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Calvinism 4.0: Chestertonian Calvinism

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Introduction:

When these precious doctrines of ours—referring to the sovereignty of God over all things—are twisted in such a way as to perpetuate gloom, severity, introspection, accusations, slander, gnat-strangling, and more, the soul is not safe.

Whenever God delivers His people in a remarkable way, as the years go by, the new wineskin will turn gradually into an old wineskin. Part of this process is that the number of unregenerate people starts to grow, but they are stuck with the vocabulary of the previous great reformation and revival. This gives them new material to work on, new material to distort. Given enough time, distort it they will.

The Text:

“And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee” (Deut. 28:46–48).

Summary of the Text:

In the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, the people of Israel are being instructed on the nature of the blessings and curses that will come upon them in accordance with their covenantal obedience and disobedience. That whole chapter makes for sobering reading. The blessings are outlined in the first 14 verses. But beginning at verse 15, the bulk of the chapter is dedicated to a description of the curses that will come upon them. Not only will God curse them, but He will rejoice over their destruction (v. 63). But right in the middle of it, in our text, we are told why the people of God veered away from the blessings that follow obedience and into the dark world of insanity and disobedience.

It was because, while they had the blessings, they did not treat them or respond to them as blessings. Responding to blessing with greed or with guilt incurs wrath. The required response was gratitude. The curses will rest upon them for a sign and a wonder, and on their descendants as well (v. 46). The reason is then given. They are cursed because they did not serve God with two attitudes of thanksgiving—with joyfulness and with gladness of heart (v. 47). On top of this, they were not joyful and glad in heart because of all the stuff (v. 47). And that is why they will be turned out, consigned to the cruelties of their enemies, to the point of their final destruction (v. 48).

Lifted Out of the Mire:

As we will see later in this series, when we come to describe the sin of man, the heart of man is desperately wicked. Who can understand it (Jer. 17:9)? But part of this desperate wickedness and confusion can be seen in the refusal to get up when God declares an invitation to do so. We must humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God (1 Pet. 5:6). But if we have humbled ourselves in truth, then we won’t kick and squall when He does the next thing, which is to exalt us, lifting us up into gladness. If the humility does not end in gladness and triumph, then the humility did not begin (really) in humility at all.

“Glory and honour are in his presence; Strength and gladness are in his place” (1 Chron. 16:27).

“And the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness: and the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing with loud instruments unto the Lord” (2 Chron. 30:21).

“The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: But the expectation of the wicked shall perish” (Prov. 10:28).

“And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,” (Acts 2:46).

Some Historical Observations:

So we are addressing a biblical concept, but are not using a biblical word for it. Where do we get this word Chestertonian for what we are talking about?

“But there is no understanding the period of the Reformation in England until we have grasped the fact that the quarrel between the Puritans and the Papists was not primarily a quarrel between rigorism and indulgence, and that, in so far as it was, the rigorism was on the Roman side. On many questions, and specially in their view of the marriage bed, the Puritans were the indulgent party; if we may without disrespect so use the name of a great Roman Catholic, a great writer, and a great man, they were much more Chestertonian than their adversaries” (C.S. Lewis, Selected Literary Essays, p. 116, emphasis mine).

As participants in a great and true reformation, this attitude really was characteristic of the early Protestants, for the first century or so. Lewis again: “From this buoyant humility, this farewell to the self with all its good resolutions, anxiety, scruples, and motive-scratchings, all the Protestant doctrines originally sprang” (English Lit, p. 33).

And here is the central point—this demeanor, this Spirit-given, Christ-exalting demeanor—is an essential part of the program. It is not an add-on extra.

Leaning Toward Resurrection:

The suspicion that is directed against an exuberant gratitude for stuff is a suspicion that places the things of earth in some kind of a competition with the things of heaven. This world competes with the eternal things, and so what we must do is get a five gallon bucket of dour paint thinner, and pour it over all our material possessions. We try to make Heaven thick by making earth thin. This is wrong-headed, and incurs the latter half of Deuteronomy 28 to boot.

What we must do is receive all God’s covenantal blessings, as thick as we can conceive of them, and then imagine how much thicker Heaven will be. We receive them, in the name of Christ, as hors d’oeuvres, to whet the appetite, to make us long for more. We are not trying to get out of a prison. We are trying to get out of the entry room, and into the mansion.

In George Herbert’s lovely poem, Sunday, he describes the Lord’s Day as “the next world’s bud.” Later in the poem, he calls Sunday “a day of mirth.” This is no incongruity. James, the Lord’s brother, suggested that if someone was merry he should sing psalms (Jas. 5:13).

“Puritan poets . . . knew that part of their work in this world was to wean their affections from the unmixed love of it. But they also knew that this world was God’s metaphor for His communicable glories and that another part of their duty was to see and utter that metaphor, to use the figural value of this world to turn their attentions and affections to the next” (Daly, God’s Altar, p. 81).

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Calvinism 4.0: Biblical Absolutes and the Spirit of the Age

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Introduction

In the second chapter of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar the king promoted Daniel after he had been able to interpret the troubling dream that the king had had. As a result of Daniel’s influence, Daniel’s three friends were established in the rule of Babylon. Sometime later, Nebuchadnezzar established a giant gold statue of himself in the plain of Dura, and the officialdom of all Babylon was commanded to assemble and do obeisance to that statue when the music commenced.

What we have in this story is an account of what happens when the absolute Word of God collides with the pretended absolute word of man.

The Text

“Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Then they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up” (Dan. 3:13–18).

Summary of the Text

The command was given, and everyone complied (3:7)—well, everyone except for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Certain Chaldeans accused them to the king, saying correctly that they had not complied (vv. 8-12). The three men were consequently summoned before the king (v. 13). “Is this true?” Nebuchadnezzar asked (v. 14). The king then magnanimously offered them a do-over. If they refused, it was the fiery furnace for them, in that same hour (v. 15). The king then uttered the fatal taunt—“who is that God that shall deliver?” The three replied that they had no need to reply (v. 16). God was able to deliver them, and they were confident that He would in fact do so (v. 17). But whether or not He decided to deliver them, they were not going to bow down in any case (v. 18). The rest of the story is well-known—God delivered them from the fire, not to mention delivering the king from his blindness.

Inescapable

The God of the Bible is transcendent, standing outside the created order. He is not contained by the material world, although He is present throughout it. This is the true God, the God who will not share His glory with another. “I am the Lord: that is my name: And my glory will I not give to another, Neither my praise to graven images” (Is. 42:8). This was not a battle between the god of Babylon and the god of Jerusalem. Rather it was a face-off between the God of Heaven and gods of earth.

Sentient creatures are finite, but because they are also fallen creatures they don’t want to be finite. This means that whenever the true God is denied, or when some aspect of His absolute attributes are denied, sinful men always see a job opening. They don’t want a foreordaining God because they want to make room for foreordaining man. Their problem is not that there is a throne over the cosmos; their problem is that they aren’t sitting in it.

And, not so incidentally, this is precisely why the nations which have the deepest legacy of Calvinistic truth are also the nations that have the deepest legacy of personal liberty for man. When God is God, man is free. Whenever man is god, men are enslaved. Foreordination is an inescapable concept—not whether, but which. It is not whether the future will be planned, but rather who will attempt the planning. God the Father? Or man as the sorcerer’s apprentice?

Creator and Redeemer

We must distinguish the question of God as Creator being sovereign, and God as Redeemer being sovereign. We are going to delve into the question of redemption later in this series, but we need to make this distinction early on. The free agency of man as creature is entirely consistent with the sovereignty of God as Creator—but there is true mystery involved in it. This is a subject where we can’t do the math. How can God sovereignly ordain (before all worlds) that I will in fact place this watch on the pulpit right now, and that I will do so freely? What does it mean when a preacher places a watch on the pulpit? Some wiseacres might be tempted to say that it doesn’t mean anything, but I have a larger point. There is a true creaturely freedom here, but the basis of it is mysterious.

But when we are talking about redemption of men as sinners, we do not try to defend man’s freedom, and we do not try because men as sinners are not in fact free. They are slaves. They have no freedom. They are dead in their sins, and have no liberty. There is no mystery to this part of it.

Hostility to Graven Images

The Reformed tradition has long been hostile to the use of any kind of image in worship. This is based on two things. The first is the plain Word of God (Ex. 20:4-6). Such worship is prohibited in the Ten Commandments, and we have the glorious example of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego here. This is sufficient.

But there is also a deep theological structure to our resistance to images. We have been given a vision of a transcendent God, and the only way the Creator/creature divide could be bridged is if God Himself does it in an Incarnation. When we make an attempt at such a bridge, our attempts may seem glorious to us, but they are infinitely lame.

This statue of Nebuchadnezzar was about 90 feet tall. We look up at such a thing, but we are just ants on the ground. This is a cheap knock-off imitation transcendence. This is a scratch n’ sniff transcendence. Instead of the ultimate vertical, all we do is try to make the horizontal impressive. It succeeds . . . with idolaters.

Anchored in Eternity

We do not start with a premise that assumes an all-controlling God. Such a premise would in fact be quite true, but our arms are not sufficient to get around it. We can’t hold it, so we cannot start there. And so we come first to Christ. Christ was sent to us from the Father. If we have seen Him, we have seen the Father. He is the way—no one comes to the Father but through Him. God has set eternity in our hearts (Ecc. 3:11), and in Christ all things hold together (Col. 1:17-18)—including that eternity.

We are not fatalists, worshiping an inscrutable Force. We are Christians, and because we have come to Christ we have been escorted into a true friendship with the mysteries.

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Calvinism 4.0: The Sin of Sectarianism

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Introduction

What I would like to do, Lord permitting, is preach a series of messages through the basic doctrines of the Reformed faith, as we understand the teaching of Scripture. This is particularly important if you have been attending here for many years, or if you have grown up in this church. It is of course bad to be steeped in sectarian doctrines and be full of pride over it. But it is far worse to be deeply attached to a doctrine or tradition that you know nothing about.

The title of this series refers to Calvinism 4.0. What is that about? The history of the Reformed faith covers one fourth of the entire history of the church, and there have naturally been developments—in my mind, each one consistent with and augmenting what went before. Calvinism 1.0 was the initial period in the 1500s, the time of Calvin’s Institutes. Calvinism 2.0 was the period of the Reformed scholastics, culminating in the Westminster Confession. Calvinism 3.0 is best represented by the fusion of American evangelicalism and the orthodoxy of Old Princeton. Calvinism 4.0 is what we are attempting here in our ministry, fully in line with what has gone before, but with a few additions that I will develop as we go.

The Text

“Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other” (1 Cor. 4:6, NKJV).

Summary of the Text

The Scriptures plainly prohibit any kind of factionalism that arises from undue loyalty to particular Bible teachers (1 Cor.3: 4, 21-22). To prohibit such attitudes is no slam against those teachers necessarily because the ones named in this section by Paul were particularly godly — two were apostles (Paul and Peter), and the other was eloquent and mighty in the Scriptures (Apollos). The problem is one of conceit and pride, taking credit for something that you had actually received as a gift (1 Cor. 4:7). The fact that the problem lies in attitudes, and not in names per se, can be seen in the fact some at Corinth were guilty of this factionalism while using the name of Christ (1 Cor. 1:12). A denomination refers to a name, and you can’t escape denominationalism through the simple expedient of calling yourself non-denominational, or “simply Christian.” It should be so easy.

How Our Statement of Faith Works

Our church has adopted the original British version of the Westminster Confession of Faith. What this means is that it represents the kind of doctrine you can expect to hear taught from the pulpit. Members of the church are not required to subscribe to it—members of the church are simply required to be Christians who are living decent and responsible Christian lives. So this means that a man who loves Jesus, and who is walking in accordance with the gospel can join this church, even if he is a Wesleyan charismatic dispensationalist.

Not Our Table

We practice what is called open communion. This means that anyone who visits us is welcome to partake with us, provided they have been baptized in the triune name by a Trinitarian church or individual, and provided further that they are not under lawful church discipline. This is the Lord’s Table, not ours, and so it is open to any of the Lord’s people. But this is open communion, not promiscuous communion. Vacationing Lutherans are as welcome as anyone, but we do not say the same thing about visiting meth dealers.

An Optical Illusion

The way God created the world, it is necessary for us to live in particular communities. This means that, in a certain stipulated sense, we have to major on minors. What do I mean by this? If you were to quiz me on what doctrines I believe to be very important, the doctrine of an optimistic eschatology would be in the top three. And yet a person could conceivably join our church and not find out about this emphasis for a year and a half. It might occur to him to wonder from time to time about how cheerful these people seem to be in these Last Days, but yet still not encounter an explicit statement of it.

And what is the doctrinal importance of the songs we sing? Well, they are important also, but about seventeen things are on the list ahead of them. And yet he finds out about our music on the first Sunday with us, the second Sunday with us, and so on. It turns out the music is a different kind of important.

Beyond What Is Written

The basic injunction that Paul gives us in our text is that we must be people of the Word. We must be in the Word, and we must live out the Word. We must not get out ahead of ourselves when we assume that “this is what the Bible must teach.”

Churches that have defined systems of doctrine (as we most certainly do) will have temptations that correspond to what they possess. If you enroll in a math class, you will have math problems. If you are a confessional Christian, you will have confessional temptations. And this why all of you need to be Bible readers. This prevents you from relying “for the gist” on the Cliff Notes provided by sermons, catechisms, or Christian books. There is a vast difference between teaching a Bible reader, as Philip did with the Ethiopian eunuch, and providing dashboard summaries for Christians who can’t be troubled. You are exhorted to desire the milk of the Word (1 Pet. 2:2), and while it is sometimes more convenient to get it third hand, the chances of the milk being watered down are greatly increased. This is why a lot of Christians are drinking milk that looks like water somebody cleaned their paint brushes in.

Plausibility Structures

When you grow up in any culture, the assumptions of that culture will naturally seem reasonable to you. This sometimes troubles Christian kids—are Hindu children, and Muslim children, and Mormon children being taught in just the same way that I am being taught, i.e. that “their religion is true.” The answer to that is yes, they quite possibly are. It is possible for Christian kids to be indoctrinated in just the same ways that other kids are indoctrinated elsewhere. This is why you must come to Christ yourself; come to His Word yourself; live by faith yourself. Christianity on cruise control is not what we are after.

Jesus is Everything

When you grow up in a church like this one, it would be a grave mistake to think that we are simply indoctrinating you. What we are seeking to do is tell you the good news in a manner that is consistent with the message itself. You do not know yourself to be a sinner because that was in your catechism. You know that because you read it in your heart. You can see your heart, can you not?

And when Christ is presented to you, as He is every week, you know that He is the Savior of every sinner. It is true that I am telling you this, but someone else is also telling you this. And this is the work of the Spirit of Christ, present with us now, the one who makes all things new (Rev. 21:5).

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How to Worship Jesus Christ

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Introduction

The apostle Paul wanted to sing in the Spirit, but wanted to sing with the mind also (1 Cor. 14:15). In a similar way, we come here week after week to worship God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ, empowered by the Spirit of God. But it is important for us to understand what we are doing, and why we are doing it. Otherwise we will drift into a mindless routine—which is quite distinct from a Spirit-led routine.

The Text

And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving (Col. 2:4-7).

Summary of the Text

In verse 4, Paul warns against the seductive power of a certain kind of religious approach, the kind that always fails to approach Christ. Even though Paul was not present with the Colossians (v. 5), he was with them in the spirit. He rejoiced as he beheld their order (taxis), and the rock solid nature of their faith in Jesus Christ. That word taxis is a military term, and should be understood as a kind of regimentation. But note that this order was both disciplined and alive. It was not the order you could find in a row of gravestones, but rather the order of a military troop, arms at the ready. It was more than such order that pleased Paul, but it was certainly not less. Paul then urged the Colossians to walk in Christ Jesus in just the same way they had received Him (v. 6), which was of course by grace through faith. As they did so, they would be rooted and built up in the Christian faith, in just the way they had been taught. The overflow of this, when it is happening, is abundance of gratitude. As with all things of this nature, we measure whether or not it is happening by the fruit. So with that said, why do we do what we do in worship? And how does it relate to the worship of Jesus Christ?

The Structure of Our Worship

Consider first the broad outline of our worship service. We find five basic elements:

Call to Worship—we invoke the name of God, and enter His gates with adoration and worship

Confession of Sin—we wipe our feet at the door.

Consecration—we offer ourselves up to God as living sacrifices.

Communion—we sit down for table fellowship with our God.

Commissioning—we are sent out into the world.

The first and last elements “bookend” the service. The first invites us in from the world to assemble before the Lord to worship Him. The last sends us out into the world in order to function as ambassadors of the right worship that we have offered.

The center three elements follow a basic biblical pattern of sacrifice. In the worship of the Older Covenant, God commonly required three kinds of sacrifices together. When they were offered together, they came in this order. First was the guilt offering (confession of sin: Lev. 17), then the ascension or burnt offering (consecration: Lev. 16:24-25), and then the peace offering (communion: Dt. 12:17-19). We see this overall pattern in Lev. 9 and 2 Chron. 29:20-36.

We call worship that follows this basic pattern covenant renewal worship. But our relationship with God cannot expire, like a lease. We are not renewing anything in that sense. It is more like how food renews the body.

Filling It In

We find in various places of Scripture that certain particular practices are called for in New Covenant worship. One of the things we do therefore is look at the nature of that practice and decide where it would best fit within this over all structure. For example, the Bible requires the public reading of Scripture in worship (1 Tim. 4:13). So where do we put it? It seems to fit best under Consecration. The Bible commands us to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19). Where do we place the different kinds of songs? We are commanded to have preaching (1 Tim. 4:2). Where does that go? In doing this, we are seeking to be obedient while arranging our worship intelligently.

Posture and Demeanor

A very common temptation among the Reformed is to over-engineer the intellectual aspects of our faith. Reason and systematics have their place, but that place is not every place. Reformed people need to be reminded that they have bodies, and that these too are involved in worship. This is why we lift up holy hands in the Gloria Patri (1 Tim. 2:8), and why we kneel when we confess our sins (Ps. 95:6). We stand in order to show deep respect for God’s Word (Neh. 8:5). Our overall demeanor is to be solemnity mixed with gladness. “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord” (Ps. 122:1). Middle English had a word for this demeanor, and it is one we seek to cultivate. It is called solempne.

Conversation Between God and His People

Worship is a time of meeting. During this time, God speaks to the people through His ordained representatives (as in the Scripture reading, assurance of pardon, or the sermon). During this time, the people also speak to God, either through their appointed representatives (as in the prayers of petition), or all together with one voice (as with a hymn or psalm, or the creed). We should therefore learn how to think of the worship service as a very large conversation, with a direction and theme, and not as a disparate collection of random spiritual artifacts, crammed into a shoebox. You are not here as a spectator. You are not here to be watching. You are here to be partaking.

In the Call to Worship: God says, “Come, meet with Me.” We say, “First, let us praise Your majesty.” Having done so, God warns us through the Exhortation not to approach Him with unclean hearts. We respond by Confession. God responds by declaring that we have Assurance of Pardon. This is a conversation in which you all are called to actively participate. As you do, you are following the most important conversation in the world, which is between God and His people.

Worship is War

One other thing must be mentioned. So last, we return to our passage in Colossians. The order we are cultivating here is not the order of porcelain figurines in a china hutch, neatly arranged on a shelf. The order we are pursuing is alive and disciplined, the order of a well-trained military unit. And why? Because every Lord’s Day we go into battle. But as God’s people we fight on earth from the high ground of heaven.

We ascend into the heavenlies in our worship and meet with our God there (Heb. 12:22). But this heavenly worship is not something that has fearfully run away from the enemy on earth. Rather, as the book of Revelation shows in great detail, the worship of the saints in heaven accomplishes God’s judgments on earth. The twenty-four elders worship God in heaven (Rev. 4:10), and the seven seals are opened in heaven (Rev. 5:5). But this does not leave the earth unaffected by it.

How to Worship Jesus Christ

We worship Jesus Christ when we magnify and adore Him in His performance of His office. That means that we worship Christ by coming through Him to the Father (John 14:6). In the verses just prior to our text, we are reminded of this. He wanted the Colossians comforted, knit together in love, and into all the riches of a full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ (Col. 2:2–3).

“For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 2:18). We honor the Spirit by honoring the Son. We honor the Son by coming to the Father. But when we come to the Father, we do not leave the Son behind. We come to our Father as Christians, with the name of Jesus Christ in our mouths. “Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing” (Rev. 5:12).

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Departure from Bethany (Easter 2018)

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Introduction

The message that we Christians have for the world is a message that concerns certain historical events, and we include with that message the theological import, the theological meaning, of those events. We preach and declare that Christ died and rose, and we also declare that this same Christ was the God/man, meaning that His death was a propitiation for our sins, and that His resurrection was the vindication or justification of all who believe in Him. His new life is our new life, which we possess by faith alone.

The Text

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time” (1 Cor. 15:3–8).

Summary of the Text

This passage from 1 Corinthians contains a wonderful summary of the contents of the objective gospel. That gospel includes in it a summary overview of some of the resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ. But first, Paul had passed on to the Corinthians what he had received (v. 3). In accordance with the Scriptures (v. 3), Christ died for our sins (v. 3). He was buried, demonstrating that the death was not play-acting, not a sham (v. 4). The third day He rose from the dead, which was the initial moment of resurrection (v. 4)—a great event that was also in accordance with the Scriptures (v. 4). But the gospel contains more than just that initial instant of resurrection. What we call the resurrection includes the 40 days between that moment and the time of His ascension into Heaven. He appeared first to Cephas (Peter), then to the twelve (v. 5), and after that to over 500 brothers at one time (v. 6). The word had gotten out over the course of those 40 days and quite a crowd had assembled. Most of those witnesses were still alive decades later when 1 Corinthians was written (c. 53-55 A.D.) Then James saw Him, and all the apostles (v. 7). After that, in a way that was a bit irregular (because it was after the Ascension), the Lord appeared also to Paul (v. 8).
Sunday Morning Chaos

In all four gospels, the women are the first at the tomb Sunday morning (Matt. 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20). The stone has been rolled away, and the tomb is empty. Mary Magdalene apparently separates from the other women, and goes to find Peter and John (John 20:1-2). The other nine disciples were not with Peter (perhaps because of his shame over his denial?), and they are found by the larger group of women. Peter and John run to the tomb, and find it empty, with Mary Magdalene apparently coming along behind them. After they depart (John having believed), Mary stayed there, saw the angels, asked about the body, and then after that encountered Jesus Himself (John 20:17). So Mary was the first to see the risen Christ, and as a group the disciples generally did not believe her (Mark 16:9-11). The other women had gone into the tomb separately (Matt. 28:5-10), and were sent by the angels to tell the disciples. As they were going back to Jerusalem, Peter, John and Mary Magdalene were coming back out of Jerusalem, on the way to the tomb. After Jesus appeared to Mary, He also appeared to the women on the way back to Jerusalem, who had been too frightened to speak to anyone (Mark 16:8). But after He appeared to them, they were able to deliver the message (Luke 24:9-11).

40 Day Timeline

While it is best not to be too dogmatic about such reconstructions, here is a suggested timeline:

  1. Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18);
    2. Salome, Joanna, the other Mary, and one other woman at least (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:10);
    3. Simon Peter (Luke 24:34; 1 Cor. 15:5);
    4. Cleopas and companion on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35);
    5. The disciples, Thomas missing (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-25);
    6. The disciples, with Thomas present (John 20:26-29);
    7. Seven disciples at the Sea of Galilee (John 21:1-23);
    8. Disciples and small crowd on a mountain in Galilee (Matt. 28:16-17; 1 Cor. 15:6);
    9. James, the Lord’s brother (1 Cor. 15:7);
    10. Disciples, probably in Jerusalem, before they walked to Bethany on Mt. Olivet, where He ascended (Luke 24:49-53; Acts 1:3-11).

Please note that we are talking about a lot of people who saw the Lord, and in broad daylight.

Departure from Bethany

Bethany was a village located about a mile and a half from Jerusalem. It is the place where Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-46). It is the place where the Triumphal Entry had begun (Mark 11:1; Luke 19:29). During the week that preceded His arrest, the Lord stayed in Bethany (Matt. 21:17; Mark 11:11-12). Simon the Leper lived there, and it was in his house that Mary had anointed Jesus (Matt. 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-8). And Jesus led His disciples out to Bethany before He ascended into Heaven (Luke 24:50).

It is hard to escape the conclusion that Jesus went to Bethany and saw Lazarus, Martha, and Mary there. The conclusion of His resurrection appearances was not the dissolution of His friendships, but rather the eternal and everlasting ratification of them. He went to a town; He ascended into Heaven from a place. He knew people there. When He ascended, there were houses in the background, one of them being a place where He had previously stayed. In short, this last resurrection appearance was an event in history, in full color, under the same sun we have enjoyed this morning. We don’t know the precise latitude and longitude of the last place where Jesus was standing before He left, but God knows it. No doubt many an unwitting tourist has stood on the spot. There is probably a car parked there right now.

And because there is no reason a car couldn’t be parked on that very spot, your sins are forgiven. These things really happened, in other words. And by “really happened,” I mean something like actually happened. As sure as this Bible is on the pulpit, that being something that actually happened, so also Jesus walked to Bethany for His departure.

Those who want to pretend that Jesus rose, will also have to pretend to be forgiven. Those who know, as we do, that Christ is risen are also privileged to know that we also will rise. He is risen indeed.

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