Acts 1:1-8 FORTY DAYS The first book "Luke, the beloved physician" wrote covered some events over a period of over 30 years that changed a nation and provided blessing for the world. When the Lord Jesus Christ was here, "God manifest in the flesh," He fulfilled the scriptures concerning His birth, life, death and resurrection that made those who followed Him, different people. The Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and His teaching brought into view a whole new view of the value of a person and the importance of life when lived as God intends. Jesus didn't only teach, He lived what He taught. More than that, He wasn't a lone solitary figure who was distant or aloof from other people who did not have His moral character. He deliberately made Himself available to all who came to Him and on other occasions joined Himself to others who needed Him without ever compromising His moral worth, His divine nature or His Father's will. During those years He chose others to be with Him so He could prepare them to take His "yoke upon them" and learn of Him. At the same time He never forbade those who joined themselves to Him and "ministered unto Him." It is often harder to graciously receive benefits from others than it is to give to them. The Lord appreciated the willingness of those women from Galilee to serve Him, as well as those faithful followers who were not of the twelve and who followed Him and heard Him speak. They saw the wonders of His life and work bring blessing to thousands of people. A man named Matthias was among that group.
During the last week of the Lord's public ministry that finally ended in "the death of the cross," those closest to Him forsook Him and fled. What they thought was going to happen didn't. Fear clamped its strong hand on even the boldest of them and they were powerless to overcome it - until Jesus appeared in their midst after His resurrection. "He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs."
There are a number of "40s" mentioned in the scriptures. The forty years of wandering in the wilderness by the children of Israel when compared with the other "40s," teach us that there are times of testing that are needed for specific purposes. Perhaps the forty days after Christ's resurrection are the most important of all as to their impact on those people of that day and all down through the centuries until now. During that time the risen Lord was with His disciples and He taught them truths concerning the kingdom of God that would have given them a whole new view of the kingdom teaching they heard before His death, burial and resurrection. They knew Israel was going to be restored as a kingdom but learned His timetable was not the same as theirs. Every time they saw the Lord Jesus and heard Him speak to them, they would be reminded of the fact the One they saw die on the cross, the One who did not just vanish but was buried in Joseph's new tomb, was the same Person who was speaking to them. Peter and James would never forget their private conversations with Him. Mary Magdalene and the other women would look at Him and be assured that all they had hoped for Him was going to come to pass. The two who walked with Him on the road to Emmaus and got a private exposition of the scriptures concerning Him would not ever be the same. The group of 500 who gathered in Galilee and saw Him there would spread the word that He who was dead is alive.
That life-changing forty days would never leave their minds as during the ensuing years they were going through persecution and opposition in public forums and in court rooms. There was no way they could change the fact that they had seen, and heard, and been with the living Savior for forty days. That was no fleeting glimpse of some ethereal form. He was among them in a bodily form. As those forty days were ending, on one occasion when He was eating with those who were assembled in Jerusalem, He told them to stay in that city until the Holy Spirit came and indwelt them, giving power to them to fulfill the commission He was going to give. They knew He was going to leave them but as true disciples, they were now willing to do what he said, where he wanted, and not insert their own wishes again as Peter and some of the disciples did in a moment of self-will. Their fishing days were over. Now they had a different calling.
We will have our testing times. There will be those things happen to us to cause us to wonder at the way God has led us and why certain things have happened. But our experiences with the Lord in the past, and our assurance that His sovereign will is supreme in our lives, will give us the courage and confidence to press ahead in faith to accomplish what He has given us to do for Him and the furtherance of His kingdom. We don't have to know the final conclusion of events in our lives and the results that come from the labors we engage in. We just have to remember who we serve. Testing times are really profitable to us.
For forty days in the wilderness the Lord had nothing to eat When those days were past, the devil must have thought He was weak Because in the order of temptation he appealed first to the Lord with bread But in every testing the enemy used, the Lord told what the scriptures said.
There was never a question of His perfection, sinless ness was His nature Authority was challenged when as a man, Satan tempted Him as a human creature
Even though in fashion as a man, His eternal being and character never changed His deity was never compromised, there was nothing in Him that could be blamed.
Now at the end of His time here on earth another forty days had a reason The evidence was given to disciples, death has only a limited season He who held the keys used them to accomplish the Father's will The purpose for which he came, He fully and forever fulfilled.
For those forty days those who saw Him and heard the teaching He gave Learned that they needed power beyond what they naturally have In order to do God's will another Person would give the needed power He would guide them, teach them and fill them, and through them blessings pour.
"Father, in Thy grace Thou hast saved people here. May Thy servant be able to teach them Thy truth in a way they can all understand. May the words I use and illustrations be relevant to what they are experiencing in their lives. I need The, Gracious Father, to guide and control my wandering mind. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen."