Learning To Walk By Faith

During the forty days after his crucifixion, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and . . . he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.   Acts 1:3

After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples during a forty-day period. One of the reasons for these appearances was to prove “to them in many ways that he was actually alive” (Acts 1:3). It was important that Jesus’ resurrection be established beyond a reasonable doubt, so Christ appeared to them, not once or twice, but repeatedly.

If you put the accounts of Jesus’ appearances from the four Gospels and 1 Corinthians together, Christ appeared to the disciples on at least nine different occasions. Once Christ appeared to a group of more than five hundred people, and most of them were still living at the time Paul wrote about it. That means they were able to bear witness to the truthfulness of his account (see 1 Corinthians 15:6).

The resurrection appearances not only provided evidence that Jesus was alive, but they also prepared the disciples for the Kingdom work that lay ahead. Over these forty days, Jesus taught the disciples and brought them to a whole new level of understanding. Previously, they had thought of the cross as an unmitigated disaster, but now they saw that everything had happened exactly as God had planned it.

Christ was not with them constantly. He appeared to them, taught them, and then disappeared. In this way, Christ began to wean them away from dependence on his physical presence. For three years they had gotten used to talking with Jesus directly, face-to-face. They had witnessed his miracles, heard him speak, and asked him their questions. Their faith was built on sight. Now things would be different. The disciples would have to learn to walk by faith without sight (see 2 Corinthians 5:7). Over time, they gradually got used to trusting Jesus without seeing him.

What is true of the disciples is also true of you today, if you’re a follower of Christ. You’ve been given the disciples’ testimony in the Bible, which contains many convincing proofs of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Your job, as you carry out the work that God has given you to do, is to learn to walk by faith, not by sight.

For further reading, see 2 Corinthians 5