190
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
May, 1936
JUNE 21, 1936 JESUS EXALTED L u k e 24:36-53
BLACKBOARD LESSON
Golden Text: “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:9). • ----- Outline and Exposition I. T he N eeded K nowledge (36-48). T h e disciples needed to know the real ity of the resurrection (vs. 36-43). Filled with consternation because of Christ’s death, they suddenly were con fronted by the One whom they supposed was dead. Theywere then filledwith fear be cause they thought they were seeing a spirit. To them, the literal resurrection of Christ was so unexpected, in spite of all the Lord had told them, that they could not believe the evidence of their eyes, and the Lord must needs rebuke their unbelief. If they had not believed His words before His; death, when He plainly told them that He would rise from the-dead, they should at least have accepted the visual evidence. The Lord offered incontrovertible proof of the physical character of His resurrec tion by inviting the disciples to handle Him and thus add to their sight of Him the evi dence. of the sense of feeling. “A spirit,” He said, “hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” To make the proof complete, He asked for food, and actually ate before them. Through their sight, their feeling, and their reason, the Lord gave the disci ples this knowledge of His bodily resur rection. Either the record is erroneous— which it cannot be—or else our Lord did rise from among the dead in a physical body. And, according to the Bible, this fact of the literal resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation up on which ' Christian faith rests and Christian service is conducted. Apart from the actuality of the resurrection, Christian preaching.’is vain, the preacher isffalse, and believers are yet in their sins (cf.l Cor. 15:1-20). But because Christ lives, we who otherwise would be “of all men most miserable” are made to rejoice in hope. The disciples needed to know the Scrip tures (vs. 44, 45). The Scriptures had clearly announced that Christ would rise from the dead—and our Lord reminded His followers that His resurrection had been clearly foretold. “All things must be fulfilled.” Incidentally, in the utterance recorded here, our Lord placed His full indorsement upon all the Scriptures: He
referred to the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms-—the threefold division of the Old Testament. Then He declared that the common subject of all these Scrip tures concerned Him —that is, the Person and work of the Redeemer. To read the Scriptures and fail to discern the Lord Jesus Christ in all that is written therein is to read with veiled eyes and darkened heart. The Scriptures are infinitely more than a moral code, or a system of ethics, or a philosophy of religion; they present the prewritten history of the Lord Jesus Christ in His sufferings and the glory that should follow. It was necessary that the disciples >should understand this great fact. Hence our Lord opened “their un derstanding, that they might understand the Scriptures” (cf. 1 Cor. 2:14; Psa. 119: 18). To attempt to understand the Scrip tures through mere knowledge of the or iginal languages, or by means of the eru dition of great scholarship, is futile. There remain impenetrable mysteries-—until the Lord opens the understanding of the one who 'v^suld learn. Th&Lord Jesus Christ is ever pleased to give this illumination, however', to His true disciple®! and in the light which He imparts, the death and res-’, urrection of our Lord are seen to be the solid foundation for faith and service. “Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day’’.(v. 46). The disciples needed to know themselves vs. 47, 48). First, they were taught Con cerning their service—what they must do. They were to be witnesses, preaching “re pentance and remission of sin'fjftto all peo ple. Second, they were told where they must be found, that is, “among all nations.” The reluctance of Christ’s followers to occupy their God-appointed places still leaves multitudes of people in the darkness of paganism and in the death of sin. Third, they were given a specific message. They were to be “witnesses of these things” —the death and resurrection of Christ. In every age, testimony is to be borne, not to what the church may think, nor to what individual members may think, but the witnessing is to be to the literal death and bodily resurrection of Christ. Moreover, there was to be no passive acceptance of the truth. A witness must take an active part. And the disciples were clearly told: “Ye are witnesses of these things.”
T he P romised P ower (49). The promise of the Father was that the Holy Spirit would come upon believers and supply the needed power to carry on their witnessing and fulfill their mission on earth. For such service there'MS no power apart from the Holy Spirit (cf. Zech. 4:6; Acts T:8jB In the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the promise of the Father was fulfilled (cf. Acts 2). To tarry now at Chicago, or Lon don, or Los Angeles, or any other place, waiting for God to fulfill His promise, is to deny that He has already kept His word. At Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit came upon the waiting disciples, and since that time1 every believer on the Lord Jesus Christ has within him the Third Person of the Trinity—an abiding Presence, One who will fill and use the believer to the full measure of the believer’s surrender and obedience. “God . . . hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 4:8). III. T he A scension A ccomplished (50-53). As the Lord led His followers forth and they came to Bethany, He “lifted up his hands, and blessed them,” and, in the very act of bestowing blessing upon them, “he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven” (vs. 50, 51). We should re member that the Lord Jesus Christ was the first wo»whoever stood in that august pres ence in heaven. On earth, our Lord stood before men on behalf of God; in heaven, He now stands before God on behalf of men. We should bear in mind also the miraculous- truth that, in the ascension of Christ, a literal human being, clothed in flesh and bones, entered by His own right into God’s presence. It is no miracle that Christ in His character as very God of very God, should be in the presence of God the Father, but that a Man should be there is the wonder of the universe. He is there as the Representative of all who trust Him as their personal Saviour. The disciples returned to Jerusalem “with great joy.” They were assured of the Lord’s resurrection; they had beheld His ascension; they believed His promise that soon they would be clothed with power for their work. They now fully understood that their Master was God in deed, for they worshiped Him, and con-- tinued in the temple “praising and bless ing God.” Three requirements for satisfaction in heart and life are set before us in this lesson: First, an understanding of the Scriptures; second, a heart belief in the promises; and third, an acceptance of the service offered by the Lord. With these three essentials settled in heart and mind, the disciple may go forth rejoicing in the literal resurrection of the body of his Lord, the ascension of the Man Christ Jesus, and the consciousness of the pres ence and power of the Holy Spirit, Well may we sing:
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