MyBridge Radio

TODAY 02/14/12 in the One Year Bible

by Stan Parker

Matthew 28:1 (ESV)
The Resurrection
[28:1] Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

WOW!

Okay, so here we are at THE event!!!!

The Resurrection of Jesus is THE foundation of our faith! Apart from this Event, we remain without hope, having to stand before a holy God on our own merit! YIKES!!!

1 Corinthians 15:17 (ESV)
[17] And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

And so who does God choose to be the one who first witnessed this Event?

To whom did the angels come down and open the tomb before their eyes?

To whom quickly following that did Jesus appear to first?

Surely it was the person God had chosen to then lead this movement and become the icon of the religion!

Uh... NOPE!

It was simply two women in the group.

One of which had previously been possessed by evil spirits even!

Neither of which obviously went on to start Christianity, becoming THE reference point for the faith having been chosen by God to witness what no one else ever witnessed and to hear what no one else ever heard.

In fact, shortly after that, Jesus went on to appear and interact with a number of others!

Acts 13:30-31 (ESV)
[30] But God raised him from the dead, [31] and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.

This really struck me in light of the fact that pretty much every other religion did just the opposite!

They all have a single person who "received a revelation from God" no one else did, has or ever will and so that religion is based on the experience of an individual.

Christianity is the ONLY religion I can think of, whose origin was a common experience of a good sized group of people!

No superstar...

No cult leader whose experience we are supposed to accept blindly and follow.

Still another way Christianity distinguishes itself from ALL other religions!