Resurrection Sunday (aka Easter) – April 1, 2018
The Third Day, Unbelief, and The Final Beatitude
Life after death
Sadducees didn’t believe in life after death and sought to trap Jesus with a question about seven brothers who all married the same woman as each died … so what would happen in the afterlife they did not believe in, who would she be married to?
B) Mark 12:24-27 … especially verse 27
Today we are going to talk about three things
- 1) The Third Day
- 2) Unbelief
- 3) The Final Beatitude
But before the Third Day – two places for the dead … two hells
A) Luke 16:22-24 one a place of suffering, the other Abraham’s bosom
The Third Day
Jesus said He would be raised on the 3rd day. Like Jonah to the Pharisees Matthew 12:40
To His disciples: 1) Matthew 16:21; 2) 17:22-23; 3) 20:17-19
Unbelief
- 4) Luke 24:1-12 He is Risen … not believed, hard to believe
- 5) Mark 16:9-13 It was the same, including the two witnesses on the road to Emmaus. Same witnesses in Luke 24:313-35
- 6) Mark 16:14 Jesus rebuked them for their lack of unbelief/faith !!
- 7) A week later Thomas’ unbelief… John 20:24-28
Final Beatitude
John 20:29
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Of whom is Jesus speaking? Clearly not of those who had already received the same advantage which Thomas had now enjoyed so tardily! The apostles, at first, did not accept the testimony of the women, nor the voices and messages o angels, nor the objective fact of the deserted grave.
Still, the fact was obvious, not until the disciples saw the Lord were they glad. Even in their gladness there was the mingling of surprise and incredulousness. To whom, then, did the blessedness apply? Surely, first of all to the multitudes of loving, waiting souls, who were prepared by their reverence and the new life given to them, and by the bewildering rumors of the Easter week, to believe in the Divine necessity of the Resurrection.
None of us have seen Jesus in the flesh, yet we have believed. We are blessed.
What will we do with such a blessing?