Isaiah sees the day of judgment, the day that Jerusalem is
established, in the way the Lord sees it, as a plan from of old. The promise is sure and steadfast, no matter
what today might look like. All that He
has done for the nation in the past, beginning with Abraham, continuing through
Isaac, Jacob and Joseph and, gloriously, in the exodus, is enough for the
prophet to see that all the promises of God will be fulfilled. In the end, not only is the city glorious and
safe, there will be a feast for all peoples, this is not a nationalistic vision
of eternity, it is the vision of true prophets to see those from every nation
gathered under the lordship of Yahweh, the vision that Jesus shared with the
apostles when He said they would be His witnesses “to the end of the earth.” Death has been swallowed up forever though we
still see death in this life, it has no final authority, the resurrection laid
that to rest.
“So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and
your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” Why is it that no one will take away the joy
of the disciples? Simply because they
know death has been conquered, that they will see Him again, death is not the
final word on life. Resurrection proves
that there is life after death and Jesus’ promise here assures the disciples
that they will see Him again, not only for the remaining years of their lives,
but forever. Joy that cannot be taken
away must be eternal, not just to see us through this life. That Jesus has overcome the world is the
source of the joy we have in spite of the fact that we have tribulation in this
world. Unfortunately, most of the
questions we get from unbelievers relate to this world and not the next. How do we so easily forget that the answers
to such questions is that this world is a temporary thing and not the world He
created, but that He has overcome the world.
When they ask theodicy questions, our answer should be to point to the
beatitudes and say, “you’re on the right path” in grieving over the state of
things, you’re just affixing blame in the wrong place.
The leaders saw two things, that Peter and John were common
men who had been with Jesus and the man who had been healed. The reconciliation of these two things is
simple isn’t it? The healing has nothing
to do with educational levels, it has to do with the Spirit of God. When confronted with the reality of the
healing, and the fact that it had happened through the agency of these two men,
it seems ludicrous to believe that these who cannot heal would demand the
disciples cease using the name of Jesus, but what other options did they have
but to believe themselves? When you’ve
already ruled out the obvious answer, you come up with silly alternatives like
this. Unsurprisingly, the disciples knew
now they had nothing to fear and spoke with boldness then prayed with the
others for even more boldness. Power was
now in their hands, no matter what they may have looked like to the world.
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