Several years after
Acts 26.13-16 NLT - 13 “About noon, Your Majesty, as I was on the road, a light from heaven brighter than the sun shone down on me and my companions. 14 We all fell down, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is useless for you to fight against my will.’
- 15 “ ‘Who are you, lord?’ I asked.
- “And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. 16 Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness. Tell people that you have seen me, and tell them what I will show you in the future.”
Up to this point Paul was dead set on destroying Christianity—and he flipped hard. Preached Jesus with such fervor, his former backers wanted him dead. Went to his own death for Jesus.
That’s not the behavior of a man who merely changed his mind. Paul saw something—and for the rest of his life, claimed it was Christ Jesus.
Nearly all Christians accept Paul’s story without question. Not just ’cause Paul produced
But as far as further Jesus-sightings are concerned, they’re pretty certain Paul’s experience was a special circumstance. Only Paul got to have a special Jesus-appearance. Nobody else. Nobody since.
There I gotta disagree with them.
Didn’t happen just once in the bible.
Most of you are fully aware of a second “special” Jesus-appearance. If you forgot, I’ll jog your memory. John,
Revelation 1.10-18 NLT - 10 It was the Lord’s Day, and I was worshiping in the Spirit. Suddenly, I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet blast. 11 It said, “Write in a book everything you see, and send it to the seven churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
- 12 When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. 13 And standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. 14 His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were like flames of fire. 15 His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. 16 He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from his mouth. And his face was like the sun in all its brilliance.
- 17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.”
“Okay,” naysayers will object, “but other than those two—”
Yeah, you already knew I got a third one.
Acts 7.55-56 NLT - 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 56 And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!”
“Okay, but other than those three—”
Acts 9.10-16 NLT - 10 Now there was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, calling, “Ananias!”
- “Yes, Lord!” he replied.
- 11 The Lord said, “Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now. 12 I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again.”
“Oh that doesn’t count; it’s part of the first story. Again, other than those three—”
Acts 23.11 NLT - That night the Lord appeared to Paul and said, “Be encouraged, Paul. Just as you have been a witness to me here in Jerusalem, you must preach the Good News in Rome as well.”
“No, that doesn’t count; that’s Paul again.” As if Jesus’s multiple appearances to the same guy, or to multiple guys in the same story, don’t count as separate appearances.
I still say that’s five times Jesus appeared to people after his rapture. Y’might recall we Christians will sometimes base
Being born was Jesus’s first coming; invading the earth
And not just in the New Testament. Apparently he does this a lot.
No, I’m not talking about tortillas.
Yep, you can get a toaster which burns Jesus into your bread. Christian Piatt
Every so often this makes the news: Somebody finds a stain on the wall which kinda resembles Jesus. Or they get a tortilla whose burn pattern, if you look at it in just the right angle and unfocus your eyes a bit, could be Jesus. Or a dog with Jesus-shaped patch of fur. Or a Jesus-shaped potato. And so on; you get the idea.
By “kinda” I mean they look like the traditional images of Jesus we see in western art: A man with longish hair and full beard. None of these folks know what Jesus literally looks like, but they’ve seen
Unless there’s no beard. Then it’s just an interesting coincidence, not a miracle. Well, unless he looks like Elvis Presley.
Why do these “miraculous appearances” get so much attention? Because people really wanna see Jesus. They want him so bad, they’re willing to settle for coincidences and call them miracles. They’ll take what they can get. I don’t blame ’em.
But if you want a real Jesus sighting, they do actually happen.
Stories of Jesus-sightings (or as we theologians call ’em,
How do we know these Jesus-sightings are the real thing? Same reason we know any revelation is the real thing:
When it’s fake, they sell toasters.
Now, I’m not knocking people who wanna sell novelty toasters. They’re fun; feel free to make all the Jesus toast you want. But I totally object to people who claim they saw Jesus, and didn’t really, and are
Here’s a bit from “The Other Iranian Revolution,” Matthias Pankau and Uwe Siemon-Netto’s 17 July 2012 piece for Christianity Today. (You’ll find the whole article on Dr. Siemon-Netto’s blog, ’cause the
Some German clerics speak of a divinely scripted drama that includes countless reports by Muslims of having had visions of Jesus. According to [Rev. Gottfried] Martens and others interviewed for this article, most of these appearances follow a pattern reported by converts throughout the Islamic world: These Muslims see a figure of light, sometimes bearing the features of Christ, sometimes not. But they instantly know who he is. He always makes it clear that he is the Jesus of the Bible, not the “Isa” of the Quran, and he directs them to specific pastors, priests, congregations, or house churches where they will hear the gospel.
Thomas Schirrmacher, chair of the Theological Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance, comments on this pattern: “God sticks to the Reformation doctrine that faith comes by receiving the Word through Scripture and preaching. In these dreams, Jesus never engages in hocus-pocus, but sends these people to where the Word is faithfully proclaimed.” This is why Gottfried Martens says he cannot dismiss such narratives: “As a confessional Lutheran, I am not given to Schwärmerei,” he declares, using [Martin] Luther’s derogatory term for religious enthusiasm. “But these reports of visions sound very convincing.”
Remember, we’re looking for fruit. Jesus’s appearance proves nothing. John’s description in Revelation was that of a bronze man with white hair… but burning eyes, glowing feet, and a double-edged sword coming out of his mouth. While it’s reasonable to figure Jesus in his late thirties was literally a bronze man with prematurely white hair, the sword indicates maybe we’re not meant to
I’ll harp on it yet again: Fruit is what we’re looking for. Fruit is proof. Look for fruit. The Muslims who have visions of Jesus weren’t instructed to start their own churches, nor declare themselves prophets. They were sent to existing Christians who could explain Jesus to them. As was Paul when Jesus sent Ananias to him.
Discernment and Jesus-sightings.
Yes of course some reported Jesus-sightings are hoaxes. In those cases we don’t see fruit. We see people trying to get attention. Trying to start a money-making or power-grabbing scheme. Trying to sell books, or get on the lecture circuit. Trying to start
Doesn’t really matter whether they invented the hoax entirely on their own, or were tricked by some devil who took advantage of their greed. Plenty of
It’s precisely the same test we give fake prophets. A person who sees and hears God is gonna act like it. A person who never did (or rebels against what they saw and heard) isn’t. If anyone tells me they saw Jesus, and
When a person tells me they saw Jesus, and consequently pursues him with all their heart, and has become
So when cessationists ask, “What purpose does such an appearance serve?”—well, what purpose did Jesus’s appearance to Paul serve? It made him a substantial Christian. And his appearances to people nowadays have the very same goal.
Really, his appearances
After all, Jesus is in heaven, not prison. Why can’t he visit people whenever he likes, to get us to follow him better? (Or get us to follow him at all?)
So whenever you hear a Christian story or tradition about a Jesus-sighting—like the story of Peter seeing Jesus along his way to Rome; or of Francis or Catherine; or of Christians today who were about to give up and desperately cried out to God, and Jesus appeared to them; or of his many appearances to Muslims today—always look for fruit. Are these visionaries acting like people should act if they actually saw Jesus? Have they repented? Reformed? Transformed? Did Jesus tell them of the future, and is it coming true? Are these visionaries transforming others? Are they sharing Jesus? Are they encouraging and empowering their fellow Christians?
How ’bout you? Do you wanna see Jesus? Well, he may indeed appear to you. But if he does, be prepared to do everything he tells you. Be prepared to produce fruit. Be committed to obey him to the very end. That’s precisely the sort of person he wants to appear to:
John 14.21 NLT - “Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
