THE CALL TO COURAGE: THE RESURRECTED GOSPEL
Luke 24:1-12: LIFEWAY SPRING QUARTERLY 2021 SESSION 5
One of my favorite quotes comes from American Poet, Essayist, and Physician- Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (not to be confused with Holmes Jr- his son and longest serving Supreme Court Justice): “I find that the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.” Springtime and Harvest are strong reminders and remembrances of this quote as they bring to mind the transitory changes, the forward movement of seasons between the death of winter and the fullness of life in summer. Spring is especially a time of new birth- of newness of life. It was 12 springs ago that I experienced a figurative rebirth a “resurrection” in my physical life and living. I had my leg amputated in November 2008 and ended up waiting a long six months before being fit with my prosthesis (artificial limb) and being able to walk again. I will never forget that day in May when I was able to rise up out of that wheelchair that I had been stuck in for 6 months and off and on for more than 2 years before that. I felt like that paralytic that Jesus commanded to “rise up and walk- take your mat and go home” (Luke 5:23). Suddenly I could walk again- and without pain! For 6 months I had agonized over whether I had made a huge mistake going ahead with the amputation. I had been plagued with infections and ulcers that I thought would NEVER heal. Perhaps the doctors, our research and my praying, my seeking godly counsel (from my pastors, family, Christian Mentors and friends), my action on the faith that this was the best way to get back into a productive life so I could head back to seminary to pursue God’s calling and care for my family… Perhaps I was wrong!
I could have been- but God was right and God was and is faithful! His is a call to courage! I was mobile, I was moving again, and I found the confidence to move forward even though I did not know what the future held because I was convinced God held that future and I knew I was headed in His direction! Sometimes I feel like my feet haven’t touched the ground since but that my walk is propelled and compelled by the love of God in His infinite mercy and grace by granting me another opportunity at life filled with His resurrection power. A life EVERY Believer is to have (Eph 6:10-20) through NEW LIFE- resurrected life in Christ. Our lesson in Luke this Easter Sunday is on Luke’s eyewitness accounts of the Resurrection. “Resurrection” comes from the Greek word anastasis literally meaning “standing up again” moving from the stasis of death to the action and rebirth of life. All four of the Gospels, the entire New Testament, and even large sections of the Old remind us that God’s redemptive work through the Resurrection of Christ is the hallmark and foundation of our Faith. Without the Resurrection the Cross of Christ is robbed of its power, we would still be in our sins, and our faith would be in vain (see 1 Cor 15). HOWEVER with the TRUTH of the Resurrection we have every confidence, assurance and the boldness we need to live for Him who died and was raised for us! We can heed God’s call to courage and proclaim the Resurrected Gospel that makes the eternal difference.
Luke highlights for us the importance of belief in God’s promises and the receiving and testifying of those promises by Faith and he gives us a contrasting picture of faithful belief, doubting unbelief, and the difference that makes in witness and in courage for New Life as Believers.
Remember our interpretive framework of Jesus and the Gospel as a gift given from Heaven, Jesus and the Gospel as a gift humbly received, and Jesus and the Gospel as a gift boldly and courageously proclaimed! Our center question for this passage is to ask ourselves from verses 9-11 WHY did the women’s witness of the Resurrection to the Apostles seem like “nonsense” to them? What was it that kept Jesus’ closest friends and followers in unbelief to the ladies witness, and what overcame it? By investigating and answering these questions we will discover the courage we need to live out our New Life in Christ, boldly proclaim our Faith, and find the Holy Spirit’s strength as revealed in Jesus’ Resurrection! Let’s take a look…
The passage and all four of the Gospel accounts of Christ’s Death and Resurrection show a contrast between the faith and perseverance among Jesus’ disciples… Basically, the women were the last at Jesus’ Cross and the first at His Tomb while the other disciples were scattered. The Gospels give the account of Jesus being anointed with perfume as an act of Faith and preparation for His burial (Mk 14:1-9; Jn 12:1-8) and Jesus’ feet being anointed with the repentant woman’s tears also commemorated as an act of Faith (Lk 7:36-50) and worship. Faith of course is the decision to believe- to take Jesus at His Word. The climax of Jesus’ Word in the Gospels is Jesus’ prophecy of His Death and Resurrection for the forgiveness of sin and eternal life being made possible through belief in His name (Jn 14:1-6). The account of the women’s following Jesus to the cross and grave highlight what makes a growing and pleasing Faith in God. A growing Faith is a faith expressed by beliefs leading to action- strong Faith “follows Jesus” while a weak one does not. One of the main reasons the Disciples did not believe the women’s witness was they had failed to follow Jesus because of fear.
The cost of following Jesus to Calvary’s Hill- of facing His opponents (see Peter’s denial- Lk 22:54-62) and the anxiety over facing the same persecution and death by identifying with Him was too much for them AT THE TIME. Often we think of Jesus’ requirement to deny ourselves and pick up our cross and follow Him daily in a universal and wide context of ALL disciples and well we should, however the near context in application to Jesus’ 12 Disciples is telling as well- if they had “stuck with” Jesus that Thursday night they would have literally been carrying their crosses with Him. We could also argue that a lack of understanding, and perplexity of their own lost expectation of Jesus’ MISSION as Messiah contributed to their not following Him. In what ways today do we allow fear, confusion, and a lack of understanding to hinder us in following and identifying with Jesus? What keeps us from denying ourselves and carrying our crosses? What will encourage a COURAGEOUS and Following Faith over a COWARDLY and forgetting- unbelieving one? The answer is seen in the women being last at the cross and first at the tomb in their devotion more so than any “understanding” or lack thereof they had over Jesus’ death and the prophecy of His Resurrection (in reality though they had heard and knew Jesus’ word {see Jesus’ 3 predictions, or forthtellings of His Passion Lk 9:22, 44; 18:32-33} they were still clueless of their meaning at this time).
The difference between the women and the Disciples in this passage was the women decided to follow in spite of fear. Our Faith in Christ is encouraged and can grow exponentially quite simply by “being there” by using that little bit o’ Faith to obey and follow where Jesus and His Holy Spirit leads knowing, submitting and confessing that often He will lead us to the places we don’t want to go (Jn 21:17-18) the places beyond our control and comprehension- places of pain, suffering and humility but where HIS GLORY and the Gospel is revealed in and through us… We don’t have to understand (Prov 3:5-6), Jesus doesn’t have to make sense, we don’t have to have some well thought out strategy, scheme or plan (that’s fine when it is in accordance with the Spirit’s direction but a lot of the time we find it’s just our ideas getting in the way) we don’t get a vote to change God’s mind or the tactics of His specific mission through us we simply obey- “wherever He leads I’ll (we) go!” (I think there’s a hymn in there somewhere).
Have you ever gotten up in the morning- set your schedule, gone where you wanted to go, did what you wanted to do, said what you wanted to say, retire the way you wanted to retire, spend and save the way you wanted to spend and save living your “American Dream” while barely acknowledging the presence of Christ with you? I have. He was with me but I wasn’t with Him- I wasn’t asking, seeking or knocking (Mt 7:7-11; Lk 11:9-13) so I sure wasn’t following… You then come home and feel miserable, living this way day after day and month after month- spiritually powerless, useless and God feels a million miles away. Listen, Revivals- Acts 2 days of Pentecost disciple making revivals are not just God’s Divine Providence- they are His providence acted through His current Disciples and “apostles” the Church (called out- sent ones) following Jesus where He leads them. You can’t “go and make disciples” until you go (follow) Jesus yourself; just as often as we seek God’s face and hear His voice we need to follow His back walking in the shadow of His leading and that knowing He will often take us over dark Golgotha before He shows us the daylight victory of an empty Tomb and the power of His risen Lordship at work. Will we trust Him by first- simply showing up?
When we make the decision to follow the women’s eyewitness shows us that we automatically make the decision to experience- and that experience hand in hand with the Truth of God’s Word, and obedience to His commands and the display of His gracious, loving and merciful promises ALIVE in our lives is our witness. And Faith is encouraged by witness by our experiencing God (ask Henry Blackaby). Sometimes we forget what a frightening experience Christ’s Resurrection must have been for those women. Imagine yourself there… A graveyard in the early morning darkness; the stone rolled away- walking into a pitch-black low entrance of a hand-cut Mausoleum with cut but as of yet unfilled clefts for corpses to decay over time. Jackals and scavenging critters roam and cry among the bushes outside while nighttime bugs, roaches, scorpions and spiders crawl inside the tomb. Standing in the little ante-chamber pierced with sleeplessness, grief, shattered hopes, deep loss, and the compellation of worshipful devotion (laden with spices to once again- one final time anoint your Lord) and you can’t find the body- did you come to the wrong grave?! Are you losing your mind? Out of nowhere 2 men (angels) in clothes of white as lightning stand next to you… Where did they come from? “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is NOT here; He is Risen!” They proclaim in heavenly voices- perhaps with a bold shout- or maybe by and with a holy whisper in their ears...
Unimaginable, beyond the impossible, too real to be dreaming, so wondrous to behold, too true and personal to doubt (ask Thomas)! An empty tomb, a Risen Savior, our Living LORD, and new life in His name! With that kind of holy fear, that kind of ultimate promise fulfillment how could you ever be afraid of an “earthly” terror ever again? How could you not be bold? Whom wouldn’t you tell- with GREAT JOY? No wonder Jesus tells the Disciples: What I tell you in the dark speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roof tops. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” (Mt 10:27-28a). Jesus is RISEN!
Think on it, a few shepherds and backwater bystanders are proclaiming Messiah’s birth at the beginning of Luke. At the end of Luke and all thru Acts EVERY DISCIPLE is proclaiming rebirth by and in the CROSS and RESURRECTION of Jesus Christ Our LORD. Now, millions proclaim Him as witnesses from and to the “ends of the earth.” In the last days there will be a multitude before the Throne that cannot be counted proclaiming Jesus as KING and our eternal life found in His name alone. Where are we in that proclaiming? We are often afraid of those things and people that “can” hurt us terribly, make us suffer or dead. We get quiet, afraid, anxious, embarrassed, armed and dangerous against those who threaten us (see Lk 22:47-53.) We seek the dead and “useless as a corpse” things, the futile and temporary to lead us in our panic while the whole time we are surrounded by the Living Word of God being supernaturally spoken right next to us in the dark as the Son awaits rising in our hearts! What if instead of bowing to and seeking dead things to make us alive we seek THE ONE who brings the dead alive? What if instead of being afraid of that which can kill us, we remember and bow down in worship with holy fear like these women to THE ONE who makes us alive- who Resurrects us from death to life with Christ- (too many scriptures here to list- just look) saving and redeeming us forever more by the cross and the kept promises of His Word. Lovingly setting us “on our feet again” spiritually like He will do one day completely! You need encouragement in your Faith? Remember the Resurrected Gospel in your life and FOLLOW our Risen Lord! FOR HE- KING JESUS- IS WITH US as we go! (Matt 28:18-20)
Finally our Faith is encouraged by remembering God’s gracious promises. The greatest power of the Resurrection in our daily walk with Jesus is that if God has kept this ultimate promise then everything else is kept as well- and the Bible can be completely trusted from cover to cover. Like the Disciples we will be afraid, we will fail, and our faith will be shaken- what do we do? We proclaim redemption by the blood of the Lamb, the power and finality of Christ’s victory over sin, death and the grave- we proclaim and witness to each other and realize we have a Savior who constantly witnesses to and reassures and restores us like He did the Disciples. They might have ran away from Him but He went and found them… He is patient, kind, merciful and gracious with us and for us.
I had a sweet godly class member at one of our care facilities who came up to me after our Lord’s Supper service one morning. She had been battling aggressive Alzheimer’s disease that was robbing her of memory. She had big tears in her eyes: “I can’t remember Jesus no more!!! I can’t remember the verses I have learned and studied all my life… I feel so alone- What am I going to do if I forget Jesus?” I cried with her and put my arm around her shoulder: “Oh Kate, even if disease and dying makes you forget Jesus- He will NEVER forget you! He loves you, He died to set you free and He IS ALIVE today to make you and me whole in His presence one day- preparing a place for us (Jn 14:1-6). You are not alone! Everyone in this class (especially your neighbors and friends that live here with you) will remind you and encourage you with the Gospel each day! We will remind, we will carry your memories and your legacy.” Are you carrying the Gospel to and for someone else today like someone carried it for you? A bright trail of faithfulness in the dark seasons of life when and where people need Him most- going back from the Great Cloud of Witnesses to the very death and Resurrection eyewitnesses of the Gospel themselves (Heb 11-12)… Paul tells us that Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the WORD OF GOD… But how will they hear what they haven’t heard if someone doesn’t present it to them? (Romans 10:9-17). Because of Jesus we are that someone. Be that someone today! Tell the world- He is RISEN, and that Jesus HAS, IS, and WILL make all the difference for us and them! Embrace your call to courage- embrace the Resurrected Gospel. I’m praying for you!
Love to you in Christ and all the best! Darrin.
