Christ’s Commission

Luke 24:36-53

GOLDEN TEXT: “Behold, I send forth the promise of My Father upon you.”—Luke 24:49

THE crucifixion of Jesus left the disciples in a state of bewilderment and consternation. They had accepted Him as the Messiah, and to them the Messiah was one who would certainly liberate the Jewish nation from under the Roman yoke, establish Israel as a world power, and through this Messianic arrangement extend the blessings of the long-promised Kingdom of God to all nations of the earth. For the One whom they looked upon as the head of such a government to be taken and crucified by His enemies, shattered their faith, and had left them confused and discouraged.

Jesus had hinted beforehand that He would be raised from the dead and now that reports were being circulated that His resurrection was an accomplished fact, naturally the disciples were on the alert to discover any evidence that would throw light on the situation. Jesus had appeared to two of them on the way to Emmaus and these were relating their experiences to the others, when the Master Himself stood in their midst and said unto them, “Peace be unto you.”

The disciples were terrified, but Jesus endeavored to allay their fears by assuring them that He was indeed the risen Lord. Previously, when a report was related that He had been raised from the dead, Thomas asserted that he would not believe this unless he could see the wounds in Jesus’ hands and feet. Jesus knew about this, so now when Thomas was present, He gave the disciples a demonstration which convinced the only one among them who had difficulty in believing the fact of His resurrection. This method of convincing doubting Thomas should not be construed as a proof that Jesus’ glorious resurrection body was a scarred and bleeding one. The Scriptures definitely assert that while He was put to death in the flesh, He was made alive in the spirit.

Jesus again called the disciples’ attention to the prophecies of the Old Testament, which foretold the necessity and the object of His death as man’s Redeemer, and that the glory of the Kingdom in the prophecies could not be realized until after the sufferings of Christ had been complete. No lasting blessings could come, either to the Jews or to other nations, until provision had been made through the redemptive work of Christ for the remission of sin. The wages of sin is death, and as long as the world was under condemnation, God’s promises of recovery and the restoration of paradise conditions world-wide, could not be fulfilled.

The foretold sufferings of the Christ were not completed with Jesus’ death on Calvary’s cross. There yet remained the sufferings and death-baptism of His body members. This would come as a logical result of their being faithful in bearing witness concerning Him and His resurrection and the Kingdom which He proposes to establish at His second advent. Thus, while assuring His disciples that He had, indeed, been raised from the dead, He imposed upon them, at the same time, the responsibility of being His witnesses in the earth. They were to begin this witness work at Jerusalem, and from there extend it to all the nations of the earth; as God’s providence permitted, and their self-sacrificing zeal made it possible.

Jesus knew how to rightly divide the Word of Truth, and thus to understand the divine will for Him and His people. When, previously, He had sent His disciples out into the ministry, He cautioned them not to go into the way of the Gentiles, nor to enter into any city of the Samaritans, but to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

The reason for this is that, according to the prophecies of the Old Testament, particularly that of Daniel, a definite time limit had been placed in which God would extend special favors to the Jew. This time limit was a period of seventy symbolic weeks, ending approximately three and a half years after the crucifixion of Jesus. During the time of His ministry, therefore, God’s favors were still restricted to the Jews, even as they had been throughout the entire age.

But now this special favor was coming to an end, and Jesus was preparing His disciples to extend the ministry to other nations and to no longer be limited by the previous command that He had given them. They were not, however, to actually embark upon this campaign until they were endued with the Holy Spirit which came upon them later at Pentecost.

QUESTIONS:

What did the disciples expect Jesus to accomplish as the foretold Messiah?

What was Jesus’ purpose in showing His disciples the wounds in His hands and feet? Does it prove that Jesus was raised from the dead as a human being?

Explain why Jesus on a former occasion limited the ministry of His disciples to the Jewish nation, but after His resurrection commanded them to go to all nations?

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