WHY SEEK THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD?
"Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they [some of the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee], and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!” (Luke 24:1-6a NKJV).
After
Jesus’ crucifixion, His disciples were at a loss to know what to do next. Prior to His betrayal He had tried to tell
them about the necessity of His death at the hands of the Jews and Romans, but
they could not comprehend it. The angels
at the tomb even reminded the women about Jesus’ words saying, “…remember how He spake unto you when He was
yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of
sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” (Luke 24:6b,
7). Scripture says, “And they remembered His words, and returned
from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven [apostles], and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary
the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these
things unto the apostles. And their words seemed to them [to
the apostles] as idle tales, and they believed them not.
Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he
beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself
at that which was come to pass.” (Luke 24:6-12).
The
disciples had a hard time with this.
They were, at that moment in time, serving a Savior Who they thought was
dead, not One Who was alive. Where was
the power; where was the Kingdom; where was the glory; where was the hope;
where was the salvation? They may have been
tempted to consider the words of Jesus’ mockers who had said of Him, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If
He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will
believe Him.” (Matthew 27:42). No
one truly understood that Jesus, as the Lamb of God, was sent to take away the
sin of the world through the shedding of His blood. Just as He was foreordained to die, however,
so also was He predestined to rise from the dead, bringing power and redemption
to all who would put their trust in Him.
“But unto you that fear My name
shall the Sun of righteousness arise
with healing in His wings…” (Malachi 4:2). The truth of it was written all through scripture
if they had eyes to see it.
The
Gospel must have been difficult to defend during those three dark days before
the Lord was risen and revealed Himself to His followers. Jesus’ words to the apostles before He was
taken might have been a comfort to them had they comprehended and believed them,
but they did not. It was now as though
the light had gone out of their lives, and they just didn’t know how to proceed. Mary Magdalene is seen weeping at the tomb of
Jesus, two of the Lord’s disciples left Jerusalem and headed toward Emmaus, and
some of the apostles returned to their former occupation of fishing even after
seeing Jesus arisen. It was like they
were set adrift, and without direction or purpose. That was soon to change.
Jesus
was with the disciples for 40 days between the time that He arose and the time
that He ascended into heaven. During
that time He taught them the scriptures concerning Himself and worked wonders among
them. It was the event that was to
shortly take place after His ascension, however, that He wanted His followers
to focus on now. He told them that they
were to remain waiting in Jerusalem for ten more days after He ascended to
heaven, and they would be endowed with the gift of the Holy Spirit on the Day
of Pentecost. At that time they would be
baptized in the Spirit of God and receive power to be Christ’s witnesses to the
world. This was what Jesus was trying to
make His disciples understand when He told them before His crucifixion, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,
that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; Whom the world
cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him;
for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” (John 14:15-17). As long as the Lord was with His
disciples, He couldn’t be in them. He said, “…I
tell you the truth; It is expedient
[helpful, better, profitable] for you
that I go away: for if I go not away,
the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.”
(John 16:7).
On
that first Pentecost after Jesus ascended to the Father, 120 of His disciples
were assembled in an upper room waiting expectantly for they knew not what. Suddenly, the Holy Spirit manifested Himself
in the form of a mighty wind that rushed all around them, and cloven tongues of
fire alighted on each of them. Right
then and there the Spirit of God so filled, anointed, and baptized them with
His presence that their own words failed them, and they all spoke in other
tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Peter, under the power of the Spirit stood up “with the eleven” and delivered a soul-moving message that brought
godly conviction on the souls of 3000
people. When asked by the crowd what they should do, Peter said, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 2:37, 38).
Those 3000 gave their hearts to Christ that day and were born
again. Jerusalem became ground zero of a
mighty wave of the Spirit that rushed from the upper room where it began to,
ultimately, blow across the world.
In
Christ is Life, and that Life is the Light of mankind. When we are born again and filled with the
Spirit of God, we enter into a brand new world that we never knew existed
before. Our spiritual senses are
awakened, and we can catch glimpses of the unseen world where God Himself
dwells. It is a resurrection of sorts in
that we were dead spiritually because of our sins and carnal tendencies, but
now are made alive by the Spirit of Christ.
Paul wrote to the Romans and said, “…if
Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up
Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall
also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
(Romans 8:10, 11).
Jesus
said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth [gives life; makes
alive]; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto
you, they are spirit, and they are
life.” (John 6:63). The
Apostle Paul also writes, “[God] hath made us able ministers of the new
testament; not of the letter, but of
the spirit: for the letter
killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” (2 Corinthians 3:6). You see, Jesus’ followers were trying to
carry on as if He were dead when, in fact, He was already risen; they just
didn’t know it yet! This is why the
angels said to the women, “Why do you seek the living among the
dead?” Many believers today are also carrying on as though their
Savior is dead when He is very much alive!
2610
years ago, the Prophet Ezekiel saw a vision of a valley full of bones that were
exposed and bleaching in the open sun. The
bones were not even lying together as complete skeletons, but were scattered
randomly across the valley floor (see Ezekiel 37). The prophet makes a point of telling us that
the bones were “very dry.” Like those bones, many assemblies today
have become very dry, and there is no spiritual life in them. They have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. When the LORD asked Ezekiel if he thought the
bones could live again, the prophet answered that only He, the LORD, could know
such a thing.
Ezekiel
was next commanded by the LORD to prophecy to the bones and say, “O ye dry bones, hear the Word of the LORD.” (Ezekiel 37:4). Nothing can ever change in the Church without
the Word of God. When facing the devil
in the valley of temptation, Jesus quoted a verse in Deuteronomy 8 that says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4). It isn’t things that we need to produce life
in our midst. It isn’t programs, better
organization, more upbeat music, a bigger crowd, or a more comfortable
sanctuary that we need: it is the unfiltered, unaltered Word of God that has
not been watered down in an effort to make it go down easier. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
Word of God. Without the Word as our
bulwark, there is nothing for us to trust in but the word of man.
As
Ezekiel obeyed the LORD and began to prophecy as he was told, the bones began
to move and to join together to form whole skeletons. On those frames, there appeared muscle, and
sinew, and flesh. As of yet, however,
there was no breath in them. This speaks
to me of how futile our religion is if it lacks the breath of life that only
the Holy Spirit can give. No matter how
we arrange or conduct our meetings, if they lack the leadership of the Holy
Spirit, they are only tombs and white-washed sepulchers.
When
Jesus breathed on the disciples after His resurrection and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” it was
reminiscent of when God breathed on Adam in the beginning, and Adam became a
living soul. We have the very breath of
God filling our lungs and giving us life.
Every time we inhale it is a gift of God, born of His great love. Just as our bodies are dead without the breath
of God giving us life, so also are we dead spiritually without His Holy Spirit abiding
in us.
Seeing
all of the lifeless bodies lying in the valley, the Prophet was next told to, “Prophesy
unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and
breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and
they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then
He said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel:
behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for
our parts. Therefore prophesy and say
unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O My people, I will open your
graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land
of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your
graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put My
spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land:
then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the
LORD.” (Ezekiel 37:9-14).
God
told Ezekiel that these bones that he saw were “the whole house of Israel.” It
is important that we understand who God is referring to when He speaks of
Israel in the Bible. Many assume that He
is only speaking of the nation of Israel, the Jewish people. This would be a wrong assumption. There are many promises, warnings, prophesies
and blessings in the Bible that we will completely miss if we ascribe them only
to Israel after the flesh. These
scriptures are for the true Israel of
God: those, both Jews and Gentiles, whose hearts are after God. It is these who God recognizes as “a holy nation” and a “peculiar people.” Consider the
following Bible verses: “For he is not a
Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in
the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is
one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in
the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” (Romans 2:28,
29). “For they are not all Israel, which are
of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all
children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They
which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the
children of the promise are counted for the seed.” (Romans
9:6-8). “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the
children of Abraham.” (Galatians 3:7).
“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into
Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in
Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s,
then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
(Galatians 3:26-29). We are the children of God by
faith. We are the seed of Abraham.
We are the Israel of
God. This opens up scripture in a
tremendous way when we realize that the prophecies that appear to be only addressed
to the Jewish nation are also addressed to the Church of the Living God and to
us who are the members of the Body of Christ.
In
the light of all that, we must see ourselves in the place of the dry bones that
Ezekiel saw. The “whole house of Israel” is referring to you and me and to the times
we are living in. God wants us to come
together in true love and unity; to come alive with the breath of God filling
us and empowering us. Jesus told the
religious leaders of His time that they were like white-washed sepulchers that
looked good on the outside, but were full of dead men’s bones on the
inside. How many churches does that
describe today? Instead, we need to open
our hearts to God and allow Him to make us temples of His Holy Spirit and
ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. We
need to manifest the Life of Jesus in our mortal bodies by laying down our
lives for Jesus’ sake. The angels could
be speaking to us today, “Why do you seek
the living among the dead? He is not
here, but is risen!”
“And when they say to you, "Seek
those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter," should not a
people seek their God? Should they seek
the dead on behalf of the living?”
(Isaiah 8:19).
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