AFTER EASTER...

AFTER EASTER…
Acts 1:1-3
            Have you ever given thought to those 40 post resurrection days mentioned in our text? Do you ever wonder what events took place after the resurrection, but assumed that there is no record? There is, in fact, a record of those post resurrection appearances!
            Luke, the author of the Book of Acts, makes mention of a former treatise, written by himself that records “all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day He was taken up…” referring to His Ascension. This former treatise is the Gospel of Luke and is but one of four Gospel accounts written concerning the life and ministry of Christ. The Book of Acts is Luke’s inspired record of the work of the Holy Spirit through the Church.
            In the introduction of this book, Luke refers to “many infallible proofs” that were evidences of Jesus’ activities during those 40 days after that first Easter morning.  They were:

1. His appearing to Mary Magdalene in the Garden
2. …to the women who in turn went to tell the disciples
3. …to Peter
4. …to the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus
5. …to the disciples in the Upper Room
6. Paul records His appearing to 500 disciples at one time (1Co.15:6)
7. …to the disciples on the shores of Galilee
8. …to those who witnessed His ascension back into Heaven

 
And for those who discount the eyewitness accounts because they are written in the Bible, consider the secular account written by the early historian, Flavius Josephus, in The Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3:3, page 480…”for he (Jesus) appeared unto them (those that loved him) alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold…”
 
            Here we are, just days after Easter Sunday 2019…how many have gone about business as usual, not considering that He is still risen? He does not rise from the grave once a year any more than He is re-born annually. The celebrations of His birth and resurrection, while commemorative, must also be continual. Don’t acknowledge Him once a year and live as if He is dead the rest of the year!
 
Alfred H. Ackley, a Presbyterian pastor in California was meditating on Mark 16:6
“And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.” KJV and consequently wrote the words and music to “He Lives”.  Ackley was about forty-five years old at the time.