Witness To Resurrection

Witness to Resurrection

Luke 24

1 Corinthians 15

Peace be with you

Have you ever lost faith?

Have you ever had your hopes and dreams absolutely destroyed before your eyes?

Maybe for you it was losing faith in someone you loved. All that trust and mutual investment in relationship torn apart in what seems like an instant. The things you had planned for and the things you thought you were working towards all crashing down in an instant.

Such loss is entirely devastating and seems absolutely unbelievable at the time. It affects you physically to the point of sickness and depression and emotionally with tears and trembling in anger and hurt. It affects you intellectually as you feel betrayed by all that trust and investment in time and effort.

You reach for some thread of reason or logic to explain it all but there seems to be none only more questions and doubt. It is hard enough when it happens to you as an individual but even more so when it happens to you as part of a group. Now there is a collective hurt that is magnified by everyone else being a part of the same broken reality.

There are often accusations directed at individuals or leaders. There is a collective shame and disbelief. How could we have all been so blind, how could we all have been so easily fooled? What were we thinking?

I think that these are some of the feelings and emotions and questions that the Disciples and Jesus inner circle felt from Good Friday until Easter Sunday.

The Bible tells us they were shut up behind closed doors for fear they would be discovered. They feared they would in fact be the next victims to be crucified. All because they put their faith in Jesus as the Messiah.

How long the hours must have passed that weekend. How lonely and desperate they must have been. How they must have leaned on one another in their desperation. How peace must have deserted them.

Suddenly a knock at the door causes everyone to bolt in fear concerned that they have been found out. Then just as suddenly a deep sigh of relief as a familiar voice speaks to them through the door.

It’s Mary Magdalene and she says ““I have seen the Lord!” John 20:18

The door opens and they see her face and know that she speaks the truth Jesus is alive! But they must validate it. Seeing is believing. Who saw what that Sunday morning?

Matthew 28:4 tells us that first there were guards who witnessed Jesus resurrection.

4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

It sounds like the guards fainted. Guards suggest at least two. More likely more given the importance of the event.

Then we have;

Luke 24:9-10 records the women who went to the tomb.

9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.

10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.

At least five women went to the tomb and here we have three named and the others are not named but are mentioned as being in their company.

Luke also makes mention of the Angelic witnesses.

Luke 24:4

4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.

But it is John who tells us how Jesus showed Himself alive to the eleven while they were in that closed room.

John 20:19-20

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side.

The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. How marvelous that Jesus spoke the word of peace to them. That was the one thing that all of them had lost.

Their peace was stolen from them by the events of Good Friday but returned to them by the appearance of Jesus in their midst alive again. They could see for themselves that it was all true Jesus was alive!

Then to add to their faith they encounter others who also arrive to say they too have seen Jesus.

Luke tells us of a man named Cleopas and another who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus. These two men make their way back to Jerusalem find the disciples and tell them of their experience.

So in just the first day of Jesus resurrection we have at least 20 different people who have seen and witnessed the risen Christ.