Eternal Approach

Everyone is fighting Vampires and Zombies these days. Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer. Pride, Prejudice and Zombies. The Walking Dead. Next it will be Jesus Christ, Demon Slayer. It may already be out there and I don’t even realize it!

Why are we so infatuated with the Living Dead?

Well, guess what? The Bible talks about the Living Dead too. Check out these events that occurred during and after the crucifixion of Christ.

• Darkness over the whole earth. (Luke 23:44,45)
• A great earthquake. (Matthew 27:51)
• The Veil of the Temple’s Holy of Holies ripped in two from the Top to Bottom. (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38)
• After three days and three nights, Jesus rising bodily from the grave. (I Cor. 15:4)
• People rising from the dead and walking into Jerusalem. (Matthew 27:52.53)

So This Dead Guy Walks into a Bar . . .

When did you last hear a sermon discussing previously dead people coming out of their graves and walking around Jerusalem? These are people resurrected bodily after the Lord Jesus Christ rose on the third day! Possibly a whole bunch of people!

This would have been a staggering event! Jerusalem must have been in shock. People whose funerals had been public events were now walking around looking pretty good. Not like the rotting corpses walking around on TV or the movies.

This may have been a foretaste of what will occur at the Rapture. When all living Christians shall be taken up to meet the Lord in the air. When they shall be changed “in the twinkling of an eye.” (I Corinthians 15:52)

Very likely these people were soon taken by the Lord to Heaven when he ascended to meet the Father.

Much of the Bible is like this. Where a major, earthshaking demonstration of God’s power takes place; but it gets virtually no coverage.

Sometimes these events appear as just a single verse stuck in the middle of a bunch of other stuff going on. As if the Lord wants to see if we are paying attention to His words.

A Tiny Sliver of the Lord’s Glory Revealed

Remember when the armed men came to get Jesus in the garden? The temple guards asked the Lord if He was Jesus of Nazareth. He told them, “I am he.” (John 18:4-6)

At that moment, they all fell backward to the ground. His glory was revealed to them for a moment and they were thrown to the ground.

But nothing more was said of this! God revealed Himself (Though in a very, very small way; because a man would die to see God in all His glory). And it was ignored.

What did these troops later think had happened? When the whole crucifixion thing was over and their adrenaline levels settled down, how many sleepness nights did they have struggling with thoughts of His amazing deity revealed to them?

The Whole World in Deep Darkness At Noon Without an Eclipse!

And what of the great darkness over the whole earth? No eclipse could do that. That was a world-shaking event. If we knew where to look, we could probably find references to that event recorded in the many cultures, all over the world, that existed two thousand years ago.

What did people think was happening when their whole world went dark? Extremely dark. When the Light of the world was removed for a couple of hours? Like when God sent Pharaoh and all of Egypt the “plague” of darkness. Of deep, thick darkness.

The Veil of the Temple Ripped Apart by the Hand of God

And what of the High Priests? How did they react to the seriously thick Veil of the Holy of Holies being destroyed? Their whole temple worship system stopped dead in its tracks by the hand of God? Did they try to repair the veil? What did the Temple assistants think? Did they tell their wives and family? What about the Ark of the Covenant? Was it still in there when they looked in, past the torn veil, to that place where only the High Priest could go once a year?

Most of these events happened during or immediately following the crucifixion. At the very moment that Jesus of Nazareth died upon the cross. With the rising of the formerly dead people occurring after Jesus rose from the tomb.

(That sounds like a rock band. The Formerly Dead People. Like the Artist Formerly Known as Prince.)

The people knew these events were no coincidence. All of these events were directly tied to the death and resurrection of Christ.

This reminds me of what Abraham said to a certain rich man who was suffering in the flames of hell. He said, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” (Luke 16:19-30)

So, did the Jews believe when the dead arose? Did they turn to Christ?

Here is the love of God. Here is our wonderfully, extravagant God. Even though he warned that men would not believe simply by someone rising from the dead, He still provided that miracle for them. And he provided it multiplied times.

It is important to look for these “Easter Eggs” God has left for us in His Word. They are hidden in plain sight.

God places these where we can find them if we will only look and believe.