April 9, 2007

Good morning! Well our commemoration of Easter has past once again for the year, what’s next? At this time about 2,000 years ago, Jesus began appearing to larger groups of believers. Often they were meeting in secret and behind locked doors from fear of the Roman government and the eager squeelers and snitches among their own people. If you have never been the target of an authority figure and had the remainder of a group turn on you out of fear, then praise God for sparing you that! In the midst of this fear and doubt, Jesus appeared to them. Paul and Luke record that several hundred people saw him, touched him, and spoke with him over the course of forty days after his resurrection. Historically, we know from other sources that many “messiahs” had appeared to the Jews. However, upon execution by the Jews or the Romans, the sects dried up or selected another “messiah”. That didn’t happen in the case of the early Christ-ones, the followers of the Way. They never selected or elected another to take the place of Jesus. They did not recant their testimony; in fact it became far more dynamic and powerful. This behavior points to Jesus, who was something very different from those other false prophets and messiahs of the time. The early Christians became a world changing force in the name of Jesus. Filled with the Holy Spirit they went forth, pursued by their deadliest enemy in human form, Saul of Tarsus.
In all of the first century there existed no one less likely to become a Christian. A young Saul held the coats of those who stoned Stephen, the first martyr (and there are those who should note that he didn’t blow anyone one up during his martyrdom, he asked his father in heaven to forgive them!). Saul continued to persecute Christians, pursuing them to towns and cities far from Jerusalem. From his own testimony, Saul was one of the foremost Pharisees, well-educated, and strict in his observance of the Law. He believed in what he was doing, and went about it with a religious zeal. Then one day he met Jesus; not someone told him about Jesus, not he heard about Jesus; no, he met Jesus in person. Saul, now renamed Paul, became the foremost missionary of Jesus to the Gentiles, and in case you don’t appreciate that quite enough… the Gentiles were our ancestors. Somewhere in the history of each of our families, one of our ancestors met a Christian missionary or read the writings of Paul and the Gospels. To this day we treasure the Word, both in our hearts and through the reading of the New Testament; that new covenant that God promised us through the prophets. Read in Acts of the exciting times that came after the resurrection of our Lord. Set aside the suffering of our Lord and look at his victory!

To God be the Glory!

Bucky

In memory of Johnny Hart, creator of the BC comic strip. He is now with our Lord Jesus.