Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20100908.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Luke: Jesus, The Son Of Man For All Mankind
Part LXXXVIII: Christ's Identity As God's Savior Seen In His Resurrection
B. Christ's Identity As God's Savior Seen In The Angel's Biblical Testimony Of Christ's Resurrection
(Luke 24:4-10)
  1. Introduction
    1. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a cornerstone doctrine of the Christian faith: if Christ be not raised, our faith is in vain, and we of all men are most to be pitied, 1 Corinthians 15:13-19 NIV.
    2. Accordingly, it is critically important that we view Luke's record of the resurrection in detail to discern evidences of its validity, and apply it to needs in our lives (as follows):
  2. Christ's Identity As God's Savior Seen In The Angel's Biblical Testimony Of Christ's Resurrection.
    1. There is no doubt that the women who arrived at the tomb on the third day after Christ's crucifixion were of the strong conviction that He had died and was buried there, and that for the following reasons:
      1. First, a number of these women had seen Jesus' death and His burial in that tomb, Luke 23:46, 49, 55.
      2. Second, they returned to their homes to prepare expensive spices and ointments, intending to return after the Sabbath day rest to use these pricey compounds to anoint Jesus' body, Luke 23:56.
      3. Then, on the third day, very early in the morning, they went back to the tomb bringing their spices with them along with other women who might not have been original witnesses of Jesus' burial, Luke 24:1.
    2. However, they returned from the tomb to Jesus' disciples with the claim that they had not found Jesus' body, but that angels at the tomb had announced that He was alive as risen from the dead, Luke 24:22-23.
    3. A critic of the Christian faith might claim these women had seen a false apparition, that their grief and shock of Jesus' death led them to hallucinate about angels such as the disciples on the road to Emmaeus believed (cf. Luke 24:23) and as Jesus' disciples initially thought had occurred (Luke 24:10-11).
    4. Yet, what the women experienced was confirmed by Jesus' past words, validating their word, Lk. 24:2-9:
      1. When the women arrived at the tomb, instead of finding the body of Jesus they had expected to be there to anoint with their spices (Luke 24:1), they found the stone over the tomb's door rolled away, and, upon entering the tomb, the body of the Lord Jesus missing, Luke 24:2-3.
      2. Luke writes that the women initially wondered what had happened, a fully explainable response given their initial intent to arrive at the tomb to anoint Jesus' body, Luke 24:4a.
      3. At this point, the women experientially saw what appeared to be two men standing beside them dressed in shining garments, Luke 24:4b. Though they had not seen or known of Christ's transfiguration, and Peter James and John had not reported what they had seen of it even to any of the other disciples until after Jesus arose (Matthew 17:1-2, 9), the women reported they had seen these men dressed in shining garments just as Jesus had been dressed in the transfiguration. This suggests their testimony was true.
      4. The women were obviously frightened of what appeared to be supernatural beings before them, so they bowed down their faces to the ground, Luke 24:5a.
      5. Then, the men in shining garments asked them why they sought the living among the dead, for Christ was not there, but that He had risen from the dead, Luke 24:5b-6a.
      6. These messengers told the women of Jesus' past words in Galilee that "The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again," Luke 24:7.
      7. Since some of these women had followed Jesus all the way from Galilee (Luke 23:49, 55-24:1), and since they would have recalled this prophecy, they believed Jesus' prediction had come true, and left the tomb to go to the disciples and report to them their experience and these words, Luke 24:8-10.
      8. In this way, they came to believe that Jesus was not dead in the tomb, but risen, Luke 24:23.
Lesson: Since the interaction the women had with the angels at the tomb was validated by Jesus' past words and the disciples' past experience and words from Jesus at His transfiguration, their experience at the tomb that changed their conviction that Jesus was dead to belief that He arose is a true one.

Application: (1) May we believe Jesus arose from the dead as Messiah and God. (2) May we rely on God's Word to test our experiences, (3) especially our past recollections of Scripture since all of those past exposures to God's Word are necessary in the plan of God for testing current experiential issues.