I am so excited about what God has given me to write about today. I am excited because it is what brought me to Jesus. That is the resurrection of Jesus Christ! What is so amazing is; the evidence of the resurrection of Jesus is found in the reactions and lives of His disciples. Many in the time of Jesus considered Him to be a good person and a profit but He began to say a lot of things that people just couldn’t stomach. He angered the religious leaders of the day who thought they were good people by showing them they were not and He began to claim He was God and told people that the only way to heaven was through Him. He called Himself the door. “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved” ~John 10:9. He called himself the bread of life. He told people that anyone that eats of Him will have eternal life. “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever” ~John 6:51. He called Himself the good shepherd. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” ~John 10:7. He told people that He has the power to lay down His life when He wanted to and take it up again when He wanted to. “I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down Myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again” John 10:17-18. He goes on to tell people that He is the way to heaven and the only way, whatever way you are counting on is not the way to heaven He is the way to heaven. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” ~John 14:6. He a man claimed to be God! He said: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” ~John 14:9. To paraphrase if I may he basically said: “ if you’ve seen Me you’ve seen God”. Jesus said many other things like this. Can you imagine how hard it was for some people to swallow? Actually I can because it was hard for me to swallow. During Jesus’ time the people were looking for the messiah the chosen one of God that was promised by God and the profits to save them. So people of the time looking for the messiah seeing the qualities of the messiah in Jesus began to follow Him but when He began making these outrages proclamations about Himself many deserted Him and He was left with a select few that held on to the hope that He was the messiah.
Then came the capture, arrest, trial, and death by scourge and crucifixion on the Cross at the hands of the Romans; this left the remaining disciples without hope. If you read in combination the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John you get a real picture of what happened. These men left, they completely deserted Him and were scattered, they weren’t even together as a tight net group anymore some of them as friends hung out together but the group has a whole was dispersed. They weren’t even to be found during the crucifixion it was the women who stood by and watched. Peter who later became a great leader in the church denied three recorded times that he ever even knew Jesus. There is strong indication that these men no longer believed Him to be the messiah and went back to their normal lives. After Peter and John see the empty tomb the bible tells us they went home. “Then the disciples went away again to their own homes” ~John 10:10. The bible talks about two men on the way to a village called Emmaus: “Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus” Luke 24:13. When asked what they were talking about they said that they were discussing Jesus and had hoped that he was the messiah indicating that they may have lost that hope. In the book of John: Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James and John were all back in Nazareth fishing (back home working their jobs) meaning they went back to their everyday lives. They were referred to as the sect of the Nazarenes and all indications were that this sect of the Nazarenes had died along with its leader.
So then we move to “THE ACTS of the Apostles” The book of Acts. You have Peter who denied as a coward three times he ever even knew Jesus who went back to his job of fishing in Nazareth who then in the book of Acts stands up and preaches for the first time in front of thousands of people and preaches in such a way the bible tells us three thousand souls were saved that day. (See Acts 2) Then you have Peter and John going into the temple in broad day light professing the name of Jesus before everyone without fear. They’re arrested and brought before the religious leaders and even the religious leader’s marvel at the speech and boldness of these two men. The city of Jerusalem is in an up roar because these men who formerly followed Jesus where back and they were boldly proclaiming throughout Israel that the Messiah had come and Jesus was the Messiah. They were preaching to everyone ‘Repent of your sins and trust in Jesus’. They were doing this without fear of man at all. All of these men who were formally cowards preached salvation through Jesus Christ their entire lives without wavering even with the threat of death, torture, and imprisonment.
So why would these men who were cowardice suddenly be full of boldness? I’ll tell you why, they saw a dead man come back to life! That’s right the saw a dead man rise from the grave! This same man who said: “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved” ~John 10:9. This same man who said: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever” ~John 6:51. This same man who said: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” ~John 10:7. This same man who said: “I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down Myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again” John 10:17-18 and then does exactly that. This same man who said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” ~John 14:6. This same man who said: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” ~John 14:9. This same man who they heard say these things and more who died and is now alive. After His resurrection they saw Him with their own eyes; they walked with Him, talked with Him, ate with Him and touched Him. They could do nothing else but go around telling everyone that Jesus died for your sins and is raised, no matter the threats against them. As Peter and John said before the rulers who threatened and commanded them “not to speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus” ~Acts 4:17. “But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” ~Acts 4:19-20 So I tell you here and now Jesus is the Christ the son of God and He is risen from the dead. The proof of this resurrection is in the lives of the disciples!
So you have a choice to make, just as I did. You have a problem. The bible tells us and your own conscience tells you that you’re a sinner you have broken God’s laws. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23. What do you get for breaking God’s laws? Death: “For the wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23a. But God through Jesus has a gift for you. “But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” ~Romans 6:23b. “But God demonstrates His own lover toward us, in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” ~Romans 5:8. How are we saved? “If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” ~Romans 10:9. Just as with the disciples you cannot truly believe Christ is raised from the dead and remain the same. Just like Thomas said when he saw and touched the risen savior proclaimed: “My Lord and my God” ~John 20:28. I encourage you to repent (turn away from your sins) and put your trust in Jesus Christ. Confess your sins to Him today and put all of your trust in the risen savior, Jesus Christ!
God Bless,
Mike Peek
