The First Sunday School Class
August 5, 2020 at 12:59 pm | Posted in Biblical firsts, Luke | 4 CommentsTags: bodily resurrection, commentary on Luke, Jesus in the Bible, Luke 24, Resurrection of Christ, Resurrection of Jesus, road to Emmaus, Sunday School, Sunday School lessons on Luke
The first people to find that Jesus’s tomb was empty were women.
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.
Luke 24:10
Luke emphasized the role of women throughout his gospel and the Book of Acts. There are some modern scholars who use Luke 24:10 as a proof-text to support the modern trend of ordaining women pastrixes (despite I Timothy 2:12). They say that Mary Magdelene was an Apostle because she delivered the good news of the Resurrection. Of course, having first-hand news about Jesus that other people didn’t yet have did not qualify these women for Apostleship, but it did qualify them as being witnesses. It is very important to remember two things: (1) The Bible limits the church offices that women can hold; and (2) Women can’t be pastors or deacons, and they are not supposed to hold positions of authority over men in the church. Women can’t be those things, but they can and MUST be witnesses. That means sharing the Truth with people who need to hear it. Witnesses are people who tell the truth about what they have seen and heard – and what has happened to them. They tell people what Jesus has done and what He is doing. Women are not inferior. They are equal to men. They are loved by God. They are just as valuable to God as men are. Submission is not about worth. It is about order and obedience – things which please God. God loves loving, warranted submission.
Does it seem strange that God would arrange to have women be some of the first witnesses to the Resurrection?
And their words seemed to them 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 24:11-12
This is one of the pieces of solid evidence that the Resurrection is not a story made up years later as part of a conspiracy. Women weren’t even allowed to testify in court in those days. If Christians were making this up, there is no way they would have had women as the first eyewitnesses of the empty tomb. We might wonder if that’s one of the reasons Peter ran so fast: “Who’s going to believe the women??”
And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Luke 24:13-27
This is the first time we see Jesus in Luke after His death. He had just been through the worst torture, pain, and undeserved punishment of all time. He had just gone down into the grave and defeated death. He had spoiled principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of Satan and the powers of darkness. And what is the first thing He wanted to do after His Resurrection? Have a feast? A banquet? A victory parade? Give a speech to throngs of people? Take a vacation? No, He found two Christians, opened the Word of God, and taught a Bible lesson! Now, granted, it must have been the world’s best Bible lesson of all time – but still! Basically the first thing Jesus does is have Sunday School! In Sunday School we get together with a group of like-minded believers and we talk about the Bible.
Look at His teaching technique:
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Luke 24:27
That’s why, as long as I’m teaching Sunday School, I am going to teach the Bible as if the whole thing is about Jesus. Because that’s the way Jesus did it – and that’s the way it is. The Bible – from beginning to end – from cover to cover – is about the Lord Jesus. In the Old Testament there are types and shadows of Him, and there are events and laws and judgments and prophecies which point to Him. He even showed up personally a few times. So when Genesis 3:15 says that a Redeemer is promised, that’s really about Jesus. When Moses parts the Red Sea and delivers the Israelites from bondage, that’s really about Jesus delivering us. When Abraham almost kills the son of promise – Isaac – and then spares him, that’s really about Jesus NOT getting spared when He takes our place. When the manna comes down from Heaven, that’s really about Jesus coming down from Heaven. When David kills Goliath, that’s really about Jesus defeating giants of sin and death and wrath. When Samson picks up the enormous city gates and carries them 30 miles away, that’s really about Jesus carrying our sins as far as the east from the west. When Jonah gets swallowed by a giant fish and goes down into the sea and then gets spit back up to go preach to the sinners in Nineveh, that’s really about Jesus going down into the grave and coming back up to preach the truth to sinners like you and me. When Noah and his family get into the ark to escape the worldwide flood of God’s wrath, that’s really about Jesus being our ark and the only safe place we can get into to avoid God’s wrath.
I can hardly read the Bible anymore without seeing the Lord Jesus on every page. When I teach lessons on marriage in adult Sunday School, they are not about buying flowers and writing love notes and getting romantic in front of the fireplace on a cold winter night to keep it fresh in your relationship (although those things may be helpful). No, they are about how marriage is really about Jesus and His Gospel – because it is! That’s what – that’s Who – the Bible is about! Jesus is the main character, the hero, the author, the finisher, and the reason for the whole thing!
Cleopas and his friend went to see the other disciples to tell them – with their hearts burning – that Jesus was alive, and:
And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
Luke 24:36
Jesus had a glorified body.
But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
Luke 24:37
They didn’t believe that a real dead body could come back to life.
And he said unto them, 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.
Luke 24:38-39
He set about proving that His body was a real physical body.
And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
Luke 24:40-42
The Gnostics would later try to promote the heresey of Jesus’s alleged “spiritual,” but not bodily, Resurrection. His hands and His feet showed the marks of His Crucifixion in the same body, and disembodied spirits don’t eat fish and honey.
And he took it, and did eat before them. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
Luke 24:43-45
Then He did it again. He taught another Sunday School lesson – a lesson about Jesus in the Bible.
The World’s First History Book
September 4, 2009 at 9:27 am | Posted in Biblical firsts, Genesis | 19 CommentsTags: Bible lessons on Genesis, Dake study Bible, Exodus 20, Ezekiel 28, Gap Theory, Genesis 1, Genesis 2, Genesis 5, Jimmy Swaggart, Job 38, Matthew 19, origin of man, pre-Adamic, Romans 5, Sunday School lessons on Genesis
And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:21
God created everything in existence. He created the animals that live in the seas, and the animals that live on the land. God charged Adam with the naming of the animals.
And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
Genesis 2:19
Adam, the first man, was not a brute, a savage, or a caveman. He was probably the smartest man in the history of the world, with an inherent intellect hardwired straight from the mind of God. I have read that most people today only use around 10% of their brains. Apparently there is some dispute about this, as neuroscientists are forced to admit they really still don’t know all that much about how the brain functions. But I have wondered if Adam, before he sinned, used 100% of his brain.
Some people get confused about Genesis 2:19. They say that it sounds like the land animals and the birds were created after Adam, but before Eve. Genesis 1:23–25 makes it clear that Adam and Eve were created after the animals. The solution is in understanding that Genesis 2:19 is giving a summary of what happened previously in Chapter 1. In modern English, we would probably say that God “had formed.”
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
Genesis 2:4
The phrase, “these are the generations of,” in Genesis is a sign post identifying a break in the narrative. There is a similar phrase in Genesis 5:1. The word translated “generations” is the Hebrew word toledoth, which means “origin” or “record of the origin.” There are ten of these toledoth statements in Genesis. It is believed that the written records of Genesis were probably first kept on stone or clay tablets.
The events recorded in Genesis 1 were probably described by God to Adam. Genesis is a historical record, and many ancient historical records are written in a style of giving an overview of big events first, followed by more detailed accounts marked by summary statements from the overview. In Genesis 1, the events are generally in chronological order. In Chapter 2 they are not. These two chapters are not contradictory. The Lord Jesus Himself said:
Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
Matthew 19:4-5
Jesus referenced both Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24 as though they were both part of the same consistent account.
Do not be deceived by the false teaching that there existed a civilization of human beings living on Earth before God created Adam and Eve.
Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
Ezekiel 28:13-15
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
Romans 5:12
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth and all that in them is…
Exodus 20:11
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
Job 38:4-8
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Genesis 1:31
These verses refute the so-called “Gap Theory,” as popularized by the Dake study Bible, and used by many Charismatics and Pentecostals today. Jimmy Swaggart’s “Expositor’s Bible” also incorporates Dake’s false claims of a “pre-Adamic” race.
The First Rock Star
September 27, 2021 at 1:53 pm | Posted in Biblical firsts, II Samuel | 6 CommentsTags: 1 Samuel 18, 2 Samuel 14, 2 Samuel 15, Absalom, Biblical celebrity, commentary on 2 Samuel, death of Absalom, Lester Roloff, Sunday School lessons on 2 Samuel
One of the interesting things to note in the thrilling, true, and historical accounts of the first earthly kings of Israel, Saul and David, in the Books of I and II Samuel, is the role of fame (and sometimes notoriety) as Israel takes on a real “national consciousness.” At first blush, it seems that Saul and David were, in some sense, the first “celebrities” of Israel. This can be seen in the way the people made songs to highlight their exploits.
I Samuel 18:6-7
However, closer inspection shows that, at least in the case of David, “hero,” might be a better description than “celebrity.” After all, David had done the great deeds the people ascribed to him by the power of God, and to the glory of God.
David’s son, Absalom, is another story. Absalom can be more properly described as a celebrity, for his reputation and popularity were more manufactured than earned.
II Samuel 14:25-26
II Samuel 15:2-6
In his sermon, “And the Mule Walked On,” Lester Roloff called Absalom the first “hippie,” because of his long (I Corinthians 11:14), luxuriant, red, and heavy hair, which he publicly combed out and trimmed once a year as the people admired and swooned. I think a better description of Absalom might be the first “rock star,” since his fame and popularity were based on vanity rather than substance.
When Absalom revolted and declared war on his father, King David, the Lord, in a classic case of “reaping what you sow” (or what you comb), arranged it so that Absalom’s hair got caught in the boughs of a tree as he rode underneath it on his mule. The mule kept going, and Absalom hanged there, helpless and ridiculous, until his enemies came and turned him into a human piñata, ending his life.
Let us remember Absalom, and be careful of seeking the praise of men over the approval of the Lord.