Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Book Installment)
The One True Church
Chapter 40 – Mark 4 of 10: Eyewitnesses of Jesus’ Resurrection
You may recall from “Chapter 28 – The Unique Generation” that Christianity was not launched “in a corner.” And that there were more eyewitnesses to Jesus’ resurrection than just the original apostles. The 1st-century church was the only church in history to have eyewitnesses of Jesus’ resurrection not just in its leadership, but in its ranks as well.
On that first Easter, women were the first to encounter the empty tomb. And at least some of them encountered the risen Lord.
Matthew 28:1 Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.
Matthew 28:2 And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.
Matthew 28:3 And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.
Matthew 28:4 The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.
Matthew 28:5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.
Matthew 28:6 He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.
Matthew 28:7 Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.”
Matthew 28:8 And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples.
Matthew 28:9 And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.
Matthew 28:10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.”
That same day, two of Jesus’ other disciples had their own encounter with Jesus.
Luke 24:13 And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem.
Luke 24:14 And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place.
Luke 24:15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them.
Luke 24:16 But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.
Luke 24:17 And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad.
Luke 24:18 One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?”
That’s already at least four people, other than the eleven apostles, who saw Jesus the day He was raised from the dead…and it’s only the first day!
Peter names two more men who saw Jesus after His resurrection.
Acts 1:21 “Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us—
Acts 1:22 beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”
Acts 1:23 So they put forward two men, Joseph called Barsabbas (who was also called Justus), and Matthias.
In Luke 9, Jesus sent His twelves apostles to do the sort of things He’d been doing: preaching, healing, etc. In the very next chapter He sends 70 more.
Luke 10:1 Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.
Early church tradition identifies many of these 70 additional apostles as names that appear in various places in the New Testament – including Barnabas. While the New Testament does not describe each of these individuals as seeing the risen Lord, it does suggest that all of them did.
To prove this point, let’s look a bit more closely at a passage I’ve shown you before. I’ve put in bold all the eyewitnesses that Paul names.
1 Corinthians 15:5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
1 Corinthians 15:6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;
1 Corinthians 15:7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;
1 Corinthians 15:8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.
After mentioning, “the twelve” in verse 5, Paul’s reference to “all the apostles” in verse 7 seems to be a reference to the seventy. For otherwise, Paul would just have been repeating himself.
As for the “more than five hundred brethren” mentioned in verse 6, even if the seventy are considered to be a subset of that number, that still means hundreds of witnesses besides the apostles saw the resurrected Jesus.
Paul does not explicitly say in this passage that there were no other witnesses, so there could have been. But we’re sure from what he did explicitly say that there were at least hundreds of them.
Any way you count the eyewitnesses, it’s an impressive number and the one true church is the only church that can lay claim to them as members.
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