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Mary, the mother of Jesus, saw Him
alive, as did Mary Magdalene, " the
other Mary." Jesus' own brothers
and sisters saw Him dead and then
saw Him alive.
Can you believe for one instant
human beings would submit to the
most horrible torture, including
being crucified upside down (as tra–
dition says Peter was), impaled,
sawn in two, burnt at the stake,
thrown to wild beasts, stabbed with
spears and swords, stretched on
racks, beheaded, or left to starve in
a dungeon cell, for what they and
their loved ones
KNEW
to be a farce?
Can you believe this, when only
moments prior to Christ's final
agonies they had all forsaken Him
and fted? Peter
cursed- which
he
knew was a sin- and vehemently de–
nied Jesus three times. As we shall
see, they proved unwilling to believe
Jesus was alive; they were incredu–
lous, disbelieving, needing to be
convinced.
Hardly the setting for a
plot.
Almost immediately following the
resurrection, the religious leaders
jailed sorne of the apostles because a
great healing had taken place. The
religionists couldn't gainsay the
healing; hundreds knew the man,
knew about his crippled condition,
knew he had been miraculously
healed. Can
you
believe healings
take place as a result of lying plots?
Do criminals involved in a great
conspiracy have the power to heal?
The trauma of the original
apostles was soon in coming. Let's
see how they reacted : whether with
real faith, knowledge, and courage,
or in doubt and disbelief, knowing
they were conspirators in a plot.
"And as they [the apostles] spake
unto the people, the priests, and the
captain of the temple, and the Sad–
ducees, carne upon them,
being
grieved
that they taught the people,
and preached through Jesus the res–
urrection from the dead. And they
laid hands on them, and put them in
hold [incarcerated them] unto the
next day ..." (Acts 4: 1-3).
The apostles reacted with great
courage before the assembled might
of the Jewish rel igious leaders.
Through their chief spokesman, the
apostle Peter, they said as if with
one voice: "Ye rulers of the people,
and elders of Israel .. .
Be
it
k nown
The
PLAIN TRUTH July 1977
unto you al/,
and to all the people of
Israel, that by the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, whom ye cruci–
fied,
whom God raisedfrom the dead,
even by him doth thi s man
[formerly permanently crippled)
stand here before you whole (com–
pletely healed]" (verses 8, 10) .
Threats and beatings were not
about to change their minds about
what they saw with their own eyes
and heard with their own ears. Later
Peter and John further told them:
". . . We cannot but speak the things
which
we have seen and heard"
(verse 20).
More threats quickly followed–
threats that not long before would
have had these men quavering in
,fear. But instead of a shaken collec–
tion of cowards, now they were a
close-knit, transformed cadre of
dedicated men which neither the
might of the Roman government
nor the persistence of the vassal
Jewish rulers could quiet. Notice
verse 33:
"And with great power
gave the apostles witness of the res–
urrection ofthe Lord Jesus.. . ."
By now, the religionists were be–
side themselves with anger and fear.
Jerusalem was in an uproar! Impul–
sively they imprisoned the apostles
once again (Acts 5: 18), but this time
an angel miraculously freed them.
The twelve then hurried to the
temple to give even further witness.
But the religious rulers soon caught
up with them. They asked these
apost les: " Did not we straitly
[strictly] command you that ye
should
not
teach in this name? And,
behold, ye have filled Jerusalem
with your doctrine ..." (verse 28).
But th e apostles stead fastl y
refused to bow to ever growing po–
litical and religious pressures. They
weren't going to change their mes–
sage to suit any man or group of
men! Peter boldly told them: "The
God of our fathers raised up Jesus,
whom ye slew and hanged on a
tree. ... And
we are his witnesses
of
these things . .."(verses 30, 32).
The Same Message to the Gentiles
Neither did Peter change his mes–
sage when the gospel was expanded
to include the Gentiles (non-Israel–
ite ethnic groups). Luke, the author
of the book of Acts, penned the very
same message from Peter in the
tenth chapter. Here it is again, al–
most like a broken record : "And
we
are witnesses
of all things which he
(Jesus] did both in the land of the
Jews, and in Jerusalem ... Him God
raised up the third day, and shewed
him
openly; not to al/ the people, but
unto witnesses chosen before of God,
even to us, who did eat and drink
with him
after
he rose from the
dead" (verses 39-41 ).
So over and over again, th e
apostles preached the same message
about the resurrection throughout
the whole Middle-Eastern area.
The Reallty of What They Saw
What the apostles experienced with
their own eyes and ears was not j ust
a one-time appearance. In the pro–
logue to the book of Acts, Luke
says: "To whom also
he
[Christ)
shewed himse!falive
after his passion
[suffering and death)
by many infa/–
lible proofs, being seen of them forty
days . . . !'(Acts
1:3).
As I mentioned earl ier, there was
eating and drinking together, much
personal conversation, teaching of
the Scriptures, give-and-take ques–
tion and answer sessions, solid re–
buke, and even sharp individual
instruction. Actually, Christ's per–
sonal relationship with His disciples
after
His resurrection did not differ
much from that before
His
crucifix–
ion. Time and time again, He
proved to them in myriad ways that
He indeed was one and the same
Being that had been with them
throughout the
3~-year
ministry.
He left
no possibility
for any doubts
to arise later.
Perhaps the most poignant in–
cident is that of Christ's appearance
to Thomas. This particular apostle
had, like the others, been through–
out Galilee with Jesus, had traveled
with Him down to Jerusalem, up to
northern Israel, and over to Tyre
and Sidon. He had seen Him alive
for
3~
years in dozens of different
circumstances and situations. Then
he'd seen Him killed, had forsaken
Him, and just afterwards experi–
enced the forlorn feeling of being
part of a let-down, bewildered, scat–
tered group of men whose hero and
champion had just been taken from
them.
But Thomas was even more
skeptical than the others. He wasn't
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