“Why didn’t the disciples recognize Jesus?”

Steve Brown:
Why didn’t the disciples recognize Jesus? The answer to that and other questions on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Welcome to Key Life. Our host and teacher is Steve Brown. He’s no guru, but he does have honest answers to honest questions about the Bible. God’s grace changes everything. How we love, work, live, lead, marry, parent, evangelize, purchase and worship. So, here’s Steve and Pete Alwinson from ForgeBibleStudy.com with street-smart Bible teaching for real life.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Happy Friday. Here we go.

Steve Brown:
We are, every Friday, we’ve been doing, you know, sometime I’m going to sit down and find out how long we really have been doing this. It seems like forever.

Pete Alwinson:
I know.

Steve Brown:
I can’t remember a time when we haven’t done this.

Pete Alwinson:
Well, when Key Life moved up here from South Florida, it wasn’t long after that. About a year after that, I think. Or two years.

Steve Brown:
That was a long time ago. That’s been years ago.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
So, Pete comes in on Friday. He’s a lot older than he was when he started. He was just a kid out of seminary. Hadn’t started shaving yet when he started this. And now he’s turning old and I’m cramming for finals, but at any rate, be sure and go to ForgeTruth.com. And if you haven’t read it Like Father, Like Son, you ought to get it and give it as a gift. And, the audio version of that’s going to be out pretty soon. And we’ll let you know when it comes. We do love getting your questions and we kid a lot here, but we’re a lot more serious than we sound. We take you, and your questions seriously. You can ask her a question by just picking up the phone and calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE, hit the right button and record your question. And sometimes we put that on the air. By the way, don’t preach. We’re the preachers. If you’ve got a question, we’re not going to change and all the sermons you preach on that line, aren’t going to work. But if you have a question, just put it on the line and we’ll look at it. You can send your question to

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Or you can e-mail us at [email protected]. By the way, a couple of things. If you haven’t seen our new app, you ought to go to your app store, either iPhone or Android and you can download it free and it’ll blow you away. It is so good. I can hardly stay in it. And then, if you, you can give on your phone, should the Spirit move. You can text Key Life at 28950 and just follow the instructions. However you do it, we’ll accept it. And we’ll use it for the glory of God, I promise. You can use your credit card. You can include it in your envelope and we’ll rise up and call you blessed. If you can’t, we understand. Pete, would you lead us in prayer and we’ll get to these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
Alright. Let’s pray. Our great Father, thank you that we can come to you at the end of this week, and thank you and praise you and worship you. We recognize that you are triune, the only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And we worship you, for you are the God of all knowledge and all truth and all power, that you know all things, you know the end from the beginning, you are literally in charge of all of human history. And yet you’ve given us great freedom. And so many of us have abused it. We come to you Lord and we confess our sins today and run back to the cross. We’re yours. We’re glad we’re yours. We always want to be yours. We want to be close to you. And we ask that your grace and the truth of the gospel could sink into our hearts in a deep way and continue to transform us. Be with Key Life and the great people that are behind the scenes, Lord, that produce so much and get your gospel out to others. We pray you’d bless us for your name sake. And then Lord, you’d be with our pastors, teachers, leaders, and all those, our priests, those who will stand before us this week-end and lead us in worship. May we be the hearers. May you be the communicator through them. We commit this time of Q&A to you now. As we pray in your Holy name, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. Pete, let’s first go to our phone lines.

Caller:
For years and years, I have listened to different explanations as to why Mary didn’t recognize Jesus and thought he was the gardener, or why the two may have throng didn’t recognize Jesus. And I believe the reason they did not recognize him is because the last time they saw him, he was unrecognizable. It is possible to be beaten beyond recognition.

Steve Brown:
Hmm, that’s an interesting, and I’m sure that’s part of it. You know, if you have somebody who died and then we’re going to look at the supernatural explanation, cause there’s more to it. But if you have a friend who died and you see them at the corner drugstore, the first thing you’re going to say is that them. They’re dead, man. Dead people don’t get, and there was some of that. I mean, this was not an expectation that was felt by the disciples.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, you’re going to say that can’t be Bill, because Bill is dead.

Steve Brown:
Bill’s dead. I saw him die. You just can, and so as a part of a normal explanation and her explanation is also a part of that. The last time, they saw him, he was unrecognizable and all of a sudden, he’s young again and he’s restored and everything is different. And that can’t be Jesus. I get that too, but there’s a supernatural thing that goes with it.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. How do you, how do you approach that?

Steve Brown:
Well, I think there was a, I mean, this was so new and so different and so supernatural, that there was a blindness that was spiritual, that was on the part of the people on the road to Emmaus and also Mary. I think that it, that blindness was removed on the road to Emmaus and the breaking of bread. And when Mary, when she, all of a sudden realized it wasn’t the gardener, but I think there’s a blindness that goes on in that kind of supernatural event. That then is removed supernaturally too. And you see the truth.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, I think that explanation helps to sort of reinforce the whole idea of revelation, that he was revealing himself. That’s so, yeah, I think I agree with your explanation, that helped me kind of see this idea, that it’s a revealing, and we need, we all need that. That’s what is the basis of conversion.

Steve Brown:
Exactly. And it goes into understanding Scripture too. You know, you read a verse and it just doesn’t hit you. You don’t get it. And then all of a sudden you go, Whoa, they changed the words of the Bible. And you begin to, it’s that revelation, that supernatural, that takes place in all of us, and Jesus kind of personified that and the resurrection too. That’s good.

Pete Alwinson:
Now it could be too, on a side note, a fun note. It could be to all my bearded friends. That, when he was resurrected, he had no beard. And that he shaved, and that they didn’t recognize, so you guys that are so heavy on your beard. Okay?. Hey, I’m clean-shaven, right.

Steve Brown:
You know, I’ve thought before, if I really wanted to sin, I’d shave my beard and get a toupee. There’s nobody in the world that would recognize me.

Pete Alwinson:
They would not recognize you. I wouldn’t recognize you.

Steve Brown:
I could go rob a bank and nobody would know that it was me.

Pete Alwinson:
But Steve, at this point in life, you could not outrun the guard dog.

Steve Brown:
That’s true. I couldn’t outrun the dog, so I’m not going to do it.

Pete Alwinson:
Don’t do it.

Steve Brown:
It’s just part of my criminal mind. I’m just bringing it up.

Pete Alwinson:
Appreciate that. Total depravity.

Steve Brown:
What’s your teaching on I Timothy 2:11-15? Which is a comment about you don’t allow women to teach men. One PCA church, I attended had a female Sunday school teacher. The one I tend now would not allow that sort of thing. What’s your view?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. We did talk a little bit about this. We’d probably agree with the first church, right? Sunday school setting, for sure.

Steve Brown:
You know, there is something to be said that, and I can understand women being, feeling demeaned, that they can only be in the kitchen and watch the nursery. And then you go on the mission field, and you find women doing all kinds of things, in the same denomination. And there’s something there doesn’t sync right there. And so, I see it and a lot of people would disagree with us, but I see it as a matter of authority and not gifts. I do think that male authority for lots of reasons is the ordained way the church should be set up, and I get the other views and understand it. And I think those of us who hold that view, it’s called complimentarian. Those of us who hold that view, must go double to affirm women and their gifts and how they’re used in the church. And we don’t sometimes, and as a result, we’re accused, and rightly, of putting women in their place. That’s crazy. That’s wrong.

Pete Alwinson:
It really is.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. So, I think you and I agree on that.

Pete Alwinson:
We agree on that and I think that, you know, enough said, because that can really be divisive within the church. But I think, I think those churches that give up the pretty clear Biblical teaching on, on the guys stepping into the role of leadership, where they should be. I think that’s going to hurt the church in the long run, but we’re, there’s no, there’s unity in Christ, no male or female in Christ.

Steve Brown:
That’s true. I agree. And enough said.

Pete Alwinson:
There we go.

Steve Brown:
Cause we’re going to dig a hole and keep digging, if we talk about it anymore, right? How can Christians be both sinners in saints?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, you know,

Steve Brown:
That’s a Luther thing.

Pete Alwinson:
It really is. And what a freeing concept it is.

Steve Brown:
It really is.

Pete Alwinson:
We’re saints, because of the work of Christ. We are justified by faith alone in Christ, and yet we still sin. So, we’re sinner saints.

Steve Brown:
Sinner saints. In fact, when you read the word saint in the New Testament, it doesn’t have the connotation to it, that we put on it, by having really, really, really Holy people are saints. And really, really, really bad people are sinners. And most people are in between, the Bible doesn’t teach any of that.

Pete Alwinson:
No.

Steve Brown:
A Saint means being set apart.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right. And, that is a process that is supernaturally done, by the Spirit, in our hearts, through faith. And faith alone in Christ. And so, we become saints by calling.

Steve Brown:
That’s right.

Pete Alwinson:
Which is a wonderful,

Steve Brown:
So, from now on, I will address you as Saint Peter.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
And you will address me as Saint Stephen.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. And that’s entirely Biblical.

Steve Brown:
It is. But most of them are

Pete Alwinson:
A little awkward.

Steve Brown:
It makes me uncomfortable. Somebody, bent down to pick up a pencil in front of me the other day. And I said, don’t do that, when you kneel in front of me, it makes me feel uncomfortable. Guys, we’re out of here. I hope you join us on Monday for Key Life. And next Friday for Q&A. And Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.