Epaggelia

Biblically, the idea of the resurrection had to be in the mind of Abraham, when he said to his servants, “we will return” (Gen. 22:1-6) knowing that he was about to sacrifice his son Isaac. Somehow Abraham had faith in the resurrection of his own son, before any recorded resurrections in the Bible. Even the funeral rites of the ancient Egyptian idol Osiris (appx 2400BC) contain written ideas about the resurrection of the dead. Resurrecting people from the dead, was an astounding, yet most desired ancient belief. For anyone to perform a resurrection or be resurrected was more than just amazing, it was stupendous and always related to the power of God, not mere humans! So it is reasonable to understand why some people find it strange that Matthew, Mark & Luke do not record John’s story of Lazarus, and only Luke tells us about the son of the widow in Nain. The only resurrection story that the gospel writers share is the daughter of Jairus! Doesn’t that sound strange to you? The conundrum is solved when we consider the obvious fact that Jesus is the Resurrection (Jn. 11:25) & the Life, therefore it is his own resurrection which is more important than any other miracle recorded. So the gospel writers, most likely felt compelled to highlight the resurrection of Jesus rather than anyone else’s resurrection. The doctrinal reason is in Colossians  1:18 & Revelation 1:5. Where both John and Paul use the title “Firstborn from the Dead” towards Jesus. What does this mean? – From whose resurrection flows all the life, spiritual and eternal, of all his family. All other people in the past or in the future that were resurrected, get their power from the firstborn from the dead, that is Christ Jesus. There is an innate quality and power in His resurrection, because he IS the resurrection, Immanuel, God with us and the Alpha & Omega. That is why the eternality of Jesus, in John 1:1-14, is emphasized, and Luke’s account begins with clarifying the certainty of factual details in his gospel, Luke 1:1-4. With that fact established, let’s consider the message or purpose in Jesus raising other people to life from the dead. If you don’t believe it’s a testified fact from eye-witnesses, then you have not faced the burden of producing proof on the contrary. Because the only way to disprove the resurrection of Jesus is to produce evidence against hundreds of eye-witnesses. So far, in the past 2 millennia, no one has done that. So it is very logical, safe and sound to conclude that Christ’s resurrection is a deduced and astounding fact!

1-Jesus raised the son of the widow in Nain (within the region of Galilee), Lk 7:11-15. When this happened, the fame of Jesus spread throughout all Israel and the surrounding regions. Elijah raised a widow’s son in Zarephath, Canaan, could these two events be linked? Yes, it was to let them know that the Christ/Messiah which the forerunning prophet Elijah was pointing to (via John the Immersionist) had arrived with power proving he was the Son of God, Romans 1:4.

2-Jesus raised from the dead, the daughter of Jairus, Mt. 9:18-26, Mk. 5:22-43, Lk. 8:40-56, also in the north of Israel. But this time, he asks the parents to not publically make known this power. He also reveals that death is a type of sleep, from God’s perspective, which from our human aspect, is hard to accept. But this makes our understanding of the resurrection a little bit less overwhelming and stupendous. The message of this resurrection is to teach us that our next life is when we are awakened. 3-Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:43-44). This happened close to Jerusalem and caused fear & friction, that the Jewish Leaders contrived to kill Lazarus. This would be a futile attempt to hide the evidence of Jesus being God in the power of the resurrection. John 12:9-10. From these resurrections, we glean 3 points: 1-The resurrection will always cause Jesus to be known as who he claims to be. 2-It will always keep us awake to the truth of life in Jesus, 3-It will always cause friction in the world. Do you believe in the resurrection unto life? John 5:29.