Repentance for the Nations – A Messianic Prophecy

“It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths.’  For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.  He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” –Isaiah 2:2-4 (ESV).  (See also Micah 4:1-3).

Of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah, Isaiah  is by far the most prolific writer concerning the coming of the Holy One from God who will set things right, bring peace, establish justice, and bring salvation to all peoples.  According to scholars (and the list of Messianic Prophecies I am consulting for references) the focal passage for today is the first of Isaiah’s at least 35 prophecies concerning Messiah. Almost the same wording as we read in Isaiah 2:2-4 we also read in Micah 4:1-3 (please see this reference).  These two prophets were contemporaries.  We do not know if they had talked to each other and shared their ideas about God’s future provision of a Messiah who would extend his concern and salvation to all nations.  Or, maybe separately and in their own revelation from God, they foresaw this vision that gives hope not only for Zion (the nation of the prophets) but for the whole world.  It is extremely significant that the two prophets shared the same expectation of God’s purpose for all nations.  In Luke 24:47 we read the fulfillment of this prophecy:  “repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

When will this event occur that will have such a world-shaking effect?  “The latter days” has different specific time designations.  One was the time when the Messiah actually came to earth.  And I use past tense, for us in this A. D. time, we know that the wonderful advent of His birth, His life on earth, His death, burial, resurrection and ascension have already occurred.  And the Christian Era was ushered in, not as the Jews expected with a reigning Messiah breaking their bondage from an over-riding power such as they knew under Roman rule, but with the Great Commission and the preaching of the good news of the kingdom to all nations.  “Latter days” can also have reference to the last days before the end of the age and the time before the expected second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, an event yet in the future.  In Isaiah’s wonderful Messianic prophecy, he sees all nations honoring and exalting the Lord God and the Gentiles abandoning all other religions to accept and worship the one true God.  So very much of this beautiful prophecy from Isaiah has come true.  The Messiah did come!  And in obedience to His command, the gospel “began first in Jerusalem,” and has, since that date sometime around 33 A. D. “gone out into all the world.”  We today, well over two centuries later, stand amazed and saved and rejoice that the gospel came to us, changed us, on its way to someone else!  We have yet to see the time when all weapons of war shall be used for peaceful means and when nations shall not war any more.  But in God’s providence, those who know the Prince of Peace have in their hearts a “peace that passes all understanding.”  And in that way this Messianic prophecy of Isaiah (and of Micah) has been and is being fulfilled, one individual at a time.  Praise be to God!

Prayer.  Thank you that in each believing heart can be the abiding peace of Your presence.  Amen.

Post-Resurrection Appearances of Jesus: To Two on the Road to Emmaus

“That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were walking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing Him…And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself…When He was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. And He vanished from their sight. They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road, while He opened to us the Scriptures?” –Luke 24:13-16; 27, 30-32 (ESV, Read Luke 24:13-35).

On the first day of the week, Sunday—later in the day on the very day of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, “two of them”—meaning two followers, one unnamed [some scholars hold it was Luke himself] and one named Cleopas—were on their way to Emmaus, a village about seven miles northwest of Jerusalem. As they talked of all the events that had transpired in the last few days, they were joined by Jesus, but they did not recognize him. Luke gives a lengthy account of this post-resurrection appearance of Jesus, showing its importance. Notice that Jesus asks them “What things?” He was asking not for information, because He had been involved first-hand in the events they were discussing. His omniscience allowed Him to know, as well. To help them, He wanted to hear how they viewed the events and their reaction to them. Jesus got to the heart of their confusion when He said: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all lthat he prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:25-26). These two men needed spiritual understanding. They could relate the events, even to the resurrected Christ having been seen by the women and some of the disciples seeing the empty tomb. But their hearts had not accepted what their minds had received. They had not yet grasped the implications of the sufferings of the Messiah as being a fulfillment of prophecy.

On that road to Emmaus Jesus the Teacher opened the minds and understanding of the two disciples. Beginning with the writings of Moses and the Prophets, He gave them lessons from God’s Word on the prophecies about Messiah and their fulfillment, teaching them things concerning Himself. He may have included Abraham’s offering his son Isaac on the altar (Genesis 22), a foreshadowing of the Messiah’s death as a ransom; the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53; the anguish expressed in Psalm 22 as a description of the Savior’s agony, and many more prophetic references to Messiah. My son, the Rev. Keith Jones, says of Jesus’s appearance to the two on the road to Emmaus, that it is the first recorded Sunday School in the Bible and the Teacher is the Lord Himself! Arriving at the house where they were staying in Emmaus, they invited the stranger (for they had not yet recognized Jesus) in as a guest. Their hearts had been so strangely moved by His teachings that they were reluctant to end the fellowship. They wanted to hear more. When He took bread, blessed and broke it, they recognized Him as Jesus. Did they think of His feeding the 5,000? The Last Supper? “Their hearts burned within them!” He opened to them the Scriptures and gave them hope of the resurrection. He changed their perspective from an earthly Messiah-Conqueror-King to a living, risen Savior. They had received the Word of God with understanding and their hearts were aflame. They hurried back to Jerusalem, found the eleven disciples and those gathered with them, and told them about walking with Jesus in the road and breaking bread with Him. They also heard that Simon Peter had seen the risen Jesus. Meeting Jesus makes a difference. An encounter with Him makes us want to share the good news with others.

If we are discouraged, dejected and dead-in-spirit, is it because we fail to see, meet and understand that He is in our everyday walk—with us on our roads to Emmaus? In our daily encounters, let us be aware of the living Lord and what He is directing us to be and to do.

Holy Week Day-by-Day – Sunday, the First Day of the Week-Resurrection!

“Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus Who was crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and behold, He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him. See, I have told you. So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell His disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!” and they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.” –Matthew 28:1-10 (ESV).

It was not yet good light; the dawn was just breaking and shadows of darkness played about the garden tomb. Sorrow and fear walked with the two women, Mary Magdalene ‘and the other Mary,’ female disciples of Jesus, last at the tomb on Friday, first at the tomb on Sunday. They were afraid. I would have been too, going early before good day, and then being shaken by a reverberating earthquake! How strange to be greeted by such shaking and clattering of the earth. And fear overtook them again, for seated there upon the great gravestone was an extraterrestrial being whose garments glowed in the half-light like lightning. Even the strong, burly Roman guards lay on the ground, out cold, like dead men!

But when the angel spoke, for by now the women realized the person meant them only good and not harm, they listened, for his message reechoed what Jesus Himself had told them before He died: “Fear not!...He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay.” And with that I can imagine that the angel stepped aside, inviting Mary Magdalene and Mary to step up to the tomb and look in.

Matthew does not give these details, but accounts of the resurrection in other gospels tell us that the grave clothes lay there on the rock ledge where the body had been—as though the corpse of Jesus, now alive, had just escaped from them and left the clothes lying in the tomb. And folded, the napkin, or handkerchief, that had covered Jesus’ face was placed neatly to the side. With all the excitement of the angel’s message, the women would not have had time to give more than a cursory glance into the tomb. But later, they would remember an important aspect of the neatly-folded napkin: It lay folded in readiness, a sign that the Master would be back again; He had not gone far away.

Listen, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the angel has directions for you, an important errand for you to run: “”Go quickly and tell His disciples He has risen from the dead! Tell them to go to Galilee; there He will meet them!” What joy, what delight! The Marys did not need their urns of burial ointment and spices they had so lovingly brought to embalm the body. No dead body was there to receive the embalming.

They left the garden grave, excited and exulting that they had such a message to give to the disciples! And as they rushed through the garden, behold, Jesus Himself met them and said, “Greetings!” There was no mistaking that voice! No one ever spake like Jesus speaks. They fell to His feet, worshiping Him! But He, like the angel, had a message for them to bear, “Go! Tell My disciples that I am alive. I will meet them in Galilee! Do not be afraid!”

Each of the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection is slightly different. We are not to wonder at the different approaches four different writers took to recount this most marvelous of occasions—Jesus rising from the dead! It is the central truth of the gospel story, the Word, the Lord, alive and victorious, as He had said. For my edification and amazement, I am reading each account today, allowing the Holy Spirit to teach me all facets and views of the great truths of the resurrection accounts in Matthew 28:1-10: in Mark 16:1-11; in Luke 24:1-12; and in John 20:1-18. I pray that you, dear reader, will take the time to do the same. Because Christ is victorious over death, we, too, know assuredly that death is not the end. That the soul is quickened to new life. “O grave, whre is thy victory? O death, where is they sting?” (I Corinthians 15:55, KJV).

Matthew has Mary Magdalene and the other Mary meeting the angel and being greeted by the living Lord. Mark records three women, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bringing spices and hearing the news from a young man dressed in a white robe." Mark later records His appearance to Mary Magdalene. In Luke’s account, they (meaning the women mentioned being last at the tomb on Friday) came with prepared spices to find the stone rolled away and a man in dazzling apparel giving them the news of the risen Christ. Luke identifies these women as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and “the other women” (Luke 24:10). But when the women told the disciples, they didn’t believe. Peter himself went, and saw the grave clothes as the women had said. He had to see for himself. Then he marveled at what had happened. In John’s account, Mary Magdalene went first, saw the tomb empty, and ran to tell Peter and ‘the other disciple’ (John). They rushed to the tomb, saw the grave clothes, the napkin folded neatly, and John “saw and believed” (v. 8). Peter and John returned to their homes, but Mary remained in the garden, and Christ appeared to her, calling her by name and asking her to go and tell His disciples that He was alive.

So many poems, songs and hymns, essays and books have been written about the resurrection. Myriad are the accounts of Jesus conquering death, not only that of the gospel writers, but many throughout the ages since. On Easter around the world Christians celebrate anew the glory of the cross where Jesus died and the majesty of the empty tomb where Jesus shed the bonds of death and rose victorious. Millions of voices on Easter proclaim the words of the gospel hymn written by Alfred H. Ackley (1887-1960):

“I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today;
I know that He is living, whatever men may say;
I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer,
And just the time I need Him, He’s always near.
He lives! He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way;
He lives! He lives! Salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives:
He lives within my heart!”