30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 24 36-49 COMMISSIONED TO BE HIS WITNESSES 06 20Apr2022 Luke 24 38-39 We are here to share the message of His resurrection
📖 Luke 24:36-49
06 – 20Apr2022 – We are here to share the message of His resurrection - Luke 24:36-49 - COMMISSIONED TO BE HIS WITNESSES - Bible reading: Colossians 1:20-22
“Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You are teaching us to understand Your resurrection. We are dead because we are cut off from You, the source of life. You gave us the privilege to be reconciled with You and come back to life. This is the message of Your resurrection that we must share with the world, which is in the state of death. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.”
Luke 24:38-39 And He said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? (39) Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have."
The Lord was taking all effort to bring conviction and confirmation to the hearts and minds of the disciples that He had risen again. The message of Jesus to the world is that man would have life once again and life in all its fullness. Man’s death was settled on the cross and Jesus was now alive.
Ezekiel 18:20 The soul who sins shall die... - cut off from the life of God. The wages of sin is death.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—
Death has spread to all of mankind because all of us have sinned. We are sinners because we received from Adam, the law of sin into our body. We are also sinners since each of us has made a choice to go our own way, away from the Shepherd of our souls.
Ephesians 4:18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
Death is our alienation from the life of God. Ignorance is a sin because it comes from being alienated from God, who is the source of life, light and wisdom. We have terminated our relationship with God.
Relationship with God is about coming back to the Shepherd of our souls. We repent from our life of rebellion against God, we turn away from the kingdom of darkness, to which we once belonged, and we surrender to the Overseer of our souls, all by faith. We come under His shelter, His habitat, His kingdom. This is where we have life.
God is reconciling the world back to Himself and back to life. This is the message that the disciples needed to know, with clarity and conviction, so that they would be entrusted with the message of God’s reconciliation with man.
Colossians 1:20-22 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (21) And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled (22) in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—
Consider the complete work that the Lord has done for man. He took our death, which was our alienation from God, upon Himself. He was cut off from the Father, when the sin of the entire human race, from the beginning of time to the end of time, was laid on Him. Jesus died on the cross. He was buried and now He was alive so that the message of God’s plan of reconciling man to Himself will be made known to every person on this earth.
Being reconciled with God makes us blameless and above reproach in His sight. This is the fullness of life that the Lord desires for man. He who believes in Jesus crosses over from death to life.
John 5:21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.
Jesus is giving man, life.
John 5:24 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
Jesus has made it possible for every person to cross over from death into life. In doing so, we will not come under judgement. If a man remains in death, here on earth, then at the judgement, he will be confined to eternal death, which is the second death. We must keep in mind that when we die physically, we will face the judgement of God. Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
The Lord was ensuring that this fact of His resurrection be deeply embedded in the disciples, for it was on this clarity of His resurrection that everything else rested.
The disciples had decided that it was the end of the road for them, in their walk with Jesus. The Lord was presenting Himself to them, to tell them, that the journey with Jesus was actually beginning. They were being commissioned to be His witnesses. The Lord remained with them for 40 days after His resurrection, so that this task of being the witnesses of His resurrection, would be thoroughly rooted in them.
Acts 1:3 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.
This is the message that we as disciples of Christ must share with the world around us.
Thought to ponder
Do you see yourself, as being commissioned by God, to be His witness?