For 40 Days – Day 36: I Send You: Context

Key Episode Scripture: Luke 24 and Acts 1-2

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.  (Luke 24:1 ESVUK)

It’s a new day. It’s a new week. It’s a new chapter in God’s mission.

This new chapter starts with events that marvel and amaze. The previous chapter ended with sadness, death and burial. All hope seemed lost. The new chapter epitomises the concept of hope springing eternal. Not only was death itself defeated, but the new chapter sparked new life. The new life that promised the fulfilment of all that God had been hinting at, from the garden to the ark to the covenant with a man who left his home to go to a place promised by God.

This new chapter was about a covenant with a man who left his home to lead others to a place promised by God. The difference is that this man is the Son of God who left His home in glory to reveal the way of the King leading them to a place promised by God – not just a physical location, but an eternal dwelling, not one to go looking for when we die, but one to experience and enjoy now as a foretaste of eternity all through the relationship with the victorious Risen Son.

It all rests on the revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who fulfilled what His Father called Him to do. He showed the way of God, was persecuted for it, died for the sins of the world, triumphing over death and the grave, and extending the invitation for others to join Him in the journey from death to life by the same Spirit that raised Him from the dead.

The news is so good that it’s not just something you want to share with others; it’s something that you want to demonstrate in lives changed, relationships restored, and communities developed based on this revelation. As Jesus showed in His model of ministry, it was for those sent to proclaim and then present the power of the truths they put forward.

The explosion of the early church came about after Jesus ascended after His resurrection and before His ascension, which were crucial days as His disciples and other witnesses engaged with Him about the theme that dominated His ministry. Forty days were spent teaching about the Kingdom of God. Those teachings took on new significance because of Jesus’ resurrection. Those teachings held refreshing power as they completed all that the prophets had spoken about how Christ was to suffer and overcome and enter glory. It was now a message of hope based on the greatest victory in history. It was teaching based on the revelation of the central character of history who cultivated a community that would extend around the world centred on Jesus Christ.

As the Son was sent, so the Son was sending those who believed in Him. He was sending them, and they would discover that His promise was true: just as He was equipped by the Spirit, so all those sent would be empowered by the Spirit. Everything to be known about the nature of the mission in the light of the victory, about the community of believers based on the victory and about the service mentality that expressed the victory was the basis of the teaching for 40 days.

Those who follow Jesus today are beneficiaries of the forty days of teaching. That’s why it’s worth considering everything that surrounded it, from what led to it to what took place after it. This will give us an idea of what it is to encounter the risen Jesus, what it is to learn from Him, and what it is to live and serve for Him as He lived and served for the glory of His Father.

When this news is heard, it’s a new day, a new week, and a new chapter in God’s mission.

Next, an outline of the content concerning what it was for Jesus to say, I Send You ….

For His Name’s Sake

C. L. J. Dryden

Shalom