him; I heard his voice.” What next? “He saved my soul.”
One of the most effective sermons I ever preached was on this use that Paul makes of his Christian experience. Seven times in the New Testament Paul states his Christian experience, and for a different purpose every time. When he was arraigned before Agrippa he tells his Christian experience as recorded in Act 9 . In Act 22 , standing on the stairway, looking into the faces of the howling mob of murderous men, he states his Christian experience. Writing to the Romans, as is shown in Rom 7 , he tells his Christian experience. Writing to Timothy he does the same. The man is speaking as a witness.
In one of Edward Eggleston’s books there is an account of a pugnacious Methodist preacher, who was not only ready to preach the gospel, but to fight for the gospel also. On the way to a certain community two men waylaid him and said, “Mr. McGruder, if you will just turn your horse around and go back, we will let you alone, but if you persist in going to this place and interfering with our business, we are going to beat the life out of you.” So the preacher got down off the horse, saying, “I prefer to give you the beating,” and he whipped them both unmercifully. But he got his jaw broken, and that jaw being broken, he could not say a word. In the church he took his pencil and wrote to a sixteen-year-old boy and said, “Ralph, you have got to preach today.” Ralph said, “I have just been converted, you must remember.” “Do you want me to get up here and write a sermon in lead pencil to a crowd?” continued the preacher. “Well,” said Ralph, “I don’t know any sermon.” “If you break down on preaching,” said the preacher, “tell your Christian experience.” So Ralph got up and started to preaching a sermon, looking very much scared, for he had a terror, which was what we would call stage fright. At last he remembered the direction to tell his Christian experience, and the poor boy quit trying to be eloquent, or to expound the Scriptures that he knew very little about, and just told how the Lord Jesus Christ came to him, a poor orphan boy, an outlaw, and saved his soul, and that he wanted to testify how good God was to him. Before he got through there was sobbing all over the house, and a great revival broke out there.
I am telling these things to show that men are commissioned to bear witness, and while you cannot bear witness to facts that you do not know anything about, you can tell what you do know what God has done for you. David says, “Come, all ye that fear the Lord and I will tell you what great things he hath done for my soul, whereof I am glad.” In one of the prophecies concerning Jesus it is written: “I have not hid thy righteousnesses within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation; I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great assembly.”
(f) The fulness of Paul’s commission appears best in Act 26:16-18 , as follows: “Arise, and stand upon thy feet: for to this end have I appeared unto thee, to appoint thee a delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn: from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me.” Whenever you want to preach Paul’s sermon, take Paul’s commission and analyze it. Paul was speaking before Agrippa. Notice that besides witnessing, Paul wanted to open their eyes (they were spiritually blind) ; that they might turn from darkness to light (then they were in the dark) ; from the power of Satan unto God, (they were under the power of Satan); that they might receive the remission of sins (so that they were unpardoned; and to an inheritance among them that are sanctified (then they were without heritage). Analyze that commission and you will see what he was to do; he puts it all before you plainly in that scripture. So he said to Agrippa, “Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision,” i.e., he just went on and carried out that commission. That is the analysis of the commission of Paul.
The seventh and last commission is the special commission of John Rev 1:1-2 ; Rev 1:9-11 ; Rev 1:19 . This commission is unlike any other; but it is a commission. It is a commission, not to speak, but to write; and in it we have an account of the past tenses. “What did you see, John?” “Well, I saw one of the most wonderful things in this world.” And he tells about Jesus, and how he looked in his risen glory; about the candlesticks and the stars, and what they meant; and then, having thus told what he saw in the midst of the churches, and (see chap. 4) what he saw in heaven, he looks at the present things; the churches, as they are, and heaven as it is. Then follows the last part of his commission: “Write the things which are to come.”
QUESTIONS 1. On the Great Commission (Mat 28:16-20 ) answer: What evidence that this was at an appointed meeting? Where, and who were present?
2. What are the supposable reasons for assembling at this particular place?
3. How does this occasion rank in importance?
4. What is Dr. Landrum’s analysis of this commission?
5. What authority does Christ claim in giving this commission, why was this authority given him and what the pertinency of this statement of our Lord on this particular occasion?
6. Compare this commission to a suspension bridge.
7. What does the first part of the commission prescribe to be done, or what are the three parts of the first item?
8. What does this going involve? Illustrate.
9. After going, then what three things are commanded to be done and what is the order?
10. How make disciples, and what is the teaching and example of John the Baptist and Jesus on this point?
11. Who then must do the baptizing?
12. What are the essentials to a valid baptism?
13. What can you say of Mar 16:9-20 ?
14. To whom was the Commission, recorded in Luk 24:44-49 , given?
15. How does Christ introduce this commission?
16. What does he show in this commission to be a necessity in order to the salvation of men?
17. In this commission what does he say should be done?
18. What does he constitute the disciples in this commission?
19. What promise does he announce to them in this commission?
20. What special gift does he bestow upon the disciples here, what is the difference between inspiration & illumination, and what is the object of each?
21. What especially is noted relative to Old & New Testament Scriptures?
22. What very important question does this illumination settle and how?
23. What is the necessary & constant relation between repentance & forgiveness of sins, and what the application of this principle in the case of all sin?
24. What danger, on the other hand, does the author here warn against?
25. What weakness of modern preaching churches here pointed out?
26. Give the analysis of the Commission of our Lord at the ascension.
27. To whom was Paul especially commissioned to preach?
28. What are the six elements of this commission?
29. What was the condition of the people to whom he was sent as indicated in Act 26:16-18 ?
30. What was the special commission to John, and what is the analysis of it as given in Rev 1:1-2 ; Rev 1:9-11 ; Rev 1:19 ?
44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Ver. 44. And in the Psalms ] When a book is set forth, verses of commendation are often set before it. Christ by this one sentence hath more honoured and authorized the Book of Psalms, than all men could have done by their prefaces and eulogies prefixed thereunto. The Turks disclaim both Testaments, yet swear as solemnly by the Psalms of David as by the Koran of Mahomet.
44. ] Certainly, from the recurrence of , which implies immediate sequence, Luke, at the time of writing his Gospel, was not in possession of records of any Galilan appearances of the Lord, nor indeed of any later than this one. That he corrects this in Act 1 , shews him meantime to have become acquainted with some other sources of information, not however perhaps including the Galilan appearances (see Prolegg. to Luke, iv. 2).
The following discourse apparently contains a summary of many things said during the last forty days before the ascension; they cannot have been said on this evening; for after the command in Luk 24:49 , the disciples would not have gone away into Galilee. Whether the Evangelist regarded it as a summary, is to me extremely doubtful. Knowing apparently of no Galilan appearances, he seems to relate the command of Luk 24:49 , both here and in the Acts, as intended to apply to the whole time between the Resurrection and the descent of the Holy Ghost.
., ‘behold the realization of the words,’ &c.
. ] See ch. Luk 18:31-33 ; Luk 22:37 : Mat 26:56 alli [119] .; but doubtless He had often said things to them on these matters, which have not been recorded for us. So in Joh 10:25 , we have perhaps a reference to a saying not recorded.
[119] alli= some cursive mss.
This threefold division of the O.T. is the ordinary Jewish one, into the Law ( ), Prophets ( ), and Hagiographa ( ) the first containing the Pentateuch; the second Joshua, Judges, the four books of Kings, and the Prophets, except Daniel; the third the Psalms, and all the rest of the canonical books, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah being reckoned as one book, and the Chronicles closing the canon.
Luk 24:44-49 . Parting words . : it is at this point, if anywhere, that room must be made for an extended period of occasional intercourse between Jesus and His disciples such as Act 1:3 speaks of. It is conceivable that what follows refers to another occasion. But Lk. takes no pains to point that out. His narrative reads as if he were still relating the incidents of the same meeting. In his Gospel the post-resurrection scenes seem all to fall within a single day, that of the resurrection. , etc., these are the words. With Euthy. Zig. we naturally ask: which? ( ; and there he leaves it). Have we here the concluding fragment of a longer discourse not given by Lk., possibly the end of a document containing a report of the words of Jesus generally (so J. Weiss in Meyer)? As they stand in Lk.’s narrative the sense must be: these events (death and resurrection) fulfil the words I spoke to you before my death. If that be the meaning the mode of expression is peculiar. . . , etc.: Moses, Prophets, Psalms, a unity (no article before or ) = the whole O.T. canon. So most. Or, these three parts of the O.T. the main sources of the Messianic proof (Meyer, Hahn, etc.). The latter the more likely.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Luk 24:44-53
44Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; 47and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” 50And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51And it came about that while He was blessing them, He parted from them. 52And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53and were continually in the temple, praising God.
Luk 24:44-49 This account is found only in Luke.
Luk 24:44 “which are written about Me” This seems to be a summary statement of Jesus’ 40 day post-resurrection appearances (cf. Luk 24:25-26).
“Moses. . .Prophets. . .Psalms” These represent the three divisions of the Hebrew Canon: Law, Prophets, and Writings. This context says something of the Christocentric unity of the Old Testament (see E. W. Hengstenberg, Christology of the Old Testament).
“must be fulfilled” Jesus is found in the OT in symbol, type, and direct prophecy (cf. Mat 5:17 ff).
Luk 24:45 “He opened their minds” See note at Luk 24:31. Humanity cannot understand spiritual truths unaided by God. This is the task usually assigned to the Spirit (cf. Joh 14:16; Joh 16:8-15), but sometime attributed to Jesus (cf. Act 16:14).
Luk 24:46 “Thus it is written” This is a perfect passive indicative, which was a Hebrew idiom for asserting the inspiration of Scripture (cf. Luk 24:44).
“the Christ would suffer” “The Christ” is the Greek translation of “the Messiah” (see Special Topic at Luk 2:11). This truth was the stumbling block for the Jews (cf. 1Co 1:23; 1Co 2:2), but crucial for sacrificial redemption.
“rise again from the dead” Luk 24:46-47 are Luke’s Great Commission. The grammatical feature is the use of three aorist infinitives that describe Jesus’ mission.
1. He came to suffer, Luk 24:46 (cf. Luk 24:26)
2. He came to be raised from the dead, Luk 24:46 (cf. Luk 24:7)
3. He came that repentance and forgiveness of sin should be proclaimed, Luk 24:47 (cf. Act 5:31; Act 10:43; Act 13:38; Act 26:18)
See Special Topic at Luk 9:22.
“the third day” This was a predicted event (cf. Hos 6:2; Jon 1:17; Mat 12:40; Mat 16:4; 1Co 15:4). It probably relates to Jon 1:17.
Luk 24:47 This is the key purpose of Jesus’ mission. It fully reflects the heart, character, and purpose of God since Genesis 3. To miss this verse is to miss the main thrust of Christianity. Believers must keep the main thing the main thing (cf. Mat 28:18-20; Act 1:8). All else is secondary to this task of worldwide gospel proclamation. Evangelism is not an option, but a mandate!
“repentance” In Greek the term speaks of “a change of mind.” In Hebrew it speaks of “a change of action.” Both are involved. This is the negative aspect of salvation, as faith is the positive aspect (cf. Mar 1:15; Mar 6:12; Mat 4:12; Mat 11:20; Luk 13:3; Luk 13:5; Act 20:21). See Special Topic at Luk 3:3.
“forgiveness of sins” This theme is highlighted in Zacharias’ prophecy (cf. Luk 1:67-79). It is the meaning of Jesus’ name (YHWH saves, cf. Mat 1:21). Notice that “baptism” is not mentioned here (cf. Luk 11:4). This verse has often been called “Luke’s Great Commission” (cf. Mat 28:19-20).
“in His name” Jesus’ “name” is a Semitic idiom for
1. His power
2. His person
3. His authority
4. His character.
So it means both content and manner! Not only what we proclaim, but the lives of those who proclaim are crucial! See SPECIAL TOPIC: THE NAME OF THE LORD at Luk 9:48.
“to all the nations” This universal element must have surprised these Jewish believers. This very thing is predicted in Mat 28:14; Mat 28:19; Mar 13:10. Also note Isa 2:2-4; Isa 51:4-5; Isa 56:7; and see Special Topic at Luk 2:10.
Luk 24:48 Here is the Apostolic mandate (cf. Joh 15:27)! Luke accentuates this in Acts (cf. Act 1:8; Act 1:22; Act 2:32; Act 4:33; Act 5:32; Act 10:39; Act 10:41; Act 13:31).
Luk 24:49 “I am sending” The Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son. This verse shows Jesus’ authority in executing the Father’s will.
“the promise of My Father” This refers to the Holy Spirit (cf. John 14-16; Joh 20:22; Act 1:4). Every promise Jesus made to the Apostles in the Upper Room at the Last Supper was fulfilled on Resurrection Sunday!
“stay in the city” These were mostly Galilean people. They would not have stayed in hostile Jerusalem otherwise (cf. Act 1:4).
“clothed with power” Here this refers to the Pentecostal coming of the Spirit. It is an Aorist middle subjunctive.
It is a common biblical metaphor for the spiritual life (cf. Job 29:14; Psa 132:9; Isa 59:17; Isa 61:10; Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27; Eph 4:24; Col 3:10; Col 3:12). The spiritual life is as much a gift and empowering from God as is salvation, but it must be received and implemented (i.e., conditional covenant). It is not automatic! It is God’s will! He is God’s gift!
words. Plural of logos. See note on Mar 9:32. must. Same as “ought” (Luk 24:26). Compare Act 17:3.
were written = have been (and stand) written. Compare Luk 24:26, Luk 24:27.
the Law, &c. These are the three great divisions of the Hebrew Bible. See App-1and note on Mat 5:17.
Me. Christ is the one great subject of the whole Bible. Compare Isa 40:7. Joh 5:39. Act 17:3. 1Jn 5:20.
44.] Certainly, from the recurrence of , which implies immediate sequence, Luke, at the time of writing his Gospel, was not in possession of records of any Galilan appearances of the Lord, nor indeed of any later than this one. That he corrects this in Acts 1, shews him meantime to have become acquainted with some other sources of information, not however perhaps including the Galilan appearances (see Prolegg. to Luke, iv. 2).
The following discourse apparently contains a summary of many things said during the last forty days before the ascension;-they cannot have been said on this evening; for after the command in Luk 24:49, the disciples would not have gone away into Galilee. Whether the Evangelist regarded it as a summary, is to me extremely doubtful. Knowing apparently of no Galilan appearances, he seems to relate the command of Luk 24:49, both here and in the Acts, as intended to apply to the whole time between the Resurrection and the descent of the Holy Ghost.
., behold the realization of the words, &c.
.] See ch. Luk 18:31-33; Luk 22:37 : Mat 26:56 alli[119].; but doubtless He had often said things to them on these matters, which have not been recorded for us. So in Joh 10:25, we have perhaps a reference to a saying not recorded.
[119] alli= some cursive mss.
This threefold division of the O.T. is the ordinary Jewish one, into the Law (), Prophets (), and Hagiographa ()-the first containing the Pentateuch; the second Joshua, Judges, the four books of Kings, and the Prophets, except Daniel; the third the Psalms, and all the rest of the canonical books,-Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah being reckoned as one book, and the Chronicles closing the canon.
Luk 24:44. , He said) namely, on the day of the Ascension. See Luk 24:50, with which comp. Act 1:2; Act 1:5; Act 1:9.[273]-, as yet) It was a thing sad to hear of, before that it took place; but now most joyous, when it has taken place.- , …, in the law, etc.) Here we have the division of the Hebrew Bible [the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa],-, the Prophets) the former and later Prophets. It is in reference to the former ones, that the Prophets are put before the Psalms. As to the Twelve especially, see Sir 49:12.-, the Psalms) The Hagiographa, the foremost place in which is occupied by the Psalms, a remarkable portion of the Scriptures, in which also the subject of Christ and His kingdom is most copiously discussed. See note on Heb 10:8 [which quotes Psa 40:6, Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire-then said I, Lo, I come, etc.; proving the great authority of the Psalms].
[273] Verse 47, Beginning at Jerusalem. accords with Act 1:8, Ye shall be witnesses to Me, both in Jerusalem, etc., spoken just before the Ascension.-E. and T.
Luk 24:44-49
4. THE COMMISSION
Luk 24:44-49
44 And he said unto them, These are my words-Luke omits other appearances of Jesus during the forty days after his resurrection; he gives here a summary of what Jesus taught the disciples between his resurrection and ascension. The “and” here does not necessarily denote close connection, hut only a general continuation of the account and a brief statement of what Jesus said; this might be at different times before his ascension; here is given the substance of his last conversation with his disciples; it includes the commission. “All things must needs be fulfilled,” which had been prophesied of Jesus, or what had been “written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms.” This includes all of the Old Testament, for here is mentioned the three divisions into which the Hebrews divided the Old Testament. “The law of Moses” included the first five books, or Pentateuch; “the prophets” included the books of Joshua, Judges, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, three of the major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel), and the twelve minor prophets; “the psalms” included the poetical and all the other Old Testament books sometimes called “the scriptures.” (Joh 5:39.) This group contained, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and First and Second Chronicles. When Jesus declared that all things must be fulfilled which were written of him, he included the entire Old Testament.
45 Then opened he their mind,-Jesus taught his disciples that all that was written of him in the Old Testament was fulfilled; he took the different passages that referred to him and showed how they were fulfilled in him; in this way he “opened” “their mind,” so that they could understand. Some think that he gave them unusual power to perceive the truth of the “scriptures”; however, it is not necessary to infer that they needed any divine aid to understand his language. They could easily recall the bitter experience through which they had gone in the arrest, trials, crucifixion, and burial of Jesus; his resurrection was so fresh in their minds that they could now see the meaning of the Old Testament passages. They had been slow and dull in understanding these truths, but now their minds were clear on these things. The Holy Spirit afterward brought these teachings to their remembrance. The doctrine of the Old Testament scriptures with regard to the suffering, dying, rising of the Messiah, they now understood.
46, 47 and he said unto them, Thus it is written,-It was according to the divine plan that Christ should die and rise again; God in his wisdom had seen it necessary for his own highest glory, and had so arranged the sacred plan from the beginning. There seems to be no direct quotation given here; but the divine plan was carried out. (See Isaiah 53; Hos 6:2.) “Thus it is written” is a general expression meaning that it was written in the scripture that the things which had taken place concerning him had been predicted; it was “written” that it should be so, and it was necessary therefore that it should he. If Christ had not suffered and risen again, the scriptures would not have been fulfilled. “Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nation.” These words are a brief summary of the doctrine of the gospel; they constitute the commission that Jesus gave to his disciples. The necessity of repentance and the promise of remission of sins are included in the gospel. The gospel was to be preached by the authority of Christ “unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” The risen Lord here not only pointed out that the Old Testament predicted his suffering, his death, and his resurrection, but he also found in the Old Testament the preaching of repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations. Two things were taught here; first, the apostles and first proclaimers of the gospel should not shrink from offering salvation to the greatest sinner; they were not to regard even the city where Jesus was crucified as hopelessly wicked, and too bad to be benefited by the gospel; the Jewish leaders who crucified Jesus were to have opportunity of hearing the gospel and being saved. The second lesson learned here is that the first offer of the terms of the gospel should be made to the Jews.
48, 49 Ye are witnesses of these things.-The apostles had been with him from the beginning, “all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and went out among us.” (Act 1:21.) They were to go forth and testify to all men the things which they had seen and been taught they were to commit the same to faithful men, record it in the gospels, epistles, and pass them on to others. One duty of these disciples was to be witnesses for Christ; he did not send forth orators or enthusiasts, but simply teachers who would bear faithful witness to all that they had seen. They are promised the Holy Spirit which should come to them. They are instructed to “tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high.” God had promised in the Old Testament prophecies to send the Holy Spirit which came on the day of Pentecost. (Isa 44:3; Jer 31:33-34; Eze 36:27; Joe 2:28.) This shows the certainty of the coming of the Holy Spirit; it should be noted that Jesus said: “I send forth,” which can refer only to a person. It should further be noted that the risen Lord here unites himself with God the Father in sending the Holy Spirit. They were to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came; they were to “be clothed” with power from God. “Clothed” literally means to be “invested with” something which one did not naturally possess. (Rom 13:14; 1Co 15:53; Gal 3:27; Col 3:9-10.) The command for them to tarry in Jerusalem was repeated just before his ascension. (Act 1:4.)
Witnesses of These Things
Luk 24:44-53
The risen Savior is the key to Scripture. The pages of Holy Writ need the illumination that falls from His face. Whenever you open the Old Testament, described here under its customary Hebrew threefold division, be sure to ask Him to open your understanding also!
Repentance is turning from sin. It is the act of the will. In remitting sin Christ not only forgives, but stands between the sinner and the consequences.
The beginning must be Jerusalem, because the Jew is first in the divine order, Rom 1:16. But the end is the uttermost part of the earth. We are not called to be defenders, but witnesses of the truth. We speak what we know and testify what we have seen. Our fellow-witness is the Holy Spirit, Act 5:32.
Those outspread hands have never been withdrawn. They are still extended over us in benediction, and from heaven itself rain down perennial Messing. Let us rejoice in Him with great joy; may each lowly home be a temple full of praise!
For Review Questions, see the e-Sword Book Comments.
psalms
See Summary, (See Scofield “Psa 118:29”).
These: Luk 24:6, Luk 24:7, Luk 9:22, Luk 18:31-33, Mat 16:21, Mat 17:22, Mat 17:23, Mat 20:18, Mat 20:19, Mar 8:31, Mar 8:32, Mar 9:31, Mar 10:33, Mar 10:34
while: Joh 16:4, Joh 16:5, Joh 16:16, Joh 16:17, Joh 17:11-13
that all: Luk 24:26, Luk 24:27, Luk 24:46, Luk 21:22, Mat 26:54, Mat 26:56, Joh 19:24-37, Act 3:18, Act 13:29-31, Act 13:33, 1Co 15:3, 1Co 15:4
in the law: Gen 3:15, Gen 14:18, Gen 22:18, Gen 49:10, Lev 16:2-19, Num 21:8, Num 35:25, Deu 18:15-19, Joh 3:14, Joh 5:46, Act 3:22-24, Act 7:37, Heb 3:5, Heb 7:1, Heb 9:8, Heb 10:1
in the prophets: Luk 24:27, Isa 7:14, Isa 9:6, Isa 11:1-10, Isa 28:16, Isa 40:1-11, Isa 42:1-4, Isa 49:1-8, Isa 50:2-6, Isa 52:13-15, Isa 53:1-12, Isa 61:1-3, Jer 23:5, Jer 33:14, Eze 17:22, Eze 34:23, Dan 2:44, Dan 7:13, Dan 9:24-27, Hos 1:7-11, Hos 3:5, Joe 2:28-32, Amo 9:11, Mic 5:1-4, Hag 2:7-9, Zec 6:12, Zec 9:9, Zec 11:8-13, Zec 12:10, Zec 13:7, Zec 14:4, Mal 3:1-3, Mal 4:2-6
in the psalms: Psa 2:1-12, Psa 16:9-11, Psa 22:1-31, Psa 40:6-8, Psa 69:1-36, Psa 72:1-20, 88:1-18; Psa 109:4-20, Psa 110:1-7, Psa 118:22, Joh 5:39, Act 17:2, Act 17:3, 1Pe 1:11, Rev 19:10
Reciprocal: 2Sa 23:1 – sweet psalmist Psa 40:7 – in the Isa 44:26 – confirmeth Dan 11:33 – understand Mat 1:22 – that Mat 2:15 – that Mat 4:14 – it Mat 11:13 – General Mat 12:17 – it Mat 17:3 – Moses Mat 22:29 – not Mat 28:6 – as Mar 4:34 – when Mar 9:4 – appeared Mar 14:21 – goeth Mar 14:49 – but Mar 16:19 – after Luk 1:70 – which Luk 9:30 – which Luk 9:44 – for Luk 20:17 – What Luk 20:42 – himself Luk 22:37 – this Joh 1:45 – General Joh 2:22 – his Joh 10:35 – the scripture Joh 14:30 – I Joh 15:25 – the Joh 18:4 – knowing Joh 20:9 – they Act 1:3 – speaking Act 1:20 – in Act 2:23 – being Act 2:30 – being Act 4:28 – to do Act 8:30 – Understandest Act 8:35 – began Act 9:22 – proving Act 9:39 – while Act 10:43 – him Act 13:27 – nor Act 17:11 – and searched Act 18:28 – convinced Act 24:14 – believing Act 26:22 – none Act 28:23 – both Rom 3:21 – being Rom 16:26 – according 2Co 3:14 – which veil Eph 4:10 – fill 2Th 3:10 – when Heb 1:1 – at Heb 8:2 – minister 1Pe 1:10 – which 2Pe 3:2 – ye may Rev 10:7 – as he
4
Some commentators think this verse goes over the interval of forty days, to the time of the ascen-sion. That idea seems reasonable to me as it applies to most of the remaining verses. However, Act 1:3 tells us He was with his apostles throughout the forty days, during which time He spoke to them about these great subjects. Doubtless Jesus concluded His 40-day period of teaching with the verses from this through the end of the chapter, and I shall comment upon the verses in their order, with our minds centered on the last hours of the Saviour with the apostles. The law and prophets and the Psalms is one classification of the parts of the Old Testament, all of which contained prophecies of Christ. (See Deu 18:18-20 for the law; Isaiah 53 for the prophets, and the Psa 16:8-10 for the Psalms.)
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
[In the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms.] It is a known division of the Old Testament into the Law, the Prophets, and the Holy writings.
I. The books of the law and their order need not be insisted upon, commonly called by us, the Pentateuch; but by some of the Rabbins, the Heptateuch; and by some Christians, the Octateuch. “R. Samuel Bar Nachman saith, R. Jonathan saith, ‘Wisdom hath hewn out her seven pillars.’ These are the seven books of the law.” But are there not but five books only? “Ben Kaphra saith, The Book of Numbers is made three books. From the beginning of the book to And it came to pass when the ark set forward [Num 10:35], is a book by itself. That verse Num 10:35 and the following is a book by itself: and from thence to the end of the book is a book by itself”…
Eulogius, speaking concerning Dosthes or Dositheus, a famous seducer of the Samaritans, hath this passage: He adulterated the Octateuch of Moses with spurious writings, and all kind of corrupt falsifyings. There is mention also of a book with this title, The Christians’ Book, an Exposition upon the Octateuch. Whether this was the Octateuch of Moses it is neither certain nor much worth our inquiry; for Photius judgeth him a corrupt author: besides that it may be shewn by and by, that there was a twofold Octateuch besides that of Moses. Now if any man should ask, how it come to pass that Eulogius (and that probably from the common notion of the thing) should divide the books of Moses into an Octateuch; I had rather any one else than myself should resolve him in it. But if any consent that he owned the Heptateuch we have already mentioned, we should be ready to reckon the last chapter of Deuteronomy for the eighth part.
Aben Ezra will smile here, who in that his obscure and disguised denial of the books of the Pentateuch, as if they were not writ by the pen of Moses, instances, in that chapter in the first place, as far as I can guess, as a testimony against it. You have his words in his Commentary upon the Book of Deuteronomy, a little from the beginning, But if you understand the mystery of the twelve; etc., i.e. of the twelve verses of the last chapter of the book (for so his own countrymen expound him), “thou wilt know the truth”; i.e. that Moses did not write the whole Pentateuch; an argument neither worth answering, nor becoming so great a philosopher. For as it is a ridiculous thing to suppose that the chapter that treats of the death and burial of Moses should be written by himself, so would it not be much less ridiculous to affix that chapter to any other volume than the Pentateuch. But these things are not the proper subject for our present handling.
II. There also was an Octateuch of the prophets too: “All the books of the prophets are eight; Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the twelve.” For the historical books also were read in their synagogues under the notion of the prophets, as well as the prophets themselves, whose names are set down. You will see the title prefixed to them in the Hebrew Bibles, The former prophets; as well as to the others, The latter prophets. The doctors give us the reason why they dispose the prophets in that order, that Jeremiah is named first, Ezekiel next, and Isaiah last, which I have quoted in notes upon Mat 27:9; and let not the reader think it irksome to repeat it here.
“Whereas the Book of Kings ends in destruction, and the whole Book of Jeremiah treats about destruction; whereas Ezekiel begins with destruction, and ends in consolation; and whereas Isaiah is all in consolation, they joined destruction with destruction, and consolation with consolation.”
III. The third division of the Bible is entitled the Holy Writings. And here also is found an Octateuch by somebody (as it seems), though I know not where to find it.
“Herbanus the Jew was a man excellently well instructed in the law, and holy books of the prophets, and the Octateuch, and all the other writings.” What this Octateuch should be, distinct from the law and the prophets, and indeed what all the other writings besides should be, is not easily guessed. This Octateuch perhaps may seem to have some reference to the Hagiographa; or Holy Writings; for it is probable enough that, speaking of a Jew well skilled in the Holy Scriptures, he might design the partition of the Bible according to the manner of the Jews’ dividing it: but who then can pick out books that should make it up? Let the reader pick out the eight; and then I would say, that the other four are all the other writings. But we will not much disquiet ourselves about this matter.
It may be asked, why these books should be called the Scriptures; when the whole Bible goes under the name of the Holy Scriptures. Nor can any thing be more readily answered to this, than that by this title they would keep up their dignity and just esteem for them. They did not indeed read them in their synagogues, but that they might acknowledge them of most holy and divine authority, out of them they confirm their traditions, and they expound them mystically; yea, and give them the same title with the rest of the Holy Scriptures.
“This is the order of the Hagiographa; Ruth, the Book of Psalms, Job, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Canticles, the Lamentations, Daniel, the Book of Esther, Ezra, and the Chronicles.” It is here disputed, that if Job was in the days of Moses, why then is not his book put in the first place? The answer is, They do not begin with vengeance or affliction; and such is that Book of Job. They reply, Ruth also begins with affliction; viz. with the story of a famine, and the death of Elimelech’s sons. “But that was (say they) an affliction that had a joyful ending.” So they might have said of the book and affliction of Job too. We see it is disputed there, why the Book of Ruth should be placed the first in that rank, and not the Book of Job. But we might inquire, whether the Book of Psalms ought not to have been placed the first, rather than the Book of Ruth.
IV. In this passage at present before us, who would think otherwise but that our Saviour alludes to the common and most known partition of the Bible? And although he name the Psalms only, yet that under that title he includes that whole volume. For we must of necessity say, that either he excluded all the books of that third division excepting the Book of Psalms, which is not probable; or that he included them under the title of the Prophets; which was not customary; or else that under the title of the Psalms he comprehended all the rest. That he did not exclude them, reason will tell us; for in several books of that division is he himself spoken of, as well as in the Psalms: and that he did not include them in the title of the Prophets reason also will dictate: because we would not suppose him speaking differently from the common and received opinion of that nation. There is very little question, therefore, but the apostles might understand him speaking with the vulgar; and by the Psalms to have meant all the books of that volume, those especially wherein any thing was written concerning himself. For let it be granted that Ruth, as to the time of the history and the time of its writing, might challenge to itself the first place in order (and it is that kind of priority the Gemarists are arguing), yet, certainly, amongst all those books that mention any thing of Christ, the Book of Psalms deservedly obtains the first place; so far that in the naming of this the rest may be understood. So St. Matthew, Mat 27:9, under the name of Jeremiah; comprehends that whole volume of the Prophets; because he was placed the first in that rank: which observation we have made in notes upon that place.
LET us observe, firstly, in these verses, the gift which our Lord bestowed on His disciples immediately before He left the world. We read that He “opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures.”
We must not misapprehend these words. We are not to suppose that the disciples knew nothing about the Old Testament up to this time, and that the Bible is a book which no ordinary person can expect to comprehend. We are simply to understand that Jesus showed His disciples the full meaning of many passages which had hitherto been hid from their eyes. Above all, He showed the true interpretation of many prophetical passages concerning the Messiah.
We all need a like enlightenment of our understandings. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1Co 2:14.) Pride, and prejudice, and love of the world blind our intellects, and throw a veil over the eyes of our minds in the reading of the Scriptures. We see the words, but do not thoroughly understand them until we are taught from above.
He that desires to read his Bible with profit, must first ask the Lord Jesus to open the eyes of his understanding by the Holy Ghost. Human commentaries are useful in their way. The help of good and learned men is not to be despised. But there is no commentary to be compared with the teaching of Christ. A humble and prayerful spirit will find a thousand things in the Bible, which the proud, self-conceited student will utterly fail to discern.
Let us observe secondly in these verses, the remarkable manner in which the Lord Jesus speaks of His own death on the cross. He does not speak of it as a misfortune, or as a thing to be lamented, but as a necessity. He says “It behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again the third day.”
The death of Christ was necessary to our salvation. His flesh and blood offered in sacrifice on the cross were “the life of the world.” (Joh 6:51.) Without the death of Christ, so far as we can see, God’s law could never have been satisfied,-sin could never have been pardoned,-man could never have been justified before God,-and God could never have shown mercy to man. The cross of Christ was the solution of a mighty difficulty. It untied a vast knot. It enabled God to be “just, and yet the justifier” of the ungodly. (Rom 3:26; Rom 4:5.) It enabled man to draw near to God with boldness, and to feel that though a sinner he might have hope. Christ by suffering as a Substitute in our stead, the just for the unjust, has made a way by which we can draw near to God. We may freely acknowledge that in ourselves we are guilty and deserve death. But we may boldly plead, that One has died for us, and that for His sake, believing on Him, we claim life and acquittal.
Let us ever glory in the cross of Christ. Let us regard it as the source of all our hopes, and the foundation of all our peace. Ignorance and unbelief may see nothing in the sufferings of Calvary but the cruel martyrdom of an innocent person. Faith will look far deeper. Faith will see in the death of Jesus the payment of man’s enormous debt to God, and the complete salvation of all who believe.
Let us observe, thirdly, in these verses, what were the first truths which the Lord Jesus bade His disciples preach after He left the world. We read that “repentance and remission of sins” were to be preached in His name among all nations.
“Repentance and remission of sins” are the first things which ought to be pressed on the attention of every man, woman, and child throughout the world.-All ought to be told the necessity of repentance. All are by nature desperately wicked. Without repentance and conversion, none can enter the kingdom of God. All ought to be told God’s readiness to forgive every one who believes on Christ. All are by nature guilty and condemned. But any one may obtain by faith in Jesus, free, full, and immediate pardon.-All, not least, ought to be continually reminded, that repentance and remission of sins are inseparably linked together. Not that our repentance can purchase our pardon. Pardon is the free gift of God to the believer in Christ. But still it remains true, that a man impenitent is a man unforgiven.
He that desires to be a true Christian, must be experimentally acquainted with repentance and remission of sins. These are the principal things in saving religion. To belong to a pure Church, and hear the Gospel, and receive the sacraments, are great privileges. But are we converted? Are we justified? If not, we are dead before God. Happy is that Christian who keeps these two points continually before his eyes! Repentance and remission are not mere elementary truths, and milk for babes. The highest standard of sanctity is nothing more than a continual growth in practical knowledge of these two points. The brightest saint is the man who has the most heart-searching sense of his own sinfulness, and the liveliest sense of his own complete acceptance in Christ.
Let us observe, fourthly, what was the first place at which the disciples were to begin preaching. They were to begin “at Jerusalem.”
This is a striking fact, and one full of instruction. It teaches us that none are to be reckoned too wicked for salvation to be offered to them, and that no degree of spiritual disease is beyond the reach of the Gospel remedy. Jerusalem was the wickedest city on earth when our Lord left the world. It was a city which had stoned the prophets and killed those whom God sent to call it to repentance. It was a city full of pride, unbelief, self-righteousness, and desperate hardness of heart. It was a city which had just crowned all its transgressions by crucifying the Lord of glory. And yet Jerusalem was the place at which the first proclamation of repentance and pardon was to be made.-The command of Christ was plain;-“Begin at Jerusalem.”
We see in these wondrous words, the length, and breadth, and depth, and height of Christ’s compassion toward sinners. We must never despair of any one being saved, however bad and profligate he may have been. We must open the door of repentance to the chief of sinners. We must not be afraid to invite the worst of men to repent, believe, and live. It is the glory of our Great Physician, that He can heal incurable cases. The things that seem impossible to men are possible with Christ.
Let us observe, lastly, the peculiar position which believers, and especially ministers, are meant to occupy in this world. Our Lord defines it in one expressive word. He says, “Ye are witnesses.”
If we are true disciples of Christ, we must bear a continual testimony in the midst of an evil world. We must testify to the truth of our Master’s Gospel,-the graciousness of our Master’s heart,-the happiness of our Master’s service,-the excellence of our Master’s rules of life,-and the enormous danger and wickedness of the ways of the world. Such testimony will doubtless bring down upon us the displeasure of man. The world will hate us, as it did our Master, because we “testify of it, that its works are evil.” (Joh 7:7.) Such testimony will doubtless be believed by few comparatively, and will be thought by many offensive and extreme. But the duty of a witness is to bear his testimony, whether he is believed or not. If we bear a faithful testimony, we have done our duty, although, like Noah and Elijah, and Jeremiah, we stand almost alone.
What do we know of this witnessing character? What kind of testimony do we bear? What evidence do we give that we are disciples of a crucified Savior, and, like Him, are “not of the world”? (Joh 17:14.) What marks do we show of belonging to Him who said, “I came that I should bear witness unto the truth”? (Joh 18:37.) Happy is he who can give a satisfactory answer to these questions, and whose life declares plainly that he “seeks a country.” (Heb 11:14.)
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Notes-
v44.-[These are the words, &c.] This expression must be paraphrased, in order to give the full meaning of it. Alford renders it “Behold the realization of the words.”-It signifies, “You now see actually fulfilled, the words which I so often spake to you, saying that the predictions about my sufferings must be accomplished. You could not then believe that I was really going to suffer and afterwards rise again. You see now that it was true.”
[Must be fulfilled.] The Greek word here translated “must,” is the same that is rendered “ought” in Luk 24:26, and “behoved” in Luk 24:46.
[Law of Moses…prophets…Psalms.] It should be remembered that this threefold division was the Jewish division of the Old Testament. They classed all its contents under these three heads.
“When our Lord speaks of the things in the “law of Moses” concerning Himself, there can be little doubt that He points to all the types and figures which were emblems of Himself, and specially to the sacrifices.
v45.-[Opened he their understanding, &c.] We are taught here that the minds of the disciples had been closed by prejudice and traditional interpretations. Our Lord opened the doors and windows of their minds, and let in the light.
Poole remarks, “He did not open their understanding without the Scripture; He sends them thither. He knows that Scripture would not give them a sufficient knowledge of the things of God, without the influence and illumination of His Spirit. They are truly taught by God who are taught by His Spirit to understand the Scriptures. Christ gives great honor to the Scriptures. The devil cheats those whom he persuades to cast away the Scriptures in expectation of a teaching by the Spirit. The Spirit teaches by, not without, not contrary to, the Holy Scriptures.”
Cornelius Lapide tries in vain to argue from this verse that the laity cannot understand the Bible without the teaching of the Church, that the Bible is not suited for the laity, and that the apostles had the knowledge of the Scriptures specially intrusted to them.-There is not the slightest proof that the apostles alone had their “understandings opened” on the present occasion. On the contrary, the context distinctly tells us that those who were here assembled were the apostles and “they that were with them.”- Moreover, the fact that our Lord opened the understandings of all, is a plain proof that all, whether apostles or not, require teaching from above, and that Christ is able, ready, and willing to give it to all, whether apostles or not, as long as the world stands.
v46.-[Thus it is written.] This is a general expression, signifying ‘It was written in Scripture that things concerning me should take place in the way in which they have taken place.’ It was “written” that it should be so, and it was necessary, or “behoved” therefore that so it should be. If Christ had not suffered and risen again, Scripture would not have been fulfilled. The chief reference here, no doubt, is to Isa 53:1-12. Psa 22:1-31. and Dan 9:26.
[Rise from the dead the third day.] The question has been raised here, “Where does the Old Testament say that Christ should rise again the third day”? Pearce remarks that it does not appear, unless in Hos 6:2, and Jon 1:17.-I am not however convinced that either here or in 1Co 15:4, it was intended that we should lay stress on the third day, in understanding the sentence. The meaning of the verse seems to me to be simply, “that it was written, and was therefore necessary, that Christ should suffer and rise again.” I cannot see that the sense obliges us to find an Old Testament prediction about the third day. Even if it did, I feel no doubt that there are more passages to prove it than any one has yet discovered. There is a depth of meaning in the Old Testament, I suspect, with reference to Christ, which no one has yet fully fathomed.
v47.-[And that.] The governing words here, we must remember, are still, “it is written, and was therefore necessary that,” &c.
[Repentance and remission of sins.] These words are a brief summary of the main doctrines of the Gospel. The necessity of repentance, and the possibility of remission,-the willingness of God to grant repentance unto life, and the full provision made by Christ for the pardon of man’s sins, were to be proclaimed and published like a notice given publicly by a herald. And all was to be done “in Christ’s name.” That expression is the leading one in the whole sentence. It signifies, “By the authority of Christ,” and “Through the merit and mediation of Christ.” Both ideas are included.
No Christian teaching, be it remembered, is scriptural and sound which does not give the principal place to these two great doctrines.
[Among all nations.] The Greek words here would be equally well translated, “Among all Gentiles.” And considering that “Jerusalem” is brought in at the end of the verse, it is highly probable that this was the idea intended to be conveyed. The Gospel was to be preached to Gentiles as well as Jews.
[Beginning at Jerusalem.] This expression taught two things. One was, that the Apostles and first preachers of the Gospel should not shrink from offering salvation to the worst and greatest sinners. They were not to regard even the city where their Master was crucified as hopelessly wicked, and too bad to be benefited by the Gospel. The result showed that this command was not given without cause. The greatest triumph ever won by the Gospel, perhaps, was the conversion of three thousand Jerusalem hearers on the day of Pentecost.-The other lesson was that the first offer of salvation should always be made to the Jews. Hardened, unbelieving as they were, they were still “beloved for the Father’s sake,” and were not to be despised. (Rom 11:28.)
The Acts of the Apostles, in instances too many to be quoted, as well as Paul’s words in the Epistle to the Romans, (Rom 1:16,) show how faithfully the apostles discharged the duty of preaching to the Jews.
The duty of Christians to care specially for the souls of Jews seems plainly pointed out in the expression before us.
Let it be noted, that the conclusions of Peter’s two first sermons at Jerusalem, in Act 3:1-26., exactly carried out the command of the verse before us. He preached “repentance and remission in Christ’s name.”
v48.-[Ye are witnesses of these things.] The “things” here spoken of must be the “things concerning Himself,” which our Lord had just been expounding.
The office which the first disciples, and after them, all ministers and believers were to fill, is stated in the word “witnesses.”
Stier remarks, “It is not the Lord’s will to appoint and send forth orators, or enthusiasts, or even simple teachers, but before all, and in all, witnesses. The idea contained in Luk 1:2, ‘which from the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the word,’ is here found once more.”
v49.-[I send the promise of my Father.] This expression means the Holy Ghost, whom the Father had promised in the Old Testament prophecies to send, and who came down on the day of Pentecost. (See Isa 44:3; Joe 2:28; Jer 31:33; Eze 36:27.)
Let it be noted, that our Lord here speaks of “sending the Holy Ghost.” We see in this His equality and unity with God the Father. We also see that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son, no less than from the Father.
Let it be noted, that the Holy Ghost is evidently a Person, and not an influence. The words “I send” can only be used of a “person.”
Let it be noted, that our Lord says, “I send,”-not “I will send.” This shows the certainty of the coming of the Holy Ghost, and the speedy approach of His coming. May it not also show that even from the very time at which our Lord spoke, the disciples would begin to receive grace and power from the Holy Ghost.
[Tarry ye in the city…until, &c.] This expression is remarkable. It seems to denote that our Lord would have His disciples go forth into all nations immediately after the day of Pentecost and wait at Jerusalem no longer. Their backwardness to do this, when compared with the expression before us, is noteworthy.
[Endued.] This word means literally, “Be clothed upon,” or “invested with.” It is frequently used in the New Testament, and implies a putting on something which we do not naturally possess. (See Rom 13:14; 1Co 15:53; Gal 3:27; Col 3:9-10.)
[Power from on high.] Some have thought that this expression is only a form of speech for the Holy Ghost Himself. It seems more likely that it signifies the energy and influence imparted by the Holy Ghost. It is very like the expression used about Mary, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.” (Luk 1:35.) It would then mean in this place, “Tarry till ye be endued with that heavenly power which the Holy Ghost, whom the Father has promised, and I also send, shall impart to you.”
Alford quotes a remark of Stier, that this “enduing with the Holy Ghost, was the true and complete clothing of the nakedness of the fall.” This appears to me only partially correct. I believe the “imputed righteousness of Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe,” is the true garment which remedies the nakedness of the fall. (Rom 3:22.) The indwelling grace of the Spirit is doubtless never separate from that righteousness. But it is in itself a distinct and separate thing, and should be kept distinct in our minds.
Luk 24:44. These are my words. These things which I thus prove to you are the realization of my words.
Which I spake onto you. On such occasions as chap. Luk 18:31-33; Luk 22:37; Mat 26:56, probably on many others, not recorded.
While I was yet with you, i.e., before death. Death had separated them, and the previous companionship was not reestablished after the resurrection.
That, i.e., to this effect that. The purport of the words is now expressed.
In the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms. The Jews divided the Old Testament into Law, Prophets, and Hagiographa. The Pentateuch formed the first division: Joshua, Judges , 1 and 2 Samuel , 1 and 2 Kings, and the Prophets (except Daniel), the second; the remaining books were the Hagiographa.The original indicates that our Lord thus speaks of the Old Testament to show that in all its parts there was a prophetic unity. At the same time there is no objection to supposing He referred to the prophets and the book of Psalms in the stricter sense, since in these the most striking prophecies of the Messiah are found.
Luk 24:44-48. And he said to them Not, as appears, on the day of his resurrection, but on that of his ascension. These are the words which I spake to you In private, frequently; while I was yet with you Dwelling among you: we should better understand what Christ does, if we did but better remember what he hath said; that all must be fulfilled which is written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms Under these three, the Jews were wont to comprehend all the books of the Old Testament. Under the name law, the five books called the pentateuch were included; the chief of the historical books were joined with the prophets, and all the rest with the psalms. The prophecies, as well as types, relating to the Messiah, are contained in one or other of these books. Then opened he their understanding to understand the Scriptures Especially in their reference to him. He had explained many parts of them before, repeatedly, in the course of his ministry, and since his resurrection, especially to the two as they went to Emmaus. But still they understood them not, till he took off the veil from their hearts, by the illumination of his Spirit. And he said, Thus it is written, &c. Thus Moses and the prophets foretold that the Messiah should suffer, and rise from the dead on the third day, as Jesus had done; so that, if they had understood the Scriptures, instead of being stumbled at these events, and finding their faith in him as the Messiah shaken by them, they would thereby have found it confirmed. And that repentance and remission of sins The two principal doctrines of the gospel, inclusive of, or leading to, all the others; should be preached As they continually were by the apostles, both to Jews and Gentiles. And should they not still be preached? are they not as necessary to be preached as ever? in his name In imitation of his example as a prophet; through his mediation and grace as a priest; and by his authority and ordinance, as a king; among all the Gentile nations As well as among the Jews; beginning at Jerusalem In Gods visible church, where there had long been the greatest light, and the greatest privileges and advantages; where the greatest blessings had been abused, and the greatest guilt contracted; and where, in a little time, judgment would begin, as mercy was to begin now. That the heralds of divine grace should begin at Jerusalem, was appointed both graciously and wisely; graciously, as it encouraged the greatest sinners to repent, when they saw that even the murderers of Christ were not excepted from mercy; and wisely, as hereby Christianity was more abundantly attested, the facts being published first on the very spot where they happened. And ye are witnesses of these things Chosen of God, and appointed to be such; namely, witnesses of Christs life, doctrine, and miracles, and especially of his death, resurrection, and ascension.
5. The last Instructions: Luk 24:44-49.
Vers. 44-49. Meyer, Bleek, and others think that all the sayings which follow were uttered this same evening, and that the ascension itself must, according to Luke, have followed immediately, during the night or toward morning. Luke corrected himself later in the Acts, where, according to a more exact tradition, he puts an interval of forty days between the resurrection and the ascension. A circumstance which might be urged in favour of this hypothesis is, that what Luke omits in the angel’s message (Luk 24:6) is precisely the command to the disciples to return to Galilee. But, on the other hand: 1. May it not be supposed that Luke, having reached the end of the first part of his history, and having the intention of repeating those facts as the point of departure for his second, thought it enough to state them in the most summary way? 2. Is it probable that an author, when beginning the second part of a history, should modify most materially, without in the least apprising his reader, the recital of facts with which he has closed his first? Would it not have been simpler and more honest on the part of Luke to correct the last page of his first volume, instead of confirming it implicitly as he does, Act 1:1; ?Act 1:23. The , then (Luk 24:45), may embrace an indefinite space of time. 4. This more general sense harmonizes with the fragmentary character of the report given of those last utterances: Now He said unto them, Luk 24:44 : and He said unto them, Luk 24:46. This inexact form shows clearly that Luke abandons narrative strictly so called, to give as he closes the contents of the last sayings of Jesus, reserving to himself to develope later the historical account of those last days. 5. The author of our Gospel followed the same tradition as Paul (see the appearance to Peter, mentioned only by Paul and Luke). It is, moreover, impossible, considering his relations to that apostle and to the churches of Greece, that he was not acquainted with the first Epistle to the Corinthians. Now, in this epistle a considerable interval is necessarily supposed between the resurrection and the ascension, first because it mentions an appearance of Jesus to more than 500 brethren, which cannot have taken place on the very day of the resurrection; and next, because it expressly distinguishes two appearances to the assembled apostles: the one undoubtedly that the account of which we have just been reading (1Co 15:6); the other, which must have taken place later (Luk 24:7). These facts, irreconcilable with the idea attributed by Meyer and others to Luke, belonged, as Paul himself tells us, 1Co 15:1-3, to the teaching generally received in the Church, to the . How could they have been unknown to such an investigator as Luke? How could they have escaped him in his first book, and that to recur to him without his saying a word in the second? Luke therefore here indicates summarily the substance of the different instructions given by Jesus between His resurrection and ascension all comprised in the words of the Acts: After that He had given commandments unto the apostles (Act 1:2).
Ver. 44 relates how Jesus recalled to them His previous predictions regarding His death and resurrection, which fulfilled the prophecies of the O. T. , an abridged phrase for : These events which have just come to pass are those of which I told you in the discourses which you did not understand. The expression: while I was yet with you, is remarkable; for it proves that, in the mind of Jesus, His separation from them was now consummated. He was with them only exceptionally; His abode was elsewhere.
The three terms: Moses, Prophets, Psalms, may denote the three parts of the O. T. among the Jews: the Pentateuch; the Prophets, comprising, with the historical books (up to the exile), the prophetical books; the Psalms, as representing the entire group of the hagiographa. Bleek rather thinks that Jesus mentions here only the books most essential from a prophetic point of view ( ). If it is once admitted that the division of the canon which we have indicated existed so early as the time of Jesus, the first meaning is the more natural.
Jesus closes these explanations by an act of power for which they were meant to prepare. He opens the inner sense of His apostles, so that the Scriptures shall henceforth cease to be to them a sealed book. This act is certainly the same as that described by John in the words (Luk 20:22): And He breathed on them, saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. The only difference is, that John names the efficient cause, Luke the effect produced. The miracle is the same as that which Jesus shall one day work upon Israel collectively, when the veil shall be taken away (2Co 3:15-16).
At Luk 24:46 there begins a new resumthat of the discourses of the risen Jesus referring to the future, as the preceding bore on the past of the kingdom of God. , and He said to them again. So true is it that Luke here gives the summary of the instructions of Jesus during the forty days (Act 1:3), that we find the parallels of these verses scattered up and down in the discourses which the other Gospels give between the resurrection and ascension. The words: should be preached among all nations, recall Mat 28:19 : Go and teach all nations, and Mar 16:15 : Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. The words: preaching repentance and remission of sins, recall Joh 20:23 : Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them. Luk 24:46 forms the transition from the past to the future (Luk 24:47). depends on: it was so, understood.
The omission of , thus it behoved, by the Alex. cannot be justified; it has arisen from negligence. Jesus declares two necessities: the one founded on prophecy (thus it is written), the other on the very nature of things (it behoved). The Alex. reading: repentance unto pardon, instead of: repentance and pardon, has no internal probability. It would be a phrase without analogy in the whole of the N. T.
The partic. is a neut. impersonal accusative, used as a gerund. The Alex. reading is a correction.
The thought that the kingdom of God must spread from Jerusalem belonged also to prophecy (Psa 110:2, et al.); comp. Act 1:8, where this idea is developed.
To carry out this work of preaching, there must be men specially charged with it. These are the apostles (Luk 24:48). Hence the , ye, heading the proposition. The thought of Luk 24:48 is found Joh 15:27 : that of Luk 24:49, Joh 15:26.
A testimony so important can only be given worthily and effectively with divine aid (Luk 24:49). , behold, expresses the unforeseen character of this intervention of divine strength; and , I, is put foremost as the correlative of , ye (Luk 24:48): Ye, on the earth, give testimony; and I, from heaven, give you power to do so. When the disciples shall feel the spirit of Pentecost, they shall know that it is the breath of Jesus glorified, and for what end it is imparted to them. In the phrase: the promise of the Father, the word promise denotes the thing promised. The Holy Spirit is the divine promise par excellence. It is in this supreme gift that all others are to terminate. And this aid is so indispensable to them, that they must beware of beginning the work before having received it. The command to tarry in the city is no wise incompatible with a return of the disciples to Galilee between the resurrection and ascension. Everything depends on the time when Jesus spoke this word; it is not specified in the context. According to Act 1:4, it was on the day of His ascension that Jesus gave them this command. The Alex. reject the word Jerusalem, which indeed is not necessary after Luk 24:47.
CXLIII.
NINTH AND TENTH APPEARANCES OF JESUS.
(Jerusalem.)
cLUKE XXIV. 44-49; eACTS I. 3-8; fI. COR. XV. 7.
f7 then he appeared to James [of this appearance also we have no details]; then to all the apostles; e3 To whom he also showed himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God [this shows us that Jesus spoke many things at his appearances beside the brief words which are recorded]: 4 and, being assembled together with them, he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, said he, ye heard from me [ Joh 14:16, Joh 14:26, Joh 15:26]: 5 For John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence. [This promised baptism came ten days later, at Pentecost.] c44 And he said unto them, These are my words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me. [That is, these recent events are simply what I told you should come to pass according to the Scriptures, but ye did not understand. The phrase, “while I was yet,” etc., shows that in the mind of Jesus, he was already parted from them, and his presence was the exception and not the rule.] 45 Then opened he their mind, that they might [764] understand the scriptures [some think that this illumination was of a miraculous nature, and confound it with what the Lord is said to have done at Joh 20:22, but the Luk 24:46 suggests that he did it by discourse, just as he had done it already to the two on the way to Emmaus– Luk 24:27]; 46 and he said unto them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day [Both the written prophecy and the unwritten nature of things required that Christ should do as he had done. The saying forms an important credential for the Book of Jonah; where else have we the period of three days fixed as the time between our Lord’s burial and resurrection?– Mat 12:38-40]; 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. [See previous section.] 48 Ye are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I send forth the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high. e6 They [the apostles] therefore, when they were come together, asked him, saying, Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? [Despite all that they had seen and heard, the apostles were still expecting that Jesus would revive the old Jewish kingdom, and have himself enthroned in Jerusalem as the heir and successor of David.] 7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within His own authority. 8 But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. [Jesus enlightens them as to their duty, and not as to the kingdom; Pentecost would make all clear as to the nature of Christ’s rule and dominion.] [765]
[FFG 764-765]
Luk 24:44-53. The Last Words and the Ascension.Jesus reminds His disciples how He had told them that Scripture predictions about Him must be fulfilled. He goes over the ground again (with Luk 24:45 cf. Luk 24:27), and adds that the gospel of repentance and forgiveness in His name should be preached everywhere. It is not clear whether the instruction to preach is regarded as contained in the OT Scriptures. Syr. Sin. has in my name, and perhaps we should take the Gr. infinitive (should be preached) as an imperative.
Luk 24:44. the psalms: the third division of the Hebrew scriptures, including other writings than the Psalter, though this was particularly rich in Messianic prophecy.
Luk 24:48. these things: the death and resurrection foretold in Scripture.
Luk 24:49. Lk. here points forward to Acts 1. He has a different tradition from the Galilean one of Mk. (and Mt.); the disciples are to remain in Jerusalem, to receive the power from heaven (Joe 2:28).
Luk 24:50 f. Jesus takes the disciples to Bethany, and while giving them a benediction is parted from them. The words and was carried up into heaven are omitted in some of the best MSS., and have probably crept in from Act 1:9 f. Note that in Lk. everything, including this final departure, seems to have happened on the same day as the Resurrectioncontrast the forty days of Act 1:3. The harmonists insert the Galilean appearances recorded in Matthew 28 and John 21 between Luk 24:43 and Luk 24:44.
Luk 24:53. The disciples on their return spend practically all their time in the Temple.
[Since the above commentary and that on Acts were printed, the criticism of the Lucan writings has passed into a new stage with the publication (in 1916) of Prof. C. C Torreys important work, The Composition and Date of Acts. The author had already in an article, The Translations made from the Original Aramaic Gospels (Studies in the History of Religion Presented to Crawford Howell Toy, 1912), argued that the compiler of the Third Gospel and Acts was an accomplished translator of both Hebrew and Aramaic. The most notable feature of the later essay is the theory, supported by weighty arguments, that Act 1:1 to Act 15:35 is a very close rendering of an Aramaic document, so scrupulously faithful that even what the translator knew to be inaccuracies were preserved. This Aramaic document was written either late in A.D. 49 or early in 50. Luke, the companion of Paul, collected material for the Third Gospel during Pauls imprisonment at Csarea (A.D. 5961), and wrote the Gospel before 61, probably in 60. At that time he had no thought of writing the Acts of the Apostles. The idea of writing this sequel to his Gospel was probably first suggested to him when the Aramaic document came into his hands, possibly in Palestine, but more probably after his arrival in Rome in 62. This he translated into Greek, and added Act 15:36 to Act 28:31. The complete book was probably issued in A.D. 64. Unlike the Third Gospel, it was not a work of research, nor even of any considerable labour. It was merely the translation of a single documenta lucky findsupplemented by a very brief outline of Pauls missionary labours, enlivened by miscellaneous personal reminiscences. The whole work is uniform in style, allowing for the fact that Act 1:1 to Act 15:35 was written in translation Greek. The author is not to be distinguished from the writer of the We-sections, and little value attaches to the attempt to find sources behind either half of ActsA. S. P.]
Verse 44
These are the words; this is the fulfilment of the words. Jesus had often predicted these events, but the disciples either had not understood, or did not believe him.
24:44 {7} And he said unto them, These [are] the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and [in] the prophets, and [in] the psalms, concerning me.
(7) The preaching of the gospel, which was promised to the prophets, and performed in his time, is committed unto the apostles, the sum of which is repentance and remission of sins.
The mission of Jesus’ disciples 24:44-49 (cf. Acts 1:3-8)
All the Gospels contain instances of Jesus giving the Great Commission to His disciples, but evidently He did not just give it once. The contexts are different suggesting that He repeated these instructions on at least four separate occasions. This fact obviously reflects the importance of this instruction. The charge that Luke recorded here and in Act 1:8 was apparently the last one that Jesus gave. The chronological order seems to have been Joh 20:21; Mar 16:15; Mat 28:19-20; and Luk 24:46-49 and Act 1:8. This last one occurred just before Jesus’ ascension into heaven.
Jesus reminded the disciples that He had previously taught them that He would fulfill everything written about the Messiah in the Old Testament. The Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms were the three major divisions of the Hebrew Bible in Jesus’ day. Fulfillment was a divine necessity (Gr. dei).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) that the interpretations of the Old Testament given by the apostles have the direct sanction of Christ.
2. It contained the worst of sinnersthose who had insulted and crucified the Saviour.
(2) who are sincere in character; and
(3) who are sober-minded. In all these points the apostles were admirably qualified for their office as witnesses, and their willingness to seal their testimony with their blood shows us how firmly convinced they were of the truths they taught.
2. It is power from on high.
3. It is not developed out of ourselves.
4. Nor is it obtained by connection with the world.
2. Seek Him yonder, correct all that is superstitious and carnal in your religion.Vaughan.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
ALL SUBJECTIVE! NOW CONTRAST THSE STATEMENTS . . . WHICH DO YOU THINK REPRESENTS WHAT, USING THE NORMAL RULES OF UNDERSTANDING HUMAN LANGUAGE, THE GOSPEL WRITERS INTENDED THEIR READERS TO UNDERSTAND?
by Paul T. Butler
He felt like he was at the breaking-pointthat he could go on no longer. He would prefer to give up and be done with the overwhelming feeling of failure.
Ezekiel says of the very same people: stubborn, rebellious, impudent, hardheaded, stiff-necked, flint-faced.
THAT WAS HIS CONGREGATION. NOT ONLY IS IT DIFFICULT TO PREACH TO SUCH A CONGREGATION . . . IT IS DANGEROUS!
EVERY STUDENT-MINISTER OUGHT TO BE REQUIRED TO SERVE A SUMMER-INTERNSHIP WITH JEREMIAH. EVERY NORTH AMERICAN CHRISTIAN CONVENTION OUGHT TO HAVE A JEREMIAH PREACH TO IT. EVERY BIBLE COLLEGE STAFF MEMBER OUGHT TO HAVE AN ANNUAL VISIT FROM JEREMIAH.
HAD JEREMIAH DEPENDED ON HIS EMOTIONS, HE WOULD HAVE QUIT.
HAD JEREMIAH DEPENDED ON THE TESTIMONY OF OTHERS, HE WOULD HAVE QUIT. (THERE WAS NO TESTIMONY OF ANOTHERS GODLY LIFE TO PUT A FIRE IN HIS BONES.)
IT WAS THE WORD OF GOD. . . . IT WAS THE WORD OF GOD. . . . IT WAS THE WORD OF GOD!
In a world of idolatry, unbelief, moral depravity, violence and inhumanity today, Ozark Bible College dedicates itself to igniting a fire in your bones by the Word of God so that you, each in your own place and time, will become a Jeremiah, and when you say, I will not mention him or speak anymore in his name . . . you cannot hold it in.
About 120 years ago (January, 1856), a young lad was born to a wealthy manufacturer and his wife of Hoboken, New Jersey.
This lad grew up in a home where both mother and father believed the Bible. In fact the Bible (and other religious books) was read every Sunday afternoon after the family had come home from worship services.
This lad grew up and went off to Yale University to study for law. He was in school for a good time and the prestige he might gain, as he himself admits. I can hardly believe what I know to be true about my own affections and about my likes and dislikes. . . . He wrote later in life, . . . In those days I hated the Bible. I read it every day, but it was to me about the most stupid book I read. I would rather have read last years almanac any day than to have read the Bible. . . . In those former days . . . I loved the card table, the theater, the dance, the horse-race, the champagne supper, and I hated the prayer-meeting and Sunday services. . . .
In his Junior year, disillusioned with his frivolous life, and captivated by the lecturing of James D. Dana proving that geology verified the Genesis record and not evolution, this young man found a fire in his bones and dedicated himself to the ministry.
He went on to become the first president and really the builder of Moody Bible Institute. While doing that he also became the minister of the Chicago Ave. church and in six months had its membership from 2000 to 3000.
In four years of revivals in India, New Zealand, Australia and the British Isles 70,000 people became believers.
He wrote books and articles on the fundamentals of Christianity which were so influential he started the movement known as Fundamentalism.
He became convinced through a searching study of the Scriptures that immersion was the mode of baptism practiced by Christ and the apostles and he and his wife were immersed.
He was the first president and builder of Biola (Bible Institute of Los Angeles) and when it appeared the trustees of the college wanted to emphasize liberal arts and cut out some Bible courses, he resigned.
He made it a never faltering practice throughout his ministry to devote every morning from 5 till 11 a.m., 5 days per week, to Bible study.
He began every revival with the sermon Ten Reasons Why I Believe the Bible is The Word of God.
All of these accomplishments without the aid of the Imperials back-up, radio, T.V., overhead projectors, microphones or speakers, testimonies of celebrities.
Lest you think this man was your regular, run of the mill sensationalist and crowd manipulator type preacher . . . his biographer, Roger Martin, says he appeared to many people to be stern, withdrawing, demanding, and cold. He spoke primarily to the conscience and reason rather than to the emotions, and rarely raised his voice beyond a conversational tone.
He was more concerned with retention of converts than he was in counting numbers. His son wrote of him, In the ensuing years I have met persons from England and Scotland who were converted in my fathers meetings and frequently I have been told that the results of his meetings have stood and made a more permanent effect on the religious life of these countries than other such meetings. This they have ascribed to his logic, avoidance of emotionalism insistence on membership in the church and studying the Bible.
He was Reuben A. Torrey; he was a man with a fire in his bones. . . . BECAUSE HE WAS A MAN OF THE BOOK!
I believe that every question between man and man is a religious question, and that every social wrong is a moral wrong.
I believe that we can live on earth according to the fulfillment of Gods will, and that when the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven, every man will love his fellow men and act towards them as he desires they should act towards him. . . .
To love everybody sincerely;
To act in everything with the highest motives;
To trust in God unhesitatingly.
DO YOU FEEL LIKE LYING? GODS WORD SAYS NO!
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU NEED NOT GIVE YOUR MONEY FOR GODS WORK . . . GODS WORD SAYS YES!
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU NEED NOT TEACH HIS GOOD NEWS TO OTHERS . . . GODS WORD SAYS YES!
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE CAREFUL ABOUT YOUR EXAMPLE TO OTHERS? GODS WORD SAYS YES!
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU DO NOT HAVE TO KEEP NATIONAL LAWS, SCHOOL RULES, PARENTAL DISCIPLINE. . . . GODS WORD SAYS, YES, YOU DO!
AND IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS, YOU WILL CHOOSE AGAINST YOUR FEELINGS ONLY WHEN YOU TRUST GODS WORD UNHESITATINGLY.
Gods word is the truth. . . . He will tell you the truth. . . . He even gives you the motivation in the Good News to want the truth . . . but He will not choose for you. YOU MUST CHOOSE THE TRUTH.
The OBC diploma has this statement first in priority. . . . Be it known unto all that ____________ having shown possession of Christian character and refinement. . . . etc.
Christian character and refinement come by self-control or control of self. But self does not control self. There is absolutely no way the human self can be controlled apart from the Word of God. It has been so ever since the human being was created in Eden!
EVERY BIBLE COURSE OR BIBLE RELATED COURSE . . . EVERY RULE, EVERY COUNSELING SESSION, EVERY CHAPEL, EVERY DEVOTION WHERE THE WORD OF GOD IS EXERCISED IS TO FULFILL THAT NEED FOR CONTROL OF SELF AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER.
YOU COULD LEARN EVERY HOW-TO-DO-IT COURSE BY MEMORY AND BUILD UP A HUGE CONGREGATION, WITH A MASSIVE BUILDING COMPLEX AND A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR BUDGET, AND FAIL MISERABLY AS A MINISTER OF GOD IF YOU DO NOT HAVE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER!
A great man once wrote: Moral facts develop moral character . . . all the works and words of God are moral facts and truths . . . you find the works and words of God in the Bible . . . when these moral facts are brought into immediate contact with the mind of man, they delineate the image of God upon the human soul. . . .
The man who said that remembered in his childhood that It was the rule that every family member should memorize, during each day, some portion of the Bible, to be recited at evening worship . . . and he said later in life, They (the scriptures) have not only been written on the tablet of my memory, but incorporated with my modes of thinking and speaking.
THAT MAN WAS ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
Nothing could stop him; not discouragement, not kings, not pagan rulers, not prison, not false religious teachers. When he had no audience, he went looking for one; when he could find none, he wrote letters.
He spoke with such passion that suddenly he fainted and dropped to the floor. They carried him into another room where doctors worked over him for some time until he began to recover. When he realized where he was, he sat up and said:
I did not finish; carry me back and let me finish, They told him he could only do at the very peril of his life, He replied: I WILL DO IT IF I DIE.
So they took him back to the hall. As the aged, white-haired man appeared at the door, every person sprang to his feet; the tears flowed freely as that great assemblage looked upon the grand old veteran. With a trembling voice he said:
Fathers and mothers of Scotland, is it true that you have no more sons to send to India to work for the Lord Jesus Christ? The call for help is growing louder and louder, but there are few coming forward to answer it. You have the money put away in the bank, but where are the laborers who shall go into the field? When Queen Victoria wants men to volunteer for her army in India, you freely give your sons. You do not talk about their losing their health; and about the trying climate. But when the Lord Jesus is calling for laborers, Scotland is saying, We have no more sons to give.
Turning to the President of the Assembly, he said, Mr. Moderator, if it is true that Scotland has no more sons to give to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ in India, although I have lost my health in that land and came home to die, if there are none who will go and tell those heathen of Christ, then I will be off tomorrow, to let them know that there is one Scotsman who is ready to die for them. I will go back to the shores of the Ganges, and there lay down my life as a witness for the Son of God.
GOD GRANT, THAT IN EVERYONE OF US HERE GATHERED THIS MORNING (AND THOUSANDS MORE).
. . . THERE IS IN MY HEART AS IT WERE A BURNING FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES, AND I AM WEARY WITH HOLDING IT IN, AND I CANNOT. . . .
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)