Ascension Life Booklet Reckon Ye...continued

Last time we shared about the importance of a revelation of Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. All the redemptive themes declared by Jesus deserved and needed explanation and expounding. But without the sending forth of the Holy Spirit the disciples were not capable of comprehending them at that time. Jesus said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now.” The Jerusalem Bible says, “...they would be too much for you now.” Goodspeed says, “... you cannot take it in now.” (Jn.16:12-14) What was it He wanted to tell them? It was the things concerning His redemptive mission, what He would accomplish in His death, burial and resurrection, our identification with Him in that work, and what it would produce in us.

The disciples couldn't receive them then because they weren't ready for them, they were insensitive to spiritual things (not having been born again themselves yet), and these things hadn't happened yet. They were the "things to come" under the New Covenant Jesus was to inaugurate. They were those things that happened to Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection when He identified with humanity and there wiped out what Adam produced in them!

You know, the disciples didn't even get it when Jesus said He was going to die and be raised again. In Luke 18:31-34, Jesus told them He was going to be mocked, scourged, and put to death; But the third day He would rise again. That seems clear enough, but verse 34 says, “And they understood nine of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.” Now, it wouldn't do too much good to try to get across to this group what Jesus was going to accomplish and provide in his death and resurrection, when they couldn't even get it that He was going to do it. Once when Jesus spoke of His coming death, Peter even rebuked Him and said, “Be it far from thee, Lord: This shall not be unto thee.” (Matt. 16:22) When Jesus did die, the disciples were all discouraged and disillusioned. They didn't even believe those who first told them Jesus was risen. Read the 24th chapter of Luke.

The object of the incarnation (the reason Jesus came) was to enter into His death, burial and resurrection. The foundation of Christianity and the gospel is Christ's death, burial and resurrection. The disciples of Jesus did not understand His death and resurrection-in fact they didn't even believe it until Jesus appeared to them and instructed them concerning its necessity to fulfill prophesy. And even then they knew very, very little about what had actually been accomplished in that work and who they were and what they had as a result of it. Even in the Book of Acts, they gave almost no explanation of it. They proclaimed the facts of it, but they did not explain the results and fruit of it- what it means to the believer.

Then, as now there is a desperate need to have an in-depth, detailed, rich, comprehensive explanation concerning what had happened, what had been accomplished, and who the believer is and what he has as a result of that redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This information is found primarily in Paul's writings. That's the revelation of Jesus Christ Paul was given. Here lies the importance, the significance of that revelation. It is my objective to launch an intensive investigation into all that Christ Jesus did in His death burial and resurrection until we are absorbed in the consciousness of our place in Christ and Christ's place in us.

“I must impress on you, my brothers, the distinctive feature of the glad tidings, I proclaimed it-namely, its super human nature. It was not from man that I received it nor by man that I was taught it: it came to me directly through a revelation given by Jesus the Messiah “(Gal. 1:11-12 Way.)

In the four Gospels, we see the historical events of Jesus' crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension recorded by eye witnesses. The gospel-Christianity itself-is based upon and centers upon these events. But in the Gospels we have no explanation except for a few suggestions from Jesus as to what His death and resurrection meant to us. In the book of Acts we see those events proclaimed by the eyewitnesses, the apostles. Yet we still have no explanation as to what had actually been accomplished. In studying the sermons in Acts, you will find that they follow a certain pattern. An Old Testament text is taken that foretold of Christ, then a brief record of His career is given, then an appeal is made to repent and believe. There is no explanation of what Christ's redemptive work accomplished or who the believer is or what He has as a result of it.

It is in the epistles that we find out what God did for us in Christ. Of those twenty-one New Testament epistles, Paul evidently wrote fourteen. And of the seven written by others, three have only one chapter each.

In Paul's epistles we find the gospel explained. Next lesson we will begin a study on the Epistles of Paul.

Reckon Ye Part 2