Lesson 4 – The resurrected Nature of Jesus Study on the Godhead Lesson 4 – The resurrected Nature of Jesus

Review of lesson 3 Philippians tells us that Jesus emptied Himself of His equality with God Hebrews and Colossians tell us that Jesus is still God How can we have these passages agree? The simplest way is that Jesus is still God but He gave up the privileges and advantages that go along with Deity In other words, He gave up the independent exercise of His divine attributes

The resurrected Nature of Jesus John 20:19-20 19 So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, " Peace be with you." 20 And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. John 20:27 27 Then He said to Thomas, " Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

The resurrected Nature of Jesus Luke 24:36-43 36 While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be to you." 37 But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. 38 And He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 " See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." 40 And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. 41 While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, " Have you anything here to eat?" 42 They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; 43 and He took it and ate it before them.

The resurrected Nature of Jesus These 3 passages all definitively tell us that Jesus resurrected body was physical in nature In John, the apostles saw the wounds in Jesus’ body and Jesus even told Thomas to touch His wounds Jesus also tells the apostles to give Him some food, which He eats to demonstrate He still has a functioning digestive tract (and why would a spirit need food?) Luke is even more definitive, with Jesus Himself saying that He is not spirit and does have flesh and bones

The resurrected nature of Jesus The apostle John saw the resurrected Jesus on no less than 5 occasions The night of the resurrection - John 20:19, 20 & Luke 24:36-43 One week later when Jesus appeared to Thomas - John 20:27 At the sea of Tiberias - John 21:1 ff. On the mountain of Galilee - Matthew 28:16-18 At the Mount of Olives when Jesus ascended into heaven - Acts 1:9-12 So what?

The resurrected nature of Jesus He, at least, would have been able to tell if something was off in regard to Jesus physically resurrected nature In fact, Paul tells us that Jesus appeared many times after He was resurrected 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; 7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; 8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.

The resurrected nature of Jesus So why did Jesus appear to all of these people? Was it not to persuade them that he, the man Jesus, had actually been resurrected from the dead? Wasn’t his being in his human body – the body which they had walked with and talked to and heard teach for those three years – a necessity to his being able to persuade them?

The resurrected nature of Jesus I don’t think anything so far is really shocking to anybody here – Jesus was resurrected in the body He had when He walked the Earth before His death Here’s where we have to put on our thinking caps – Ready? Was His resurrected body (by this I mean the time from when He came out of the tomb to the time He ascended) simply His fleshly body from before the cross? Or was it His glorified body? Please present arguments with your opinion

The resurrected nature of Jesus – Not Glorified John 16:5-7 5 "But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ' Where are You going?' 6 "But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. This is a fairly well-known verse to most Christians When does Jesus say the apostles would receive the Holy Spirit?

The resurrected nature of Jesus – Not Glorified John 7:39 39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. This one is not so well-known When does John say the apostles would receive the Holy Spirit? When did the apostles receive the Holy Spirit? Was it while Jesus was on Earth? Or after He’d ascended? So, Jesus had not yet been glorified until after He ascended

The resurrected nature of Jesus – Glorified 1 Corinthians 15:35-50 35 But someone will say, "How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?" 36 You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; 37 and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. … 40 There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. … 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. … 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. 47 The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. 50 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

The resurrected nature of Jesus – Glorified The argument for Jesus having a glorified body comes (mostly – more on this in a minute) from 1 Corinthians Paul shares here that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” In the first few verses, Paul tells us (through an agricultural metaphor) that what is put into the ground is different than that which comes out of the ground He also states that what is buried is different than that which is raised up (vss. 42-44)

The resurrected nature of Jesus – Glorified Another argument you here about Jesus’ resurrected body not being simple flesh and bone is that of His sudden appearances (like He’s transporting all over the place a la Star Trek) John 20:19 Luke 24:15 (Road to Emmaus) Luke 24:36 John 20:14 (Mary Magdalene in the garden)

The resurrected nature of Jesus – My THOUGHTS This is my take on the glorified/non-glorified debate and should be taken as such I think Jesus was resurrected in His before the cross body (that is, a non-glorified state) To me, John 7:39 is a very compelling argument that Jesus was not glorified until after He ascended Paul’s discussion on resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 is one of how we will be resurrected, not necessarily how Jesus was – we don’t have to prove that we really did come back from the dead As to Jesus “transporting”, was not Philip taken away from the Ethiopian eunuch after his baptism?