For Reading and Meditation:      Acts 2:29-41Let us pursue the question we asked yesterday: What exactly do we mean by resurrection? Some try to explain the resurrection as resuscitation - the return to life from apparent death. Those holding this view subscribe to what is called "The Swoon Theory." There are two forms of this theory. One maintains that Jesus did not die but fainted on the cross and returned to consciousness when He was laid on the cold rock of the tomb. The other claims that after drinking the wine vinegar that was given to Him when He cried "I am thirsty," He fell into a stupor so deep that it was mistaken for death. But clearly our Lord actually died. The Gospels provide us with medical evidence for the fact. One of the soldiers pierced His side and there came forth "blood and water" (John 19:34). A doctor commenting on this says: "The pericardium (the sac around the heart) was punctured and the colorless fluid flowing from the wound proves that life would have been extinct." Was it really a convalescent Christ the disciples encountered on that first Easter Day? Could such a pathetic and powerless figure have convinced them that He had conquered death and was alive forevermore? No, the Master, as it were, had flung from His face the mask of death, and laid down in the hearts and minds of His disciples an impression that stayed with them throughout the whole of their ministry. He who had been dead was now alive - gloriously and resplendently.O Father, You whose very nature is truth, would You foist upon us a lie and have us believe Your Son rose from the dead when He did not? I cannot believe it. The life by which I live is resurrection life. I cannot be alive in someone who is dead. Amen.<div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>Luke 24:1-53</li><li>Mark 16:12</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What did the disciples invite Jesus to do?</li><li>What did Jesus invite the disciples to do?</li></ul></div></div>

Let a little light into your soul every day with this wonderful devotional from English pastor Selwyn Hughes.

Every Day Light with Selwyn Hughes

"God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact." (v. 32)

Luke 24:36-53It was in the upper room on the evening of the day on which Jesus arose. The disciples had gathered there, drawn together by their common sorrow and also by the strange things which had occurred that day. The doors were closed and fastened. Suddenly, with no opening of the doors, Jesus Himself appeared among the disciples. They were terrified - but He spoke to them these quieting words: "Peace be unto you." Still further to alleviate their terror He said, "Why are you troubled? Behold My hands and My feet - that it is I Myself!"Doubts always cause perplexity. Doubting cost Thomas a whole week of grief and sadness. Even those who have given up their Christian faith, confess that in doing so they lost the sweetest joy out of their lives. Jesus showed the disciples His hands and His feet, that they might see in them the prints of the nails and thus be convinced that He was indeed risen! The print of the nails is the indubitable mark of Christ where He appears. We see Him always as the suffering One, or as the one who has suffered, for He bore our sins.Slowly the doubt and fear of the disciples vanished, as they beheld their Master right before them, as they looked at the wounds in His hands and feet, and the marks of the thorns upon His brow, and heard His voice in words of love. He sought then in other ways to make them familiar with the fact that He was risen. He asked them for something to eat, and when they had given Him a piece of broiled fish, He ate it before them. We see how gentle Jesus is, in dealing with the doubts and fears of His disciples. He does not want them to disbelieve. Yet He does not chide and condemn them because they are slow in believing. He is most gentle with those who are seeking to believe. Some Christian teachers are stern and severe with those who even ask questions which seem to indicate doubt or uncertainty as to great teachings. But Jesus deals most lovingly with everyone who has difficulty in believing.Somehow the disciples had been very slow in understanding the words which Jesus had spoken to them before His death, about the manner of His Messiahship. They had been so full of their earthly idea of Him - that they could not accept or even understand any suggestion which permitted a completely different view. He reminded them of what He had said. "These are the words which I spoke unto you." The cross was no surprise to Jesus. All along His years, He saw it standing at the end of His course. The events in His life which had seemed so terrible to the disciples, for a time blotting out all their hopes, were the very things which He had foretold, over and over again, during His ministry. If they had only understood His words, they would have been saved all their perplexity, when they saw Him going to a cross. Many of the perplexities of our lives, come from the same forgetting of the words of Christ. There are many promises in the Bible - but we forget them just when we most need to remember them. We throw away our life preservers, just when we ought to buckling them about us.Now Jesus sought to make all things plain to His disciples. "Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." There is a promise which says that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. We sometimes forget that we need to ask God to open our minds, to help us to understand the deep things of His Word. The lessons of the Bible are shy, and hide themselves away from ordinary search; only prayer and reverent love will find them.The commission of the disciples contained the gospel, "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." They were to begin right where the cross had been set up. We should begin at home, just where we live, to tell the story of Christ. We should shine, first, close about ourselves. "He does the best in God's great world - who does the best in his own little world." We should begin at Jerusalem, touching the lives nearest to us. But that is not to be the end. Every Christian has something to do with getting the gospel even to the remotest ends of the earth.The first disciples were to be not only messengers - but also witnesses. "You are witnesses of these things." How shall people know of things they have not seen, unless others testify of these things to them? The disciples knew personally the story of Christ's life, death, and resurrection. No other people knew these facts. If the story was to reach the world - it must be told by those who knew it. It is our business, after we have seen Christ, to become witnesses of Him to those who have not seen Him. It is not said, "Go and bear witness," but, "Go and be witnesses." The testimony is not to be merely in words - it must also be in the life .The disciples may well have shrunk from such a tremendous task as their Master put upon them, in giving them their commission. But He hastened to assure them that they would not be left unhelped. "Behold, I send forth the promise of My Father upon you." They were to receive the Holy Spirit, and thus would be enabled to deliver their message, live their new lives, and carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. The promise is put in a little different way in the last words of Matthew's gospel: "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the ends of the world." Jesus went to heaven when He ascended - but He returned as to His real life, in the Holy Spirit, on the day of Pentecost. Since then, the presence of Christ has been as actual among His people in all this world - as it was during the days of His incarnation in the little company of friends who knew Him personally.The story of the Ascension is told briefly. "It came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven." In the last glimpse the world had of Jesus in human form, He was holding out His hands over His friends, blessing them. Ever since that time, the hands of the risen Christ have really been spread out over this world, raining blessings down upon it. Jesus is at the right hand of God - but He has not lost any of His interest in this world, nor has He withdrawn His hands from the work of redemption. He ever lives in heaven - to make intercession for us. Then He is always with us in the world, in real, personal presence, so that any one of us may say, "Christ and I are friends!"When the disciples had seen their Master ascending out of their sight, they were not overwhelmed with grief, as they had been when He died on the cross. They understood now the meaning of His departure, and their hearts were full of joy and gladness. "They worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy." While they would not see Him anymore, they knew where He had gone, and why. They knew also that He had not left them, that they had not lost Him - but that He had gone out of their sight, that He might become all the more to them, in their spiritual lives and in their power for service.There was something yet to do before the blessing of Christ's redemption could come upon His disciples. They were to wait for the promise of the Father. So they came down from the Mount of Olives and entered the city, to begin the waiting and prayer, at the end of which the Holy Spirit would come. "And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God." We cannot always be engaged in prayer and formal acts of worship - but we can have in our lives continually the spirit of devotion. We can always be expecting to find blessing, looking up to God and pleading for it. If we live thus, a life of prayer, of faith, and hope, our weekdays, even when engaged most busily in the work of the world - we will be full of song and cheer. If we cannot write hymns which people may sing, we can at least make our lives songs, so that all who see us shall hear the music of love and peace in our life.

A unique type of devotional from the writings of James Russell Miller, published between 1908 and 1913.

Devotional Hours Within the Bible

Luke 24:36-53

Jesus Ascends into Heaven

You know that He was manifested to take away our sins. § That we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness. § He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed…  The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. § Thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer . . . that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations. § He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance. § Through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. § Your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.

Daily Light on the Daily Path or Daily Light is a Christian daily devotional scripture reading published by Bagster & Sons about 1875. It has been reprinted continually since then. It consists of brief groupings of scripture passages which speak to prominent Biblical themes—two themes (morning and evening) for each day of the year. It appends no commentary, but simply allows scripture to speak for itself.

Morning Daily Light

 You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. 

Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? “Father, save Me from this hour”? But for this purpose I came to this hour. I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. § He … became obedient to the point of death. § In the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? § Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Evening Daily Light

 O My Father, if it is possible, let this cuppass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will. 

46 He told them, <woj>“This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, </woj> 47 <woj>and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. </woj>

He told them, <woj>“This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer<cr>1</cr> and rise from the dead on the third day,<cr>2</cr> </woj>

Luke 24:46

<woj>and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name<cr>1</cr> to all nations,<cr>2</cr> beginning at Jerusalem.<cr>3</cr> </woj>

Luke 24:47

 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer   and rise from the dead on the third day,   47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name   to all nations,   beginning at Jerusalem.  

From Wikipedia: 

The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The NIV was published to meet the need for a modern translation done by Bible scholars using the earliest, highest quality manuscripts available. Of equal importance was that the Bible be expressed in broadly understood modern English.

The NIV is published by Zondervan in the United States and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK. The NIV was updated in 1984 and 2011 and has become one of the most popular and best-selling modern translations.

OT: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; additional sources;
NT: UBS Greek New Testament; Novum Testamentum Graece; additional sources;

New International Version

 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Luke 24:46-47

He told them, <woj>“This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, </woj> <woj>and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. </woj>

 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer   and rise from the dead on the third day,   and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name   to all nations,   beginning at Jerusalem.  

Bible Verse of the Day

January 10, 2018

Luke 24:46-47 NIV

Verse by Verse Bible Study

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