Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Topic: The empty tomb 19
Reading: Matthew 27:57-66, 28:1-15
Scripture: He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee. (Luke 24:6)
Note: The empty tomb of Jesus as preached by the disciples is not a myth as presupposed by scholars who are self imposed enemies of the cross and the gospel. The historicity of the empty tomb can never be discounted in the light of the Jerusalem factor, the enemies of Jesus and the testimony of the women disciples of Christ.
Majority of most critical scholars today accept the historicity of the empty tomb; both admirers and enemies.
The early Christians began preaching Jesus’ resurrection in Jerusalem. This was a direct obedience by the disciples of Christ to his specific instruction to them to begin preaching from Jerusalem, as they expand to other areas within Israel and to the rest of the world. Acts 1:8, “But ye shall receive power, after the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
Jerusalem was the hotbed of political, religious and ceremonial power in Israel, being the capital, and where all critical decisions and interpretations of the law were determined. When Jerusalem coughs, all other regions of Israel catch cold. It’s the place where all the fate of the prophets of old were determined and subsequently killed. Jesus suffered the same fate as the other prophets before him. The only difference being that he overcame death, conquered the grave and left in his trail an empty tomb; unprecedented and unparalleled in the annals of history.
Christianity would not have survived in Jerusalem with the apostolic preaching if the body of Christ had still been in the tomb. The church was headquartered in hostile Jerusalem and the evidence of the body of Jesus would have been enough to demand a terminal verdict on the Christian faith.
Food for thought: If the preaching of the cross survived in Jerusalem, it would survive anywhere in the world.
Declaration: For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (1Cor 1:18)
© Author: Rev Fred Aboe
