Good weekend to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Waiting!? Is waiting difficult for you my friends? Do you like surprises? In the weeks following the resurrection of Jesus all His disciples and close friends were almost continually WAITING, wondering when and where His next appearance would be. Jesus gave them no warning and there was no predictable pattern of His sudden appearances. In fact we’re fairly confident we do not have a Biblical record of EVERY post resurrection appearance of Jesus, did you know that?
The apostle Paul wrote about this in his letter to the Christians in Corinth, about 30 years after that historic Passover/Easter weekend: “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance, that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas,(Peter) and then to the Twelve…” (1 Corinthians 15:3-5)
You notice, I’m sure, that for Paul it was absolutely essential that the incarnation, sinless life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus all verifiably happened, and are documented by eyewitnesses, and happened according to prophecies of the Scriptures. Jesus Himself had several times told the disciples that these events must happen because they were foretold by the prophets and Scripture must be fulfilled! (Luke 18:31; 19:46; Matt. 26:31, 52-54; Luke 24:25-27)
When Paul refers to “the Twelve” of course everyone knew there were 12 disciples personally selected by Jesus to walk with Him during those months. Judas Iscariot had abandoned and betrayed Jesus and then taken his own life. (Matt. 27:1-5) That left 11 remaining disciples, but they were still often referred to by that title “the Twelve”. It is also true that after Jesus’ ascension the disciple Peter had led the group in seeking a 12th man to replace Judas Iscariot and Matthias was selected. (Acts 1:15-26)
Look with me at what else Paul writes next about the post resurrection appearances of Jesus: “After that Jesus appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all He appeared to me also…” (1 Corinthians 15:6-8)
We have no record of this appearance of resurrected Jesus to a large crowd of 500 people, nor of a private, personal appearance of Jesus to James. In fact many wonder, is this James the brother of John who had been a disciple from the beginning, or is this James the son of Joseph & Mary and 1/2 brother of Jesus? We know James the 1/2 brother of Jesus had been skeptical and critical of Jesus during His lifetime, which is partly why Jesus entrusted His mother to John.
But that James did become a strong believer in Jesus after His resurrection and he actually became a leader in the Jerusalem church and he even was the author of the New Testament book which bears his name!! Thus many believe Paul’s reference to Jesus appearing to James might be a private, personal appearance to His 1/2 brother. And of course we noticed that Paul includes his own Damascus road experience with the resurrected Jesus. (Acts 9:1-19)
May I challenge you to a fascinating Bible Study my friends? From the Gospel accounts, make a chronological listing of all the post resurrection appearances of Jesus, beginning with that Easter morning and concluding with the ascension of Jesus in Acts 1. Then add to this list Paul’s Acts 9 encounter with Jesus and John’s Revelation 1 vision encounter with Jesus! I think you’ll be amazed at how many times Jesus appeared in His resurrected body; to whom He appeared; and what He did in each of those appearances!
Today, join me in looking at Jesus’ final farewell appearance, as recorded in Acts 1. Dr. Luke, the author of Acts and the Gospel of Luke, of course never met Jesus personally. Luke was the apostle Paul’s Greek physician, probably joining Paul’s second missionary journey in Troas (Acts 16:8-10).
Why do I say that? Notice the author of Acts for the first time uses the personal pronoun ‘we‘ in vs. 10 when he writes: “After Paul has seen the vision WE got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called US to preach the Gospel to them.” (Acts 16:10)
Luke tells us in Luke 1:1-4 that he had “carefully investigated” the claims about Jesus and we presume that meant he personally interviewed as many of the disciples and close friends of Jesus as he was able to find. Luke, led by the Holy Spirit in writing his two books, tells us Jesus “…gave many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:3)
And Luke tells us Jesus was very clear that He wanted His disciples and probably closest friends, to be in Jerusalem waiting as He neared the end of that 40 days period after His resurrection. Waiting for what? Jesus had told them: “Wait for the gift My Father promised, which you have heard Me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:4,5)
We recall that Jesus had spoken quite a bit about the Holy Spirit in the upper room that Thursday evening during their Passover meal together. (John 14:16.17, 26; 15:26,27; 16:7-15) These disciples were good Jewish men. They knew their Jewish history well, so they knew the Spirit of God had several times been sent by God to anoint some of their Old Testament heroes, in wisdom and power. Heroes like Moses (Numbers 11:16,17); Joshua (Deut. 34:9); Gideon (Judges 6:34); Samson (Judges 14:6); Saul (1 Samuel 10:9,10; David (1 Samuel 16:13).
But Jesus had explained this would be very different, for this would not be a temporary anointing, but a permanent infilling with the Holy Spirit residing within these followers of Jesus Christ. (John 14:16,17) So evidently they all made their way to Jerusalem and waited.
Of course they didn’t know exactly what they were waiting for, nor how they would recognize it when the Holy Spirit arrived. Nor did they really understand what Jesus meant when He had said “… John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Andrew and John had watched John the Baptist baptize Jesus and other people, (John 1:26-34) so they understood that, but ‘baptized with the Holy Spirit’ was something they could quite imagine. So let’s wait with them, and tomorrow we’ll see what happened next. What do you normally do when you are waiting on God for something? Do you wait with expectation and anticipation? Here’s a worship song to help us wait with reverence…
Today’s Scriptures: Acts 1:1-5 & 1 Cor. 15:3-7.
Choose below to read or listen.
Acts 1:1-5
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1 Cor. 15:3-7
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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