He was going to die by being crucified and the third day He would be raised again. He

did not say it once, but several times to them.  They did not understand;  and

understanding is of fundamental importance. We must be given understanding, otherwise

we shall never comprehend the Bible and its purpose. If we desire this very much and go

in humility to the Lord, He will give it us. The One who has made the plan, the One who

has written the Book can explain it to us and, praise God, He has promised to do it. It is

not primarily a question of braininess or education. It is a question of enlightenment, and

the only One who can give us light on the Word is the Holy Spirit. He alone can open the

eyes of our understanding. Do not let us be deceived on this point. No man or church

can give it us. It is God's prerogative alone.

In this passage in the Gospel of Luke we are assured that the disciples have divine

understanding given them so they are not likely to make mistakes.

Turning now to the book of the Acts, the first chapter, we are told the Lord "showed

himself alive to them after His Passion" (verse 3) to the Apostles whom He had chosen

`by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days and speaking of the things

pertaining to the Kingdom of God'. So here is the Lord instructing them from the

Scriptures for quite a long time; it is over a month, forty days, on and off. What a

favoured position they were in! They had been given understanding by Him and they

heard Him expound His own Word. What wonderful Bible expositions those must have

been! Now after forty days of such unique Bible teaching, what would you think would

be the first thing they would ask Him? We realize what most people might think they

ought to have said, but let us read what they actually did say. Verse 6 commences with

"therefore", linking back to the forty days instruction, because of what they had heard in

the Lord's exposition of the O.T. Scriptures. Therefore they ask Him, "Lord, wilt thou at

this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?"

Now some say they should not have been asking that. They should have known that

God had cast off Israel at the Cross and they ought to have been asking Him about the

Church. But the folk who talk like this have evidently not got the divine understanding

the apostles had! They think they are in a better position to know than these divinely

instructed disciples!

This is nothing less than spiritual pride and there is no sin more likely to blind our

minds. May the Lord keep us humble and emptied of human opinion, and may we make

the Word of God alone the basis for our belief's at all times.