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Transcript 231D — Where Was Jesus After His Resurrection?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Brother Camping, I would like to ask, where was Jesus after the three days during which He was buried, when He told one of His disciples, "Don't touch Me because I haven't ascended to My Father in Heaven"? Somehow I don't seem to be able to understand that. Where was He?
HC: Your question is, where was Jesus after He had risen from the grave? He was on earth. The Bible doesn't give us any description of the precise place that He was. He did appear again and again to His disciples. He appeared to them in Galilee, where He appeared to more than 500. He appeared to them in Jerusalem, on two or three occasions.
But He certainly had not ascended in His total personality back to Heaven. That did not occur until about forty days after the cross, as you've already indicated. But the Bible just doesn't get into that question of where He spent His time. That's not for us to be concerned about, I suppose.
There are certain facts, you see, that God does not reveal to us. We read, for example, in Deuteronomy that the secret things belong to God, and that which He has revealed, those are the things we are to study out.
CALLER: You are aware, I suppose, that there is a very large and growing group lately that claims that He was in North America, that the Lord Jesus Christ visited them and that's what He meant when He said, "I have other sheep that are not of this fold." They say that they were the sheep. They count themselves in the number of the other sheep.
HC: Well, you see, that kind of an idea, that Christ was in North America, or whatever, has absolutely no biblical validation of any kind. The fact is, the Bible does not teach that there are two kinds of salvation or two kinds of programs that God has. When He said in John 10, "Other sheep have I," He was speaking of the fact that there were going to be believers from every nation, as well as the nation of Israel.
While He was on earth, He proclaimed the Gospel chiefly to the nation of Israel. He told His disciples, "Go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But it was God's program that Christ, in going to the cross, would provide salvation for people from every nation. And these sheep from the other nations would also come into the fold. Of course that program began in earnest at Pentecost, when God began His program to evangelize the world.
Now the idea that He had some kind of a special message to one nation like the North American continent or something, is just straight imagination. That would indicate that there is some other kind of a gospel, some other kind of a salvation than the salvation of the Bible. And that is not possible
CALLER: They also are very busy building temples for the gathering of Israel because they think the Lord is going to establish His reign right here on this continent. And I believe the Lord has eliminated temples. for His temple is in human hearts. I believe that's the only temples He accepts.
HC: You know, they are not alone in suggesting that Christ will reign on this sin-cursed earth. There are a lot of Christians who believe that also. That is because mankind has a definite attachment to this creation. They really think that this is where it is. And they fail to realize that this creation is under the curse of sin. This creation is going to be destroyed by Christ when He comes, and the whole plan of salvation is far more exciting and wonderful than this creation can contain.
CALLER: Of course. I should say so. But I still would like to know then, why did He tell the thief, "Thou shalt be with Me in Paradise" if He tells His disciples, "Don't touch Me because I haven't ascended to My Father"?
HC: When you talk about Paradise, and you talk about Him saying to the women, "Don't touch Me,'' now we have a different problem, and the Bible does give us some insight. The word Paradise is a word assigned by God to Heaven itself.
In Revelation 2 we read about the Tree of Life, which is in the Paradise of God. That is in Revelation 2:7. And in II Corinthians 12 the apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, talks about being caught up into the Third Heaven, which is called Paradise. And Jesus Himself, when He hung on the cross, when He had finished His work on the cross, said, "'Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." So in His spirit He went to the Father.
Now He said to the thief on the cross, "Today thou shalt be with Me in Paradise." Now the thief on the cross in his body went into the tomb, just like Jesus did. But in his spirit he went into Heaven, just as Abraham did when he died, and David did, and any believer, when he dies. He goes to live and reign with Christ in Heaven.
And Christ also went into Heaven in His spirit. But that doesn't mean that He had ascended into Heaven. He actually had to complete His work in the fullest sense by first waiting for His body to be resurrected and waiting to acquaint His disciples with the fact that He had become resurrected. And only then did He ascend into Heaven.
Now when the women took hold of Jesus' feet, they were so excited, and it was so marvelous that their Savior was here, that they really wanted to hold onto Him and never leave Him again. They wanted to worship Him forever, which of course is the ultimate desire of the born again believer. And this is what we will do throughout eternity. We will be in His Majesty's glorious presence, and we will worship Him forever.
But that time had not arrived as yet. God has given mankind who are saved work to do. We are to be representatives of Christ here on earth. We are to be His ambassadors representing Christ to a world that is dying in sin. And so you remember what He told the women. "Don't touch Me (don't hold Me), but go and tell the disciples that I have risen." In other words, that was the flavor of what He told all the disciples later on. "Go ye into all the world, making disciples," bringing the Gospel. And this is what we are to do today.
Now once our work is done (and only God knows when our individual tasks are finished), He takes us home. Then we leave our body, and we go into Heaven, and then we will be forever with the Lord. When He comes on the Last Day, we'll be with Him. We will be with Him forever. Once we leave our body, we will never leave Him again.
But until our task is done, until we have served out our life as an ambassador for Christ, in accordance with God's desires, we are not present with Him. He says that He will never leave us. And in the person of the Holy Spirit He does remain with us. But insofar as being in His personal presence, this will only happen again when we go yto Heaven to be with Him.
CALLER: When was Satan cast down from Heaven?
HC: We don't know the precise moment, but probably at the resurrection, when the work of Christ had been completed in every sense. Now Jesus, when He sent out the 70, said, "Behold, I saw Satan falling as lightning from Heaven." Throughout the Old Testament period, even though Satan was doomed, even though he had rebelled against God, we discover that he still had access into Heaven.
But once Christ went to the cross and vanquished Satan, as we read in Hebrews 2:14, then Satan no longer could be found in Heaven. And so we read in Revelation 12 where Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and his angels. And they were cast out of Heaven. And I can see the drama. Here is the Savior, who has vanquished Satan by going to the cross, and has guaranteed the judgment of Satan. And so Satan has no longer any place in Heaven.
And so Michael and his angels drove the wicked angels and Satan forever out of Heaven, to the earth, where they continue to plague mankind until the Last Day.
Now interestingly enough, you might wonder why Jesus stayed on the earth for forty days. Why did He not show Himself to the disciples for a couple of days and then go to Heaven? Why wait for forty days?
Of course we can't know for sure because God has His own reasons. But I do know this. In the Bible the number forty is very frequently used as a number indicating a testing program. Remember, when Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, it was forty days. And you will remember when Moses was on Mount Sinai, Israel was tested for forty days. Moses remained on Mount Sinai for forty days, and so on.
Now I believe the forty days represents a testing program. Christ showed Himself during this period as having resurrected. Now what are we going to do? We are being tested by God. That is, will we believe that He is indeed the Messiah because He has risen, or will we not believe that He is the Messiah? This forty days represents the testing program of God.