(As a reminder...The Book of Acts gives us an accurate account of the birth and growth of the Christian Church. It was written by Luke, who was the physician, between 63 and 70 AD. It begins where the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) left off. It begins in Jerusalem, where the church is established, talks of how the church faced severe persecution, spreading it out to the surrounding areas. But, because of this persecution in Jerusalem, we, the Gentiles, were able to hear of the Good News.)
Verse 3 (To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.) says quite a bit to us. Luke continues his account with Jesus' reappearing, after His resurrection, to His disciples, and the proof of that appearing. Jesus was with them for a span of 40 day and spoke of the Kingdom of God.
Could you imagine watching a Man die in front of you, actually publically in front of many people, and being in mourning for this Man, then seeing Him appear in front of you? Would you freak out? I know I would. Holy buckets!! Can you imagine what the disciples were going through trying to wrap their heads around this event? There were some who didn't believe what they were seeing (Matt 28:17, Mark 16:12), and I honestly can't say that I blame them one bit. They say only one Man raised people from the dead...and now He was dead. They saw Him die! I'm sure it didn't make much sense. Poor fellas.
Despite that, Jesus continued to appear to them many times throughout the 40 days (verses above, Luke 24:34, John 20:19 & 26, John 21:1 & 14). He even appeared to a group of more than 500 people (1 Cor 15:5-7). First Corinthians was written by Paul, accounting for his testimony to those outside Israel. These verses are significant to Paul's ministry because is says that most of the 500 were still alive at the time. This means that there were many first hand witnesses of Christ's reappearing. What more proof do we need? Well, people still didn't believe, unfortunately. For those who did believe, men and women were baptized (Acts 8:12).
You know, you would think that first hand proof by those who witnessed seeing Jesus would be enough for people to believe. It wasn't. Jesus performing many miracles while He was still alive wasn't proof enough for the people in Israel to believe He was God's Son. I mean, He raised people from the dead! He healed people who were blind or lame from birth! He spoke to them from the position of authority, despite lack of schooling! Hearts were just hardened. That's the beauty (or lack thereof) of our fallen world. Even today, there is overwhelming evidence of the fallacy of macro evolution (that which they say is our evolvement from apes), yet there are many people who still cling to this theory. It is still taught in our schools. There is also much evidence of the truth of Creation, yet we are the whackos. The more science discoveries we have, the more they point to God, yet countless folks believe we are a chance happening from billions of years ago.
We cannot wrap our heads around an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-present Being who loves us despite of ourselves. Even for those of us who do believe, it's hard to handle God sending His Son to be the ultimate and final atonement for our sins. He created earth just for us...a single planet with the perfect positioning within the solar system to be able to inhabit life. He created our bodies to function amazingly, yet we don't take care of it. We kill our babies, kill each other, and shake our fists at God for the things that are wrong with this world. They did this from the fall of man (thanks Eve), and we continue to stay on that path and not learn from our past. Why does God put up with us? Love. Indescribable love.
Let's enjoy our day knowing that we were created for a purpose by a God who loves us and wants only the best for us, if we'll just believe and obey Him. Mmm, yummy pudding.
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