On another occasion, at the Sea of Galilee, "he showed himself unto them." Paul informs us that he was seen by above five hundred brethren at once, which was probably on the mountain in Galilee, where he had appointed to meet them. And so, after eating and drinking and familiarly conversing with his disciples for forty days, and appearing to none else, he ascended to Heaven in the sight of them all. After his ascension he appeared, first, To the Martyr Stephen, "standing at the right hand of God." He appeared to Paul on the way to Damascus, "as to one born out of due time," who refers often to this fact as important-" that he had seen the Lord" after his Resurrection. Christ told him that he appeared to him for this purpose-to make him a witness. John had a sublime vision of his person in the first chapter of Revelations. It is believed by many that Pontius Pilate sent an account of the death and Resurrection of Christ to Tiberius, the Emperor; and this is in itself highly probable. We have the experience of numerous saints who have felt and borne their testimony to the power of his Resurrection; who know that they have not believed a cunningly devised fable. They have trusted in him as a living Saviour, and have not been put to shame. This inward persuasion cometh not from faith in a falsehood, but by belief of the truth. "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself." And though other persons saw the Saviour repeatedly after his Resurrection, the eleven disciples were the chosen witnesses to testify concerning it to the world through all ages. And as so much is depending on their testimony, we may examine a little into their character. We may say that a competent witness must have three qualifications: 1. Capacity. 2. Opportunity. 3. Integrity. 1. Then, the disciples were capable of observing and judg ing of facts. Though "ignorant and unlearned men" in some things, yet their being men of plain common sense does not militate against their testimony, or disqualify them for witnesses. There was no defect alleged in respect to their bodily senses or mental faculties. And that they were not too credulous, we see in the case of Thomas' unwillingness to believe in the Resurrection of Christ without ocular demonstration, and in their slowness to admit the report of the women, that the Lord had indeed risen from the dead. Though warned beforehand, they do not catch at the tidings as something they were just waiting to hear. They were probably as much amazed to hear of his Resurrection as the Scribes and Pharisees. And when Christ appeared to them, he "upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart; because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen." 2. They had abundant opportunity to witness that about which they were to bear testimony. It was not done in a corner; it was not some ghost-an illusion of the senses-something seen only once, and in the dimness of twilight, or in the darkness of midnight. They had been in familiar intimacy with their Master for three years, constituting his family, witnessing his actions in various circumstances. They were the very ones best qualified to prove his identity, "who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead "who saw the scars of the nails in his hands and feet, and touched his wounded side; who declare "what they have heard, what they have seen with their eyes,** what they have looked upon, and their hands have handled;" who lay great stress on the fact that they had personal knowledge, 1. By sense of hearing. 2. By sense of sight. 3. By sense of touch. Just as Christ directed them-" Behold my hands and my feet that it is I, myself; handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." And then to give them full confirmation, took a fish and honey comb and ate before them. "To whom he showed himself alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days," proving to them that he had a real body of flesh and bones, by his eating, drinking, walking and conversing with them; and not the shadow, or appearance of one, as the Docetæ afterwards taught. His body had not undergone its final transformation into its glori fied form, as seen by the beloved disciple in the first chapter of Revelation. And when the Apostles supplied the place of Judas, the great qualification to fill the office was that the person was one who had been in their company all the time that the Lord went in and out among them," unto that same day that he was taken up from them," and who had had an opportu nity to see all that had occurred in that time. The Apostles made this the great point of their preaching-that God had raised up Christ and exalted him to be a prince and a Saviour; the great object for which Christ had called and trained them, to be his witnesses to all nations. And if it be objected, as it is by infidels, that he did not show himself openly to all the people-to his foes, as well as to his friends-to those who put him to death, as well as to his disciples-it may be said, first, that he had done enough to satisfy the unbelieving Scribes and Pharisees, and it was useless to give them further proof. They, as a nation, had rejected him. They The Greek terms are Luke i. 2, avronтaι and 2 Peter i, 16, coral, eye-witnesses. To see with the eyes" is not pleonastic, but "intimates the certainty of the perception."-Winer's Idioms, Sec. 67. knew of the fact of his Resurrection in various ways: from the report of the guard, and from the declarations of other witnesses, and from the circumstances of the case. He had before given them the sign of Jonas, the Prophet. And if he had appeared openly, they would have sought his death again, just as they did Lazurus': hence, he appointed a public meeting for his disciples in Galilee. And, besides, if he had, how would they all know? It would depend at last on the testimony of the disciples to prove his personal identity; so that he took the wisest course-to qualify twelve men to stand before the world as his witnesses, and to rest the whole burden upon them, with the aid of the Holy Spirit and his promised presence; and if it be said that a delusion was practised on the senses of the whole number, twelve, and all the others who saw him, both the women and the five hundred whom Paul mentions, to some of whom he appeals as still alive twenty years after, then no one can credit his senses, and there is an end of human testimony. But "He showed himself alive to chosen witnesses, Matthias having been in the company of Christ and the Apos tles all the time of his public ministry, was specially prepared beforehand for a witness, and was as much an original witness as any of the others. (Acts i. 21, 22.) And it is worthy of remark here that twelve is the number adopted for jurymen throughout the civilized world. 3. They related faithfully what they had witnessed; we can put confidence in their integrity. 1. They gave their testimony there on the spot, and when the transactions were recent, and where they could easily be convicted of falsehood, if guilty of it, and by those strongly interested to do so; why was it not done? 2. Every motive of a temporal nature operated upon them to favor the Jews. Christ forewarned them to expect persecutions in his service. They were poor, destitute of human aid, and friendless; while against them was power, civil, military and ecclesiastical. And yet they adhered to their testimony, in opposition to priests, philosophers and rulers. 3. They attested their sincerity by enduring the greatest sufferings; "starving their gain, and martyrdom their price." Death, and worse than death. No perils could deter, no danger daunt them. The death and the Resurrection of Christ was their first and their last message in Jerusalem, in Antioch, in Philippi, in Corinth, in Athens and Rome. They might often be on every side oppressed, but not distressed; perplexed, but not dispirited; persecuted, but not deserted; prostrated, but not destroyed:* for when one was cut down, crucified, burnt at the stake, as in the gardens of Nero, or torn by wild beasts in the amphitheatre, others rose up to fill his place and persecution proved like the sowing of dragon's teeth, where every one sprung up an armed man; so the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. The more effort was made against it, the more it progressed, till, from being a despised sect, it rose to occupy the seat of its former per secutors. Now, men may suffer martyrdom in error, in defence of what they suppose true, when it is not; but they cannot do it, in the face of every human motive to the contrary, in defence of what they know to be a lie, a false statement of a fact. They gave the highest proof of their own faith in what they testified; and what would satisfy them, ought to create belief in all the world. They give us the evidence on which they believed, and we may go and do likewise. If all false, why not one even turn state's evidence? 4. But that is not all; they had the unequivocal testimony of Him that cannot lie, in their favor to confirm their words; just as much as if he had spoken, as in reference to Christ, by word of mouth from heaven. Hence they were not to leave Jerusalem to begin their testimony till they were endued with power from on high. "And then they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following." "Who gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands." A miracle then is an act of God, above the power of men, but by their hands, to confirm their words; and it is conclusive, for it is impossible to suppose that God would thus add his testimony to what is false, and to give credence to a message that he did not send. But he does become a voucher for the message which they delivered; they call for attestation from him, and he gives it. 5. We have a monument commemorating this great fact, and confirming the testimony of the witnesses, in the Holy Sabbath. Immediately after the resurrection they set apart the first day of the week, and called it the Lord's Day, for this very reason, that on it he had risen-they made it their day of religious worship. Ancient writers assert that this day was kept for that purpose. Barnabas says, that in his time "the eighth day was observed with gladness, being that on which Jesus rose from the dead." Many other ancient writers speak of the same thing. If the resurrection be denied, how can the fact of the observance of this day distinct from the Jewish Sabbath be accounted for ? *This is the literal rendering, and in the exact form of the original in 2 Cor. iv. 9. "The first day of the week was everywhere celebrated for the Christian Sabbath, and which is not to be passed over without observing; as far as appears from Scripture, there is nowhere any dispute about the matter. There was controversy concerning circumcision, and other points of the Jewish religion, whether they were to be retained or not, but nowhere do we read concerning the change of the Sabbath. There were indeed some Jews converted to the Gospel, who as in some other things they retained a smack of their old Judaism, so they did in the observance of days (Rom. xiv. 5; Gal. iv. 10), but yet not rejecting or neglecting the Lord's day. They celebrated it and made no manner of scruple, it appears, concerning it; but they would have their old festival days too; and they disputed not at all, whether the Lord's day were to be celebrated, but whether the Jewish Sabbath ought not to be celebrated also."*. 6. We have one argument more bearing on this point, and that is, The coming of Christ in power to destroy Jerusalem, and put an end both to the Church and State. His foretelling this is no ordinary prophecy; His fulfillment of it no ordinary miracle; when he took vengeance on them to the utmost for imbruing their hands in his blood; and then imprecating it upon themselves, and leaving it as a legacy to their children. It was predicted under a variety of forms of expression: "There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom;" "till they have seen the Kingdom of God come with power;" "till they see the Kingdom of God" "when the Son of Man is revealed." says, In the 24th chapter of Matthew, after giving a great variety of signs that are to precede, he says, "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven;" and soon after he "This generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled." The people then of that generation would have full proof that the Son of Man was the Divine Messiah, just as much as if he had appeared in person. And that his words were fulfilled to the very letter, in the terrible calamities that befell that unhappy nation, and that guilty city, we have the accounts of Josephus, a cotemporary and an eye-witness, and not a Christian: who seems to have been raised up and qualified by Providence, for this very purpose, to confirm the words of our Saviour unwittingly. Tacitus and Suetonius also relate many of the same facts; and they constitute part and parcel of Roman History.+ And there is no rebutting evidence. The story told by the soldiers that the disciples stole the body away while they slept, is incredible on the face of it; they did not believe it themselves. If true, it would involve them in ruin, for it was death to sleep Lightfoot's Works. 1670. Josephus' Jewish War, Book V. Sec. 8, &c. Tacitus' History, Book V. Sec. 18. |