by Tad Lindley
Did you ever go out and you fished really hard, maybe even tore up your net, and burned up a bunch of gas and yet you only came home with a few fish? It even happens to the best of the nukalpiaqs once in a while. And then when you got to telling people, someone overhears you, and they are an expert on fishing, because they study people’s posts on Facebook, and they impart their expert wisdom on you and tell you, “Too bad about your net, you should have fished by Schwalbe, because they loaded up there.”
Or maybe you burned a drum of gas last spring and never even got shots on a walrus, and when you’re telling it in the steambath, some expert (whom you have never seen out on the ocean) tells you, “You should’ve just stayed close, because they caught how many walruses at Ilkivik.” Why is it that people who weren’t there often know exactly what you should have done to be more successful?
The self-proclaimed experts
They themselves have never coached a team, but they know exactly which players the coach should have put in and when. With their knowledge the team surely would have won. They have never worn a referee’s jersey or blown a whistle, but yet they can see every missed foul and every missed out of bounds. They are content to sit in the back seat looking away from their phone long enough to glance out the side window of the car and tell the driver everything he is doing wrong. They are not there, and yet they know exactly what the people there should have done, but didn’t. They are the self-proclaimed experts.
They weren’t there
They were not there when you were squeezing the trigger in heavy waves. They were not there when the guard was driving down the middle of the key. They were not there when you rolled your machine in shelf ice. They were not there when you hit the brakes and went into a skid. They were not there when the district attorney offered you a plea deal. Yet they know exactly what you should have done in each of those situations.
The real experts were there
The real experts were there and they left the recorded facts that I am about to list below (please read the scriptures as you follow along):
1. Jesus died on the cross. John, Mary, and many others were there (John 19:25-27). They are the real experts on what happened.
2. Jesus was in the belly of the earth for three days and three nights (Matthew 12:40). He is the real expert on what happened.
3. During that time he descended into hell and preached to the people that died during the days of Noah (I Peter 3:19). Peter would have received this information directly from Jesus, making Peter an expert witness.
4. Jesus came out of the tomb leaving it empty (Matthew 28:2-7). Matthew was an eyewitness to these things, because he was there, making him a real expert.
5. Jesus was seen by more than five hundred people after his resurrection (I Corinthians 15:5-8). These people were expert witnesses, because they were there.
6. Jesus was on earth for forty days after his resurrection (Acts 1:3). Luke wrote Acts, and did not see Jesus himself, but he interviewed the experts, those who were actually there.
7. Jesus preached some very specific messages to them during those forty days.
Directions given to the experts
In the forty days following the resurrection Jesus gave some final teaching to his disciples. They were there and are the true experts on what was said. Here is how they described it:
Mark 16:15-19 (NIV) – He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.
Luke 24:45-51 (NIV) – Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.
Matthew 28:18-20 (KJV) – Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
We know from Acts 1:12-15 that the witnesses to these events numbered at least 120 people, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the eleven remaining disciples. They were there, and they are the experts.
Please cut this out and hang it on your refrigerator or in a safe place so you can review it next week when Part II comes out and you find out more about what the real experts knew.
Reverend Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.
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