...nearly three days have passed since the crucifixion of the One Man whom eleven men thought would be the Messiah. On the eve of the night He was apprehended, He was with them in the upper room sharing what would be their last supper together. A quaint, queit evening with their Master. They had traveled with Him for the last three years or so, learning from Him, witnessing right in front of them wonders that the world had never known. This Man sought them out for Himself, beckoning them "come to Me, and I will make you fishers of men". And so they did, and followed Him. He told them many things. Some things were easily understood. But many other things, not so easliy. He was more than willing to explain to them the mysteries of this Kingdom of God of which He spoke. He wasn't like any man they had ever met before...there was something different about Him. Maybe it was the way He carried Himself...perhaps it was the way He spoke with authority to the ones who labeled Him an evildoer...He demonstrated on numerous occasions that wherever He was from, it was not of this world. He healed those who suffered from illnesses and infirmities...many of whom at the time, had no other hope of recovery.
He showed the people of Jerusalem openly, that he had power over the elements, and over nature...It was only a short time before that they had seen Him coming towards them...a ghost maybe? No, it's their teacher...and He's walking...on the water. Oh, He sure seemed to be a native of Galilee...He didn't have very much. Nothing as a matter of fact. His hometown was hardly a spot on Mediterrainian map. But can anything good come out Galilee?...Oh, and I would be foolish to forget to mention that with a single wave of His hand, the storm His disciples thought would make an end of them, came to a calm...stilled...silenced. Even the wind and the waves obey Him. Who is this Man who says to us "follow Me"? His claims in and of themselves were absolute in their nature. Who does this guy make Himself to be, anyway? He had told Nathaniel nearly three years before that heaven was His origin...not earth. And again, gave the same witness when he was brought before the High Preist as a blasphemer. The Jewish people of the time were a stiff-necked folk, as are the whole lot of us for that matter...On more than one occasion, they sought to take Him and throw Him off a cliff...and at other times, stone Him. But rest assured, His hour had not yet come. "Are you not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?" they asked Him...but He replied..."...Assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM".
The Pharisees had no desire for the likes of this Man. Why, He blasphemed the law of Moses, and in turn, blaspemed God! Surely this Man was worthy of death. You know the law..."You shall have no other gods before Me"...but this Man...He's accepting worship. But, say the Jews, we are of Abraham's seed! We have only one God! And this Man makes Himself to be the Son of God?...but what does Jesus say? "all men should honor the Son, just as they honor the Father". What are these words He is speaking, and why is He speaking them? He better be able to back these things up...why should we listen to Him? "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life...no man comes to the Father but by Me..."..."If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father..."..."I and My Father are one..."...Truly, no man ever spoke like this man; and no man would have ever been able to do the things that He did unless God were with Him...but now, He is gone...The disciples looked on in disbelief as their Lord and Master was apprehended in Gethsamane, bound and led away to Caiaphas for questioning...after mindless contradiction from false witnesses and unable to reach a verdict, Caiaphas asks Him, "...are you the Christ?..." Jesus, after keeping silent, said, "...I AM...". Immediately they found Him guilty of death...and they beat Him in the synagogue. Legally however, they could not put Him to death...so in an effort to rid themselves of this Troublemaker, they had led Him to Pilate...who also after questioning himself, found no fault in Him...and Herod was no different. In an effort to appease the bloodlust of the crowd, Pilate had Jesus flogged...and, unable to find a loophole, for fear of the people and of Caesar, Pilate handed Jesus over to the Roman soldiers to be executed, after he sought to let Him go, though unsuccessfully.
It was at Golgotha where the turning point of history took place...a battered and bloody Man, stripped naked of His clothes...covered in lacerations, resulting from the blows of the flagrum...exhausted, swollen, and disfigured, laid Himself down on the cross as Roman soldiers drove spikes through His wrists and feet...sending a pulsating shock throughout His limbs... But this cannot be! He was the King of Israel...the promised Messiah! He can't die! But alas, Jesus hung in agony for nine hours...fighting for every breath as the cross itself run down to the base with blood...
"...It...is...finished...." Jesus says, just barely above a whisper...and with that, breathes His last, and yields His Spirit. Jesus had died....then a rumbling...from a distance it seems...then closer...now the ground is shaking violently. The earth is quaking...unknown at the time to the officers who had nailed Him just hours earlier, the veil of the temple hasd been torn in two. Jesus had interceded for all men throughout all time..."...surely, this was the Son of God.." proclaims one of the centurions...
He was laid in a tomb...no longer did the disciples have their Lord and Master with them...this must be part of the plan...it has to be...they trusted this Man...He came proclaiming the Kingdom of God, and that He would bring salvation...and rescue those who were in captivity...but He was taken by sinful men and slaughtered...
...if only they knew the sciptures, and the power of God...
"...but we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel; and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done..."...(Luke 24:21)...the people said...
"O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken; Ought not the Christ to have suffered such things, and to enter into His glory?..." (Luke 24:25,26)...says Jesus as He appears to some disciples on the road to Emmaus...
It was impossible for death to have any hold on the Lord of heaven and earth. He is King...He is Life and the Giver of life...there is no grave that could hold Him. Jesus came as a Man; perfect, pure, and pristine...Jesus was the sinless Son of God...absolutely flawless is every way...an offering for sin straight from the courts of heaven. It was He of whom Moses and the prophets wrote of...it was He who declared milleniums before that he would come, and offer up Himself for the sins of the world. God came down to us, and taught us...He showed us the way in this fallen world, darkened through the deceitfulness of sin, and of death...He came for the purpose of death on the cross...this was His mission...this was His passion.
Everything He said, eveything that He did, banked upon whether or not He would rise again from the dead...His resurrection from the grave was His final proof to an unbelieving world that He was truly who He claimed to be...He said He would do this back in John 10:18...John 10:18 "...No man takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment I have received from my Father..."...Jesus resurrection from the dead was the verification that He is God. No man in history has ever claimed divinity, and proven it through exhibiting complete power over death itself...
God cannot be killed...God is of a truth, alive.
It was for our benefit that He died! It was for our benefit that He suffered such shame from sinners, agony, and brutality...Yes, everything Jesus did was only good and only for our good. He did all things right, and all things He did glorified His Father, and worked to bridge the gap between us and Him that we had created.
Jesus life is the focal point of earth's history. I find it difficult to believe that a Man such as Jesus would have such influence over history and time if He were a liar. He is the crux of our hope. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the only hope the world has to cling to. Where all others have failed, Jesus succeeds. Jesus holds the preeminence in all creation. He is the preeminent One. There is nothing that can stop Him, not even death. Jesus rose from the grave, and conquered death. To those who believe on His name, death has no more hold on them. Praise God for the wonderful work He wrought through His Son for us! God has given us far more than we ever deserved from Him. Oh how beautiful is this love which He bestows on us freely...that He would give Himself to save sinful wretches such as ourselves. There wasn't a thing in this world we could offer Him that would have been enough. But the cross was enough. Jesus was enough. We had nothing -- He had everything...and He emptied out Himself to become poor, that we might become rich in faith towards Him. His resurrection from the grave is our gaurantee that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. This world we're presently living in right now, this isn't all there is. There is a hereafter, and because of Jesus, our hope will not be cut off. Unless Jesus had risen from the dead, we'd simply exist until our ultimate demise to eternal destruction. Faith is Jesus Christ isn't blind. It makes perfect sense. Jesus makes sense. If only all men would know Him and the power of His resurrection! Without His resurrection, we are still in our sins...our faith is pointless...and we are above all men, most to be ridiculed and pitied...without His resurrection, we have no hope...
"...Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable..." -- (1 Corinthians 15:12-19 NKJV).
"...The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, 3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God..." -- (Acts 1:1-3 NKJV).
"...I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death..." -- (Revelation 1:18 NKJV).
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