"Peace be unto you."
"Why are ye troubled?"
"And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?"
"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."
Still these disciples were afraid, afraid it could not be true.
Then He showed them His hands and His feet that they might see where the nails had gone in, torn through the flesh and left eternal wounds as the chevrons of glory.
And still the silence of hope mingled with fear.
Then he said:
"Have ye here any meat?"
And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
And He took and did eat before them.
He had said to them He was flesh and bones, not flesh and blood.
He was not flesh and blood because in the sin-offering all the blood must be poured out at the bottom of the altar, and He was Himself the ant.i.typical sin-offering. He had poured out His blood. It had run as a living stream from every vein and artery.
Because He was the sin-offering in death, in resurrection He became for the first time a priest--high priest after the order, not of Aaron, but Melchisedec.
That very morning as the high priest He had ascended to heaven, within the vail, and sprinkled His redeeming blood (how is not revealed) on the eternal throne, changing it from the throne of judgment to a throne of grace. That night He stood before them He was their high priest, not of earth, but heaven. He breathed upon them, imparted to them the Holy Spirit--the Comforter--linking them to His immortal body. He remained with them, going and coming, during forty days, operating with them officially by and through the Holy Spirit as His unseen executive; for we are told that, "until the day he was taken up he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles;" and then, finally, as this scene in the book of Acts shows us, ascended to His high-priestly function and unceasing service of intercession.
He is seated in heaven now, seated there as the same Jesus who met His disciples that first Sunday night, the same Jesus who ascended out of their midst from Olivet. This same Jesus! The same not only in realistic, human body, but the same in character, full of the same measureless compa.s.sion and grace as when He sat on the well curb in Samaria and though thirsting as a real man for real water offered to give to the sinful woman who by divine and eternal ordination met him there, the water that should be in her as a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
This same Jesus is coming again, not a phantom, not an impalpable spirit, not a ghost Christ, but a Christ who is a real man of real flesh and real bones.
This is the key-note of the book of Acts.
He who died for men, who has sanctioned the Holy Spirit to operate in His name, speak in His name, reveal to us the things that are His and show us things to come concerning Him, He is coming again, coming not only as very G.o.d, the Holy One of Israel, He who has been exalted to be both Lord and Christ, but as this loving, tender, compa.s.sionate Jesus, and in a body that may be seen and handled--a body of flesh and bones.
In Romans we have the promise the Lord is coming to bruise Satan under His feet and the feet of His saints; and according to the calendar of heaven and the way in which they measure time there this great event must come to pa.s.s, as it is written, "shortly."
In First Corinthians the Lord is coming to raise the dead who shall be His "at his coming."
In Second Corinthians He is coming to transfigure the living who believe in Him and thus clothe them with their "house from heaven,"
give them the body that shall be the handiwork of G.o.d and not man.
In Philippians our citizenship is in a country which is in heaven from whence we are to look for a Saviour, even the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change this body of our mortal humiliation that it may be fashioned like unto His immortal and glorious body, a change which He will effectuate by that mighty power according to which He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.
In Colossians our life is hid with Christ in G.o.d, a double environment of security, and when Christ who is our life shall appear, we shall appear with Him also in glory.
In the epistles to the Thessalonians each chapter closes with a testimony to the Second Coming.
In the first epistle in the first chapter the Apostle commends the Thessalonian Church because they had turned to G.o.d from idols to serve the living and true G.o.d and to wait for His Son from heaven.
From the beginning the Apostle Paul taught the new converts the next possible event might be the Coming of that Lord whom he had declared had been sacrificed for them, was now risen and in heaven. This was the one supreme thing for which they were to be in readiness every day--the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the second chapter he a.s.sures the Thessalonians he will meet them in the presence of the Lord at His Coming; when He comes and they are all gathered before Him, saved through the Gospel Paul has preached to them in the demonstration of the Spirit and power, they will be the guarantee and occasion of the crown he shall receive.
In the third chapter he exhorts them to increase and abound in love to one another that their hearts may be established unblameable in holiness before the Lord when He shall come the Second time with all His saints.
In the fourth chapter he announces as a special revelation from the Lord that the Lord Himself is coming to awaken those whom He has put to sleep in His name. He will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of G.o.d. The dead in Him shall rise first, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up with them in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; so shall we ever be with the Lord and with one another.
In the fifth chapter the Coming of the Lord for His saints as just noted in the fourth and preceding chapter will bring in the day of the Lord; and we further learn this coming for the saints not only precedes the day of the Lord, but as the introduction to it will be as secret, sudden and unknown to the world as is in general the coming of a thief.
In the second epistle, in the first chapter the Lord is seen coming with all His saints to execute judgment on the unG.o.dly and the unbelieving.
In the second chapter we learn the word, "Rapture," so often given as the name and t.i.tle for the translation of the Church to meet the Lord, while it may be a deducible truth and exegetically, or, rather philologically sustained, is not the Holy Ghost t.i.tle. The true and Scriptural t.i.tle is: "Our gathering together unto Him."
In this chapter we learn also when the Church has been gathered to the Lord in heaven the man of sin, the Antichrist will be revealed; then will the Lord appear in glory, overthrow him and his league of nations and set up the heaven-ordained kingdom of righteousness and peace.
In the third chapter the Apostle prays the Lord may direct their hearts into the love of G.o.d and into--patient waiting for Christ.
In the First Epistle to the Thessalonians the Lord comes FOR His Church.
In the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians He comes WITH His Church.
In First Timothy He is coming that He may be shown forth as the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords.
In Second Timothy He is coming to judge the quick and the dead and to give reward to all those who love His appearing.
t.i.tus gives us the inspired and official t.i.tle of the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as, "That Blessed Hope."
In Hebrews we see this age is the ant.i.typical Day of Atonement; just as at the close of the day in Israel the people were waiting for the man who led away the scapegoat into the wilderness to come back without it as evidence their typical redemption was complete and secure for another year; just so our Lord Jesus Christ having appeared in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, reconcile the world to G.o.d and bring in the day of grace and salvation, to them that look for Him shall He come the "second time, without sin, unto salvation"; that is, He will come back not as the sin offering, but as the triumphant Redeemer and as witness that our redemption will then be completed by Him in the immortal bodies He shall give us.
James testifies that in the closing hours of this age Capital and Labour will look at each other with wrinkled brows, clenched hands and nervous, impatient expectation.
He exhorts the Christian labourer to be patient because, as he says, "the Coming of the Lord draweth nigh," is so near, so imminent He standeth as a judge--verily "at the door"--and ready to intervene.
In the First Epistle of Peter the Lord is coming to justify the faith of His elect.
In the Second Epistle He is coming to bring in the new heavens and the new earth.
In the First Epistle of John we who believe are sons of G.o.d. It is not yet manifested to the world what we really are, nor what we shall be; but we know when He shall appear we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. When He shines out we shall shine out with Him.
We are told every one who has this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure.
And thus in this special fashion the Holy Spirit affirms the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is not only the climacteric of our avouchment as sons of G.o.d, but, when held as a hope in the heart, will keep us pure and clean as the Holy Christ Himself.
In the Second Epistle of John we are warned false teachers will abound; teachers who shall deny the eternal incarnation of the Son of G.o.d. They will deny He is coming the Second time; but, above all, they will deny He could possibly come in the flesh.
The Apostle unhesitatingly affirms those who hold and teach this falsehood are nothing less than antichrists; and he warns us as faithful followers of the true Christ not to receive them into our houses, nor bid them G.o.dspeed.