Acts 10:39-41 Bible Teaching

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Acts 10.38-41
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August 28th 2016
Okay, we left off last week with my using Peter’s words to give us insight to the make-up of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I said that He was born fully God but that as all man he had to grow and learn obedience through the things He suffered and then when the time came He, being Jesus of Nazareth was, as Peter says, was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with Power – and I suggest that this was when He became Jesus the Christ.

We stopped the literal verse by verse at verse 38 where Peter said:

38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

39 And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:
40 Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly;
41 Not to all 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.

Okay, preaching Jesus now to Cornelius we read Peter say in Acts 10:38

“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”

And then he adds

39 And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:

The we could refer to Peter and the other apostles or possibly to Peter and the six Jewish converts who were traveling with him. I think it probably refers to the apostles.

“And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:”
We saw all He did in Judea and Jerusalem, his field of ministry . . . whom THEY (the Jews) slew and hanged on a tree.

In English this sounds like two separate acts but this is not true either based on the facts nor the Greek as the original is simply, “whom they put to death, suspending him on a tree.”

Of course we know the reference to a tree means on wood. (verse 40 and 41)

40 Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly;
41 Not . . . to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, (ready) even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.”

Now, think about this for a moment, will you. Jesus lived among the people. He spent three years ministering among the people. He had quite the reputation. Lots of followers for a while. Then He was put to death for the Nation to whom He came and for the world.

Why wouldn’t He go and show Himself to EVERYBODY in that day and age, you know, show them His hands and feet and side? So they could believe?

The brass tacks simple answer – which still plays out to every one of us today – God wants our . . . faith.

We come to God by faith.

We are saved by grace through faith.

And it is only by faith that we can please God.

Before Christ people had the opportunity to trust and have faith in the promises of God.

During His life people still had a chance and choice to believe – on Him, whom they could see, or at least on the miracles that He did – but they still had to believe, right?

Well after His death and resurrection the demand for faith was no different.

God could have had Jesus go and show Himself to people all through Judea and Jerusalem – but this was a very selective experience only a few witnesses would get to have.

From the Garden of Eden till today, God wants those who seek Him in Spirit and in Truth – and this is done by and through faith.

And while I do not dispute people and their visions and tales of Jesus showing up to them I am always a little unsettled by the stories because of the scriptural import of faith in the lives of human beings.

Remember this point when people start quibbling over the fact that only the apostles (and a group of nearly 488 others in that age) were witnesses of His resurrection – God wants us to live by faith.

And there is no getting around the fact that most of what we believe is based on this critical biblical tenet.

Jesus was called to come to the House of Israel (first). He came to them. They rejected Him and put Him to death.

He resurrected and was shown to five hundred or so witnesses – especially the Apostles.

Their job was to preach Him as the resurrected Lord and Savior to the House of Israel before Judgment would fall upon them in the most barbaric fashion at the hands of the Romans.

The people’s job? To believe and receive – before that dreadful day. God wanted them to choose His Son and gave them every opportunity to do so.

And the same is true to this very day as the Holy Spirit is calling to all to receive Him . . . before their own judgement and second coming at death.

With the exception of those select who were witnesses, God expected them to live by faith.

We are no different. The principle of faith means as much to people since the resurrection of Christ as it did to the believers then.

We know that faith comes by hearing the Word and so we share, praying that the Holy Spirit will take the living Words shared right into the heart of the hearer.

This is what missional outreach is all about, whether its to another country of to someone in our immediate family it is all the same.

We speak words of Life and the Holy Spirit plants them into open seeking hearts.

And lives are changed by conversion.

But let me tell you something that I believe as readily as I believe I am standing here, faith needs to be fed.

With what? The word of God – the watering of the word, no matter who you are, no matter how long you have been a believer.

It is a dynamic living word that brings us closer to KNOWING God and His Son, which knowing is synonymous in scripture with eternal life.

In other words to know God is to have life eternal – that’s what scripture says.
And we know Him by and through reading His Word, which increases our faith.

Discontinue a steady stream of the water of the word to the soul and the faith – even if it has bloomed into a plant, will whither.

In the parable of the Sower Jesus makes this principle plain as there are those who receive the word into their heart-soil but even after taking root are exposed to enemies that will hinder its growth.

Why is it that God wants us to have faith and loves faith in us so greatly? Because the presence of faith leads to the presence of love – the fruits of love – which is the end goal for God – for God is love. When we begin to produce fruits of love God is glorified and we become more and more like Him therefore prepared to live more and more in His presence.

It’s not like He demands faith for faiths sake – again, the faith He desires when in place leads to the fruits of love – so long as the faith is rooted and grounded and bearing fruit upward.

I’ve written out the way this works on the board:

Stage of Walk
The Command to believe or have faith in
Result
Unbeliever
The Good News
Introduction to the two Great Commands – to love
Infant
To Forgive all men
Shows love for others and God
Toddler
Longsuffering patience
Deep love
Teen
Turn the other cheek
Deeper love
Mature
To Bless them that hurt you, use you, despitefully use you.
Deepest love
Sons and daughters
To die (to self) for the benefit of those who hate you
God’s Perfect Love

37 and that which thou dost sow, not the body that shall be dost thou sow, but bare grain, it may be of wheat, or of some one of the others,

As the faith is challenged and met with our trusting in His ways, the richness and depth of the love we have for Him and others increases.

It happens processionally, over time.

And God has so organized it that we begin our walk with the “open gracefilled simplicity of the Gospel,” we then continue in “the Milk of the Word to fortify and nourish the seed of faith (which comes by the washing of the Word), and then we ultimately change our diet by adding in more Meaty concepts which challenge us even more until we reach the place where God wants us – and we exit this world to thrive in the total immersion of God – who is love – which happens at death.

So to put it another way, we begin as humans born in the flesh and totally selfish, we hear the Good News, we die to the flesh of self, are buried with Christ, feed on the milk of the word, grow, feed on the meat of the word, grow and ultimately begin to produce fruits of love.

Anyway . . .

Peter has explained to Cornelius and his family that he and the others were not just witnesses of Jesus and His resurrection but they actually ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.

In my former faith and even in many Christian denominations, this fact of Jesus eating and drinking has led to the idea that we too, upon resurrection will be eating and drinking with our resurrected bodies too. The teaching is we will have the very same bodies and faces we have now – only perfected.

Really? Think about this. We are resigned to eternity living in a perfected form of this very physical body we were given at birth? And then perfected according to what standard?

I want to speak about resurrection in this last half of our time together and I will try to explain the contextual biblical view which I doubt very much many of you have ever heard – but it has been agreed upon by others well before I came along.

So here we go. If we were at liberty to point out the MOST important element of Jesus’s life and mission it would have to be His resurrection.

This is because it confirms and validates EVERYTHING He said and taught and did as utterly true and necessary.

In other words His teachings and claims were confirmed by the fact that He rose from the grave and overcame death.
Had He laid in the grave after all He taught we could write Him off as another miracle working prophet of a questionable nature.

But Paul said in 1st Corinthians 15:14

“And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

And then . . .

1st Corinthians 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

But Christ did rise and overcome the grave showing that Jesus of Nazareth was without sin (or any other thing that could hold Him in the grave, that God approved of Him completely and that He was now Lord over all things – as God had appointed Him.

Many, many, many people have taken the fact of Jesus rising from the grave with His body of flesh and bone (which was still bearing the wounds in His hands and feet) that all of us will also rise from the material grave with our same physical material bodies.

Admittedly, this does make sense. Since Jesus was the first-fruits of the grave then it only natural that we would believe that we too will rise as He rose – with physical bodies then spiritually regenerated.

First of all we openly must admit that Jesus did rise with His body. That is a scriptural given.

Peter witnesses here in Acts that he ate and drank with Him and as stated we know from other accounts had He even had the wounds from His passion still in His hand and feet and side.

But we also know that the body He had was changed as He was able to appear and disappear with that body at will.

And so we believe this will be our lot as well – we will rise with the same body but it will be a spiritual body that will have different abilities.

There is the standard view of resurrection. Add in the fact that when Jesus was resurrected in this manner that other people were resurrected in the same way at that time and this standard view (among many believers) has been taught by most Christian’s groups – not all, but most.

I challenge the standard view with all my heart. Let me tell you why by reasoning from scripture.

I do not challenge it for challenge sake of to be different. I challenge it because I want and seek truth above all things and what Jesus resurrection was about does NOT conform to what other scripture says our resurrection will be about.

First of all, Jesus did and experienced a lot of things that we will not so just because He did and experienced them does not mean we will too in the exact same way.

He obeyed the Law written in stone which enables us to obey the Law of the Spirit written on our hearts.

He was circumcised according to the law but we are all to be circumcised in our hearts.

He was the Word that was made flesh, we are flesh that live by the Word.

He was literally crucified, but we are commanded to take up our cross and die daily. See the differences?

He was literally put to material death then placed in the literal material grave where He rose to new material life and ascended into heaven with that body while we (our flesh that we are born with) is to be buried with Christ and to then rise to new spiritual life here and now – and then later.

Now listen, Jesus was sent to that material nation under the law. Materially, He only came to them. He related to THEM materially – by and through overcoming the Law and dying a material sacrificial death for all to see.

Therefore, His resurrection would be material – so they could touch Him and see Him. And so He could return to them in the same manner He lived among them.

His body NEEDED to rise up materially from the grave – without it how would the apostles and others know He had actually risen from the dead? They wouldn’t.

He ate with them to show that He was NOT a spirit – “a spirit would not have flesh and bones as you see me have,” He told them.

But that was for them, at that time, to show to a material nation that He had materially overcome the law, fulfilled the prophets, and overcome sin and even the grave.

He was a lamb slaughtered that rose up again! Radical radical stuff – and meaningful. But not similarly applicable to all people thereafter.

His body being literally raised from the grave was a shadow and type for all of us being raised to new life and walking in the Spirit.

So what I am suggesting, which to probably 80% of Christianity would find troubling, but what I am suggesting is that resurrection – our resurrection – is all spiritual.

My reading of 1st Corinthians 15 supports this and I want to take a minute to cover what Paul says there.

But before we read it there is a very disjointed and anachronistic view of things people take from the Bible and assign to us relative death, resurrection, and judgement.

Anachronistic means these beliefs are all out of order.

For instance, what do most say about the state of all people who have died?

They say, “they have gone to heaven or (in that rare case) “they have gone to hell.”

Now I want you to think about this.

We say that people have gone to heaven, right – for thousands of years and billions of lives – they have gone to heaven. That is what we say at the funeral of every believer.

They are absent from the body present with the Lord, right. They are in heaven!

It’s very comforting and I believe it to be absolutely correct.

But those who believe in a future material resurrection must jump through all sorts of hoops (relative to scripture) to make things make sense.

Let me explain.

We say that people who believe and die GO TO HEAVEN. Great.

But scripture says that the resurrection will happen when Jesus returns, and then the Judgement, and then an examination of the Book of Life to see whose names are written in it, and then the assignment of heaven or possibly the lake of fire.

In other words since the world began bodies are laying in the earth – – some for a week, some a year – fifty years, a thousand, ten thousand years old – and all of them are waiting to be reunited with their body once Jesus returns, then the judgement.

In the meantime all are or have been in heaven with God. Got that?

The problem with this view is that at some point in the future all that have died (and have been in heaven) will have to be materially resurrected from the graves ONLY to then be judged, the Book of Life searched and some of them who have been in heaven will return to that blessed state while others who have been in heaven will be cast into the lake of fire!

It’s an anachronistic mess.

So let’s let scripture teach us what the resurrection really is – turn with me to
1st Corinthians 15.

Ready?

The chapter begins (and throughout) speaks of resurrection. This is really the primary subject of the chapter.

Now jump with me out to verse 35 and listen carefully to what Paul says:

35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?

So there are the two questions –

How are the dead raised up? and “with what body do they come?”

And here is Paul’s response to these two questions:

36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:

First ask yourselves, why do you suppose that Paul responds to the question with, You fool?

Because the tenor of the questions allude to the idea of a body being raised up from the grave and a body coming from earth and into heaven.

In our day, we would ask these these two questions and then try and answer them as if the questions were viable and reasonable. But Paul begins his response and is critical of the questions themselves.

And then He begins to teach them the true way to see and understand resurrection and speaks about sowing or the planting of a seed and says:

“Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened (made alive) unless it dies:”

Jesus alludes to this very same illustration when He, speaking of His own death and resurrection, said in John 12:23:

23 The hour hath come that the Son of Man may be glorified; (we talked about Jesus of Nazareth growing etc well here he speaks now of being glorified,” and then He says)
24 verily, verily, I say to you, if the grain of the wheat, having fallen to the earth, may not die, itself remaineth alone; and if it may die, it doth bear much fruit;

So the idea that Paul is bringing to the table about resurrection is if you want to obtain a “resurrected body of glory,” your body of flesh must first die, like a seed sown in the earth must die before it can bear much fruit.”

So there is the first principle – the body you are in from birth must first die like a kernel of corn must die in order to grow into a plant.

Now note what Paul says here (pay close attention. He says)

37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be,

What you sow – you body of flesh that is buried in the ground “WILL NOT BE THE BODY THAT WILL BE . . .”

“but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain.”

In other words, what we sowing is neither the body that will be (it is only a grain of what will be) whether it be a grain of wheat or some other grain.

So, the illustration to our flesh is we bury a single kernel of corn – hard, yellow and looking very distinct and it must die – and what comes from that buried dead kernal is EXTREMELY different than what was buried.

From that little dried yellow kernel comes a stalk, the blade, husks, ears, corn oil, bloated kernals of water, and all those stringy fibers – AMAZING – and 100 thousand times bigger than what was buried and a million times different than what was sown, right?

Now listen, do Paul’s words describe Jesus resurrection? Not really. What was buried with Him rose with Him – though spiritual renewed – but what rose from Him was very much the same as what was buried!

Why? He needed to evidence His overcoming the grave to them. And He had to return to them. This is why His resurrection was what it was.

Not so with us. But Paul IS describing what is so with us.

37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be,
(verse 38)

38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

Ah, now we’re starting to get an idea of what we get upon our resurrection.

“First, that which is sown is NOT the body that shall be” (but)

“God gives us the body our dead seed is to produce.” It is up to Him but Paul adds:

“to every seed his own body.”

I would strongly suggest that this is where God rewards us with our eternal mansion that we reap based on the manner which we allowed our flesh to die.

This fulfills the scripture where we are reminded not to fool ourselves, we certainly reap what we have sown.

Sow to the flesh, don’t let it die and you will reap whatever a partially dead seed produces. Die completely to the flesh, reap what we might call a complete spiritual body.

Paul goes on and gives us some illustrations and says:

39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.

So first he makes a point, remember, speaking of resurrection (and not of animals – remember this) that there are all sorts of different flesh-types on earth – men have a type, beasts, fish, and birds – all different TYPES of FLESH.

In my opinion this is an allusion to various types of resurrections and not specifically to the idea that all living earthly things are different flesh. He is making a point here – As if saying, “there are a lot of different types of flesh, right?”

Then he says:

40 There are also celestial bodies (this means bodies or shapes or forms that exist in the heavens), and bodies terrestrial (bodies or shapes that exist on the earth) and then He makes his point

“. . . but the glory of the celestial (or heavenly) is one, and the glory of the terrestrial (earth) is another.

So he tells us that there are a lot of different flesh types AND there is also a difference of the types of Bodies that are heavenly and those that are earthly.

Then he moves us into speaking of the heavenly shapes or bodies (because his point is all about resurrection) and says:

41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.

This is his next point – there is not only a difference in flesh on earth (which all needs to die), and not only a difference between the bodies that are in heaven and on earth, but in the heavens there are differing glories possessed by each of the planets and suns and stars he’s mentioned.
Got all that?

Here we go – read verse 42

42 So also . . . is . . . the resurrection of the dead.

So the resurrection of the dead with include factors relative to the “flesh-type” of the person, whether they were heavenly or earthly, and there will be various glories given based on these factors – as different as the heavenly planets and stars all have a different associated glory.

So after having said

42 So also . . . is the resurrection of the dead. He adds

“It (the resurrection) is sown in corruption (like a seed planted in the ground to die it is sown in fleshly death); it is raised in incorruption:
43 It is sown in dishonor (the death of the body buried in the ground); it is raised in glory : it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

Ready? Verse 44

44 It is sown a natural body (the little dry kernel); it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

Now, many says that this sentence describes Jesus body – it was a natural body that became a spiritual body. And this is what we will experience too.

But this does NOT fit everything else Paul has said.

The better most contextual way to understand this is to say that there is a body that is natural, fitted for existence here in the terrestrial realm. That must
first die, like the dry little kernel but what comes from the death of the flesh is an ENTIRELY different body that that which was nature – as different as what comes out from a corn kernel – as radical as the new body having a stalk, blade, ears, husks, etc… and it is ALLLLLLL spiritual.

It is a body that is far bigger in scope, far better in power, far more equipped than what was buried and far more glorious.

This body will be fitted for the celestial realm, (according to the will of God) it will vary in glory and power from other heavenly bodies, but it will NOT reflect the form from which it sprung.

Giving us yet another example to consider, Paul adds at verse 45

45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

We don’t have time to get into the Greek translations but what this is saying is the first man (named Adam) was taken from the earth and given “the breath of life” and he became a person with a mind, a will and an emotion. Then Paul, speaking of Christ and calling Him the Second Adam, says “he is for a life giving Spirit.” The translation of was made is NOT present here in the Greek as pertaining to Christ.

The first Adam was created of the earth mixed with Spirit but the second Adam is a life-giving spirit – nothing to do with this earth or world.

Now, here we are told that Jesus “is a life giving Spirit.”

Do you remember when Jesus appeared to the twelve after His resurrection and they were a afraid of Him and what did He tell them at that time? He said (in Luke 24:39)

“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.”

Again, Paul says that He is “a living spirit” but Jesus told His apostles, after He was resurrected, that “a spirit has not flesh and bones as they could see that He had.”

There is no contradiction here. He was and is a living spirit – what was in Him was that full plant that came from the father with stalk and blade and husk and ears.

But He needed the apostles to see Him in His fleshy body raised from the dead. So HE presented Himself in this earthly form to prove He had overcome the grave and said, that a spirit has not flesh and bone as they could see that He had.

But when it comes to us there is absolutely no need for this kernel to continue on.

We will resurrect in the manner Paul describes – our fleshly bodies buried and dead like an earthly kernel which gives form and existence to the spiritual multifaceted body full of power and glory that He will give to each of us by God according to His will!

Paul adds a point of clarification to show that there is an order in all this and says

46 Howbeit (IOW, although take note) that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

Then reaffirming the spiritual nature of resurrection says

47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

Ready?

48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

Did you catch that? The earthly forms and shapes and body are for here – not there. Here is the kernel, there is the stalk, the ear, the blade, the stringy things.

50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

In context of allllll that Paul has said we don’t need to tease these words apart and suggest that flesh and bone will go to heaven but flesh and blood won’t.

This is splitting hairs. The meaning is clear. The earthly, the terrestrial will not abide in the celestial. The kernel abides here, its plant and fruit abides there.

The resurrection is an entirely spiritual event where we are given heavenly spiritual bodies VERY different than our limited, earthy fleshly bodies.

These will be given by God based on His will and I believe in accordance to how much we lived by the spirit over the flesh.

Jesus said, regarding the resurrection “some to a resurrection of life and some to a resurrection of damnation.”

When does this resurrection occur?

It started occurring this way once Jesus resurrected and overcame all things.

In other word I strongly suggest that all people, when they die, experience being caught up (raptured) experience immediate judgement, experience immediate spiritual transformation, and live eternally with whatever body God gives them.

As a matter of conjecture, I believe there are bodies that are suited to abide in the very bosom or fire of God and they range from that extreme to resurrected bodies that are to some extent limited or damned.

More next week.

Q and A