WWUTT 1665 Q&A Demonic Easter Eggs, Rising from the Tomb, Ascending into Heaven

Do you have a good reason to not go to church if you don't want to go to church on Easter Sunday?

How many people saw Jesus actually come out of the tomb? And how many were on the Mount of Olives when he ascended into heaven?

The answer is when we understand the text. This is

When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible teaching podcast. That we may be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

Lord. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt .com. Here once again is

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky, who is not in studio with me this week. I know some of you have been waiting for part two of our conversation about how to discuss difficult topics with your kids.

So I'm going to wait until Becky can be back on with me before we continue that conversation.

Since it is a conversation, I need another person in here with me. So God willing, we're going to pick that up on April the 22nd.

Hopefully that's when part two will air. This is my Good Friday episode.

Although I'm recording this on Easter and we had a very, very busy week. All kinds of stuff going on for our

Easter week. Lots of programs we had at the church and things like that. So it took me a while to get to this episode.

Becky wasn't able to join me anyway because she's been ill. She had been fighting illness all week. We were able to all be together as a family in church on Sunday morning for Easter Sunday.

Praise God. But the other things that we had going on in the week, we were kind of piecemealing our family participation because we had illness just mess us up.

In fact, I'm going to wait to share exactly how all of that transpired. I'll wait until Becky can be with me and then you can hear our parental woes together.

In the meantime, this is the Good Friday episode that I'm recording on Easter. It will be dated for Good Friday.

You can consider this an Easter weekend Q &A. We're responding to questions from the listeners and you can send questions to when we understand the text at gmail .com.

I have three Easter related questions. I'm going to be responding to here. But first, let me read from the scriptures something that we've studied recently.

If you've been following our New Testament study on the podcast, first Corinthians chapter 15 beginning in verse 1 now,

I make known to you brothers the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received in which also you stand by which also you are saved if you hold fast the word which

I proclaim to you as good news, unless you believe for nothing. For I delivered to you as of first importance what

I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.

And that's what it is that we remember Easter weekend. We remember the crucifixion of our

Lord, which is Good Friday and then his resurrection from the dead that early

Sunday morning. There are many that will contend with that and they'll go. Well, how do we know it was that day of the week?

Well, the gospel of John tells us that Jesus was crucified the day before the Sabbath.

So that's Friday and he was risen again from the dead the first day of the week

John 20 verse 1 now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone already rolled away from the tomb.

That was the morning of Sunday as many people want to argue with what day what days of the week these things happened on like there was a high

Sabbath. So it was actually earlier in the week. Jesus was crucified on a Thursday. Some will contend that and say that he was crucified on a

Wednesday. No, he was crucified on Friday. He rose again on Sunday. Those are the days of the week that the

Gospels give us. You can get that just straight from one gospel. It's in the gospel of John. So that's what we remember at Easter, but we don't just celebrate that at Easter.

In fact, we remember the resurrection of our Lord every time we gather as a church.

The reason why we gather on Sunday the first day of the week is because that was the day that Jesus came back from the dead.

He was resting in the tomb through the Sabbath fulfilling all of the laws of the

Sabbath and then comes back to life on Sunday and that becomes our new day of rest.

That becomes the day that we commit unto the Lord Sunday the first day of the week since that's the day that Jesus rose from the dead.

Now Paul talks about in Romans chapter 14 that one considers one day is better than another and another consider considers all days alike.

Each one must be fully convinced in his own mind and that was going on at a time when some were convinced.

No, we still need to keep the Sabbath on Saturday and others were saying no, we're going to gather together as a church on Sunday and there was contention over that in the church, particularly the church in Rome since that's who

Paul was writing to when we read that in Romans chapter 14. So there were some that were arguing over that but ultimately

Paul says it doesn't matter so long as you commit this day unto the

Lord. Let each one do as he is convinced in his own mind fully unto the

Lord. So commit that day to the Lord Sunday is the day that we do that and it's Sunday because that was the day of the week that Jesus rose from the dead.

Once again, we don't just celebrate that at Easter, but we celebrate that every Sunday that we gather as a church.

We are remembering that Jesus rose from the dead just as the scriptures foretold just as Jesus said that he would just as the witnesses saw and have testified to so the scriptures proclaim and so we believe and just as Jesus has said all of these things and they came to pass.

So will it be at the coming of the son of man Jesus said that he is going to return and he is going to judge the living and the dead and so we can know with confidence this day is going to come the day of Christ return just as the day of his first coming came and his crucifixion and his resurrection from the dead you can have confidence in these things we can be more sure of these promises the even these historical events that have been recorded for us in the scriptures.

We can be more confident of this than we can be that. We will see the sunrise tomorrow. These are historical facts.

He is risen. He is risen indeed. So I have a few questions here that we're going to be reflecting upon concerning the things that happened 2 ,000 years ago on this particular resurrection weekend.

This first email is from Joan and she says feel free to shorten this question. I do subscribe to what

I believe I did edit a paragraph out of this just so it flows a little bit better. But Joan says this is the most important time of our life.

If you are truly saved, why do we allow the subtlety of the devil to take part in this time by celebrating with the bunny?

The bunny is pagan. Oh the pastor might give a wonderful message, but it does not change the fact that the devil is with our children as they look for eggs.

I am 66 born again at 35. It took me a few years, but my children did not celebrate the bunny.

Here's a simple question. Would Jesus be helping us die eggs? I did not celebrate

Halloween or Santa caught a lot of grief on the guy in the red suit. And yes, I know the history of Santa but things changed.

Signs in front of every church Easter egg hunt. Why not come celebrate the resurrection of our

Lord churches wonder why they do not grow get rid of the devil honor the Lord.

I choose not to attend church at this time. I honor my Lord and his precious gift to me at home in prayer and study.

I listen to your church all the time. Thank you signed Joan. Well, there are a few things about your email

Joan. I don't think are terribly clear. I don't want to jump to conclusions here. When you say I choose not to attend church at this time.

Do you mean just on Easter Sunday or do you mean that you're not attending church at this time at all?

Because you think that the church is doing something wrong. And so once the church shapes up, then you'll start going back to church again, either way.

I would say to you that you're wrong. I do not think that Easter is a good excuse to not go to church just because the church that you attend does an

Easter egg hunt. You would not go to church on that Sunday. Why is therefore every other

Sunday of the year different than Easter Sunday? I mean, they only do the Easter egg hunt on E on on Easter, but it's obviously in the minds of the people in your church to do

Easter egg hunt. So why is it okay for you to go to your church all the other 51 weeks of the year, but just that one week of the year that one

Easter. I'm not going to go to church on that day. Why? I mean, what good reason do you have? You pose the question in your email.

Would Jesus be helping us die eggs? Okay, would Jesus not go to church on Sunday just because there was an

Easter egg hunt? Now that question has a very subjective answer. So all

I'm doing is trying to make you think about your own decisions in the same way that you're putting that upon other people.

But really the questions are subjective. Would Jesus die Easter eggs? I have no idea. And neither do you quite frankly.

You can't say that he wouldn't and I can't say that he would. I don't know that Jesus would even use

Twitter. Does that mean using Twitter would be sinful? No, you can still use

Twitter or social media in general in a godly way. When we understand the text is largely a social media ministry.

So again, you can do this in a godly fashion. What you're presenting is very anachronistic.

You're trying to take something that is modern in our present day that didn't even exist at Jesus time to be able to know what he would or would not do.

The origin of the Easter egg itself is confusing. There are a lot of different stories.

Some will say that it originated with German Lenten traditions. There are others that say that it originated with Nimrod's egg laying wife and in the pagan lore, but we don't know for sure.

It's kind of been lost to us in history exactly what the origin of the Easter egg is. It could be something completely harmless or it could be something as pagan as, you know, some some woman that was laying eggs that would hatch into bunnies or or something.

Whatever, whatever it is. The pagans may have contributed to these traditions. The devil is not with children as they hunt for Easter eggs.

You are more likely to be tempted by Satan watching TV or browsing the internet than your children are being led by Satan because they're hunting

Easter eggs. They're little plastic eggs with candy inside. There's nothing there is absolutely nothing demonic about that practice.

This is a Liberty of conscience issue. If you don't want to do it, then don't do it. But you can't say that somebody who does an

Easter egg hunt with their kids is doing anything demonic or even unchristian if they want to tie that into the empty tomb or whatever.

I mean, you know, we're supposed to be teaching our kids principles of the gospel in anything and everything we do.

I go to a museum with my children and I teach them about God and his providence, his design.

We talk about creation, just walking through a museum and talking about the artifacts or whatever the theme of the museum might happen to be, whether it's natural history or some sort of a historical event.

I can help my children see how God was working in those details. And I should, if we're doing an

Easter egg hunt now, I've never taken an Easter egg hunt and tried to tie that into the empty tomb with my kids, but I do teach them about Easter.

One doesn't really have to do with the other. My kids do an Easter egg hunt to get candy. I'll sit down with them and open the scriptures and tell them the gospel and that's how our children learn about Jesus and what he did with his death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave.

It's what we teach them from the scriptures, not what we what we teach them with Easter eggs. But when it comes to whether you participate in some of these

Easter traditions or not, Romans 14 verse 4 says, who are you to judge the servant of another to his own master?

He stands or falls and he will stand for the Lord is able to make him stand.

One person judges one day above another another regards every day alike.

Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards the day regards it for the

Lord and he who eats eats for the Lord for he gives thanks to God and he who does not eat for the

Lord. He does not eat and gives thanks to God. So whether you decide to participate in these

Easter traditions or you decide to abstain do it to the glory of God, but do not pass judgment on another for this is a

Liberty of conscience matter. Nobody is doing anything demonic because they hunt

Easter eggs. Now. I do agree with you Joan that I don't think that churches should be celebrating with the

Easter Bunny again. I don't know that there's anything demonic going on there. If they do the focus should be on the resurrection of the

Lord Christ. That's what it should be. So we have a resurrection day, but I encourage you go to church.

If your church is doing something wrong, like doing an Easter egg hunt, they're trying to entice people with the

Easter egg hunt. See, I would say that that's using a gimmick to try to win people to come to church and second

Corinthians as we've been looking at second Corinthians in our New Testament study. It's in chapter 4 where the

Apostle Paul says we have renounced the hidden things of shame not walking in craftiness not using these these crafty schemes to try to get people to come to church.

They need to come to church to hear the gospel proclaimed now Easter and Christmas.

Those are the two days of the year that you're most likely to see people coming to church that don't attend on a regular basis.

The rest of the year use that as an evangelical opportunity be able to share the gospel with them that they may know if you're a follower of Christ you belong to his body.

If you belong to his body, then you're going to you're going to be devoted to this body helping us grow together in the

Lord growing in love growing in Christ likeness. This is what we do together. Our sanctification is a community project that we do together as a church is we're growing in love.

We're growing in love for one another. You can't follow the one another's in scripture love one another serve one another be patient with one another you can't do that if you're not with one another so you have to go to church to fulfill these things and Joan I would encourage you you got to do that on Easter Sunday as well.

There is not a Sunday of the year. That's a good excuse for you to miss church.

If there's something in your church that they're doing wrong that needs to be changed. Well, you're going to have to go there in order to change it.

You can't just protest and sit at home and go. Yeah, I'm going to let them have their celebration while I'm going to bask in my own piety at home.

You can't do that. That's prideful when the the

Puritans hundreds of years ago in New England, they outlawed church services on Christmas Day.

They said nobody should be going to church on Christmas Day because they considered the Christmas Mass of course to be pagan to be

Roman Catholic and we're not going to participate in that in that day. So they made it illegal for for Christians to go to church on Christmas Day.

That was wrong. That was dead wrong. The Puritans should not have done that. There is not a good reason to not go to church on that day go to church and honor the

Lord Christ. Why should the Roman Catholics have anything to say or do with the day that you go to church to celebrate the incarnation that God put on flesh and dwelt among us that he came into the world to save sinners as it says in first Timothy 115 celebrate that if Christmas falls on Sunday great continue in the sermon series that you've been in.

That's what I like to do. I personally I won't even stop my sermon series for a special Easter Sunday sermon.

I'm just going to keep going with the sermon series that I've been in. I believe that in the eight years the eight

Easter services that I led a sermon in in the church that I was pastoring in Kansas.

So that was eight Easter's. I think I only did an Easter message once like a particular

Easter message because it just so happened that that text of Scripture which had to do with the resurrection of the

Lord fell on that particular weekend. And so therefore I did an Easter message. I didn't stop the series to do the

Easter message. I did it because it was part of the series that we were in.

I think I did that one. I might have there may have been one other time that I actually specifically did a minute point being my mindset is more in doing the book of the

Bible that we're in and I can take any passage of Scripture and point it back to Christ that we may see and understand how

Christ is the fulfillment of all of these things. Even when he came back from the dead. He spoke to his disciples about Moses and the prophets and how

Jesus was the fulfillment of the Scriptures of all that had come before. So we commit ourselves to those things on Easter Sunday same as we commit ourselves to the preaching and teaching of the word on any

Sunday. May we do that on Easter Sunday as well. Thank you for your email

Joan. And I hope you I hope you will think about some of these things as I have responded to them.

This next question comes from Peter in North Carolina. He says hey what thank you for the Easter videos that you've done in the past.

Are you planning on doing any new ones this year? I have a suggestion for a topic. Why is it that no one saw the resurrection of Jesus as in according to all four

Gospels? No one actually saw Jesus walk out of the tomb hundreds of people saw him risen, but no one saw him rise.

Is there a particular reason for that? Thank you for your ministry Peter in North Carolina.

Well, this email came to me a couple of weeks ago and I have not had the chance to do any new

Easter videos because it's been such a busy time and our family getting sick in their kind of contributed to the to the busyness not having any free time to work on any what videos

I have a couple of scripts in the pocket. They're ready to be produced into videos that they one of them has to do with Holy Week and the other one had to do with Easter Sunday, but I did not get either one of them done.

I still want to do them even though they're not going to be as timely as if I had released them during Easter week.

So you'll you'll find some Easter related videos coming up soon, even though I didn't get the chance to do that right before the

Easter weekend. One of them has to do with with Palm Sunday and it's the statement that that that Jesus makes when the when the people are singing his praises and the

Pharisees say to Jesus teacher make your disciples be silent Jesus responds.

I tell you if these were silent the very stones will cry out and and there are people that will say that if we weren't singing the praises of God than all of creation like inanimate objects would sing the praise of God that wasn't what

Jesus was referring to. It's actually a reference back to Habakkuk chapter 2. So that that video will be coming out

God willing. It'll be later this week this next week and you'll get to find out exactly what

Jesus was referring to when he made that particular statement now regarding your it would be good to do a video on this other question you have here

Peter. So your question is why is it that no one saw the resurrection of Jesus? Yeah, there were plenty of people that saw him risen, but no one actually saw him rise and walk out of the tomb like no one was there at the tomb when the women got to the tomb

Jesus had already risen, but the stone was rolled away. Why didn't anyone actually see him rise the stone roll away and Jesus walk out of the tomb.

Well, Tom Buck who is the senior pastor here at First Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas where I pastor he did a sermon on exactly this on Easter Sunday was preaching out of Luke chapter 24 and at the beginning of that chapter.

It says now on the first day of the week at early dawn. They came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.

This is the women who have who have come to anoint the body of Jesus. They're expecting to find a dead body in a tomb, but instead what they found verse 2.

They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered they did not find the body of the

Lord Jesus and it happened that while they were perplexed about this behold two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing and when the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground the men said to them, why do you seek the living one among the dead?

So they're rebuking the women for being there. It's a light rebuke, but it's nonetheless a rebuke. They should not be looking for the one who is risen among the dead

Jesus told them that he was going to rise. So why were they looking for him in a tomb verse 6?

He is not here, but he has risen listen to this. Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee saying that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again.

The Angels tell the women remember what he said now when you read the accounts of Jesus talking with his disciples about this in the

Gospel of Matthew from Matthew chapter 16 up until the the triumphal entry.

Jesus tells his disciples three times that he's going to be turned over to the authorities that he's going to be put to death but that he's going to rise again on the third day.

He tells them that three times and yet they did not understand it on the day that he rose from the dead.

Why did not why did no one see him walk out of the tomb? Yeah, as you mentioned

Peter there were over 500 brothers that saw Jesus alive between his resurrection and his

Ascension into heaven, which was a 40 -day period the apostle Paul talks about that in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 over 500 brothers have seen him alive, but no one actually saw him rise the moment that he walked out of the tomb that's not recorded for us in the

Gospels. Why not and I believe the answer to that is in these words that the

Angels gave to the women remember what he said to you.

It's about remembering what the Scriptures said faith would be by the

Scriptures not because they saw with their own eyes, but because of what they remember the

Scriptures saying now it's not that visual evidence is unimportant clearly.

It is important because Paul says hey, we've got eyewitnesses and Peter later on will say we were eyewitnesses of his

Majesty. So yeah, there there were there were witnesses there the witnesses are important, but the greatest witness is the

Scripture itself. We talked about that when we were studying through 1st Corinthians 15 that Paul makes sure that the

Corinthians understand first the most important witness to the resurrection of Jesus is the

Scripture itself it foretold that he was going to rise and then he did rise according to the

Scriptures as those verses that I read from 1st Corinthians 15 verses 3 and 4 according to the

Scriptures. He was crucified and he rose again on the third day. So the women were to remember what the

Scripture said not relying upon what they witnessed, but what they heard what they were taught what

Jesus said he would show himself to them. But even when the disciples saw him risen from the dead they were still confused about it in Matthew 28 right before you read the

Great Commission where Jesus says all authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to me now therefore go make disciples of all nations baptizing in the name of the father and the son and the

Holy Spirit. Okay, you know that part right before that which begins in verse 18 it says that Jesus led them up to a mountain in Galilee and many believed but some doubted so even as they're following the risen

Lord to a mountain in Galilee where he gives this Great Commission they doubted they saw him alive.

They knew he had died. They knew he was buried. They saw the place where he had been entombed and now here he was walking with them.

Once again, the risen Lord and they still doubted so there were many that saw with their own eyes and still doubted.

So they could not even trust what they had seen with their eyes. It's when Jesus explains to them the

Scriptures that their minds are open to believe what had been said verse 27.

So this is Luke 24 going to verse 27 beginning with Moses and With all the prophets he interpreted to them the things concerning himself in all the

Scriptures. And then the disciples believed it wasn't enough just to see him raised.

It was to understand what this meant according to the Scriptures as it says in Romans 10 17 faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

We do not come to faith because we saw something. We come to faith because we heard the word of Christ proclaimed from the

Bible and we believed so again, at least in the gospel account that we have in Luke.

That's the reason why no one saw Jesus walk out of that tomb.

It was so they wouldn't believe according to their eyes. They would believe according to the Scriptures. Thank you for your question

Peter. This last one comes from David in Oklahoma dear Pastor Gabe some friends of mine and I were talking about how many witnesses there were to the

Ascension of Jesus first Corinthians 15 tells us there were hundreds of witnesses to Jesus being alive after his resurrection, but how many were actually on the

Mount of Olives when he ascended before their eyes and then out of their sight. My friend thinks it was just the 11

Apostles. I think it had to be many more than that. Is there anywhere in the Bible that gives us more info?

Thank you in advance for your reply. Well, there isn't anything that definitively tells us here was the exact number of the disciples that were on the mountain when

Jesus ascended into heaven, but we do know it was more than the 11 now remember there were 12 disciples

Judas had killed himself. So he was no longer with them when Jesus had risen from the dead.

So there were 11 of those Apostles that were with Jesus on the Mount of Olives when he ascended into heaven 11 minus Judas and we know there were more than the 11 because of something that is said to us later on in Acts chapter 1 there.

They're deciding who is going to take Judas's place as the 12th

Apostle and the decision came down to two men Joseph called

Barsabbas who was also called Justice and Matthias and what were the qualifications that these two men met to be considered as the twelfth

Apostle now here is what the disciples said beginning in verse 21 therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the

Lord went in and out among us beginning with the baptism of John until the day that he was taken up from us one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection so they needed 12 they wanted to fill out the 12 one needed to replace

Judas it had to be somebody who had witnessed the earthly ministry of Jesus from his baptism to his ascension into heaven and there were two men among them that fit that requirement and that was justice and Matthias.

So they had to be there those two men had to be there on the Mount of Olives when

Jesus ascended into heaven that would mean at least 13 were there at least but I would conclude there were many more than that in fact my number would be and I can't say this absolutely for certain but my number would be a hundred and twenty how would

I get that number how do I know there were a hundred and twenty people with Jesus on the Mount of Olives when he ascended up into heaven out of their sight well because that was the number of the disciples that were gathered in the upper room when it was being decided who was going to replace

Judas it says in Acts chapter 1 verse 15 that they were about a hundred and twenty persons altogether in the upper room and I would just assume again it's just an assumption the scripture doesn't explicitly say it but they were all together on the

Mount of Olives when Jesus ascended and then they had a church service in the upper room in which they they prayed they they thought about these things they picked the 12th

Apostle all of that that was going on and then and then you had the the giving of the

Holy Spirit that came upon them while they were in that place as well. So there you go. There's my estimate it is a biblically supported argument even though the

Bible doesn't explicitly say there were a hundred and twenty persons on that mountain when Jesus ascended into heaven.

All right. Thank you for your question David some good thoughts. Well, that's going to conclude my

Good Friday episode that is dated for Good Friday, but was published on Easter.

Hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend. God bless you all God willing. I'll be back on the podcast tomorrow with our study in 2nd

Corinthians picking up in chapter 4. God bless. This is when we understand the text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web and we thank you for selecting ours, but this is no replacement for regular fellowship with the church family find a good gospel teaching

Christ Center Church to worship with this weekend and join us again Monday for more Bible study when we understand the text.