have a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter 24 as we continue our study in the Gospel of Luke, nearing now, the very end. Luke chapter 24, we're at verses 36 to 43, we're in a section now on the resurrection appearances of Jesus. On Friday, he was crucified, on Sunday morning the tomb was empty just as he promised. And over the last two weeks, Dr.
Bruce has walked us through Luke's account of Jesus appearing to two disciples on the Roddu Amaeus. On Sunday afternoon, Jesus walked with two disciples and he taught them about himself from the Old Testament, though they didn't recognize him at the time. And he broke bread with them and then their eyes were opened and they realized who he was and he suddenly vanished from their sight. Now, tonight in Luke 24 verse 36, it's Sunday evening and Jesus is going to appear now to his inner circle of disciples.
The 11 that now remain, although Thomas won't be there, so actually 10, but they're called the 11 and some others who gather here, Jesus bears witness to his resurrection by showing them himself, convincing them it's true, he's risen. But Jesus also is assuring them he's assuring them of the blessings they have because of his death and resurrection. He wants them to know the benefits they have, the blessings they have because he died and rose and so he wants them to be assured of those benefits and that they belong to them. What benefits are these?
Well, here, peace, joy and assurance of his love. And I want to think about those three things with you as we consider the passage tonight. Luke 24 invites you to pay attention now to God's authoritative word beginning at verse 36. As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them instead of a peace to you.
They were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. He said to them, why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet?
That it is I, myself. Touch me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy that were marveling, he said to them, have you anything here to eat?
And they gave him a piece of roiled fish and he took it and ate before them. Amen. This is God's word and he cut our hearts by us, but sent to him in prayer. And our Father in heaven, we ask that your word would be a light to our path.
We pray that you would enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we would know the glory of Christ and all his blessings and benefits, strengthen us in him in prayer and speak in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Oliver Wendell Holmes, you may remember his name, he served 30 years as an associate justice of the Supreme Court long time ago now, but he's among the most widely quoted justices. At one point in his life, Justice Holmes explained his choice of a career saying, I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.
You can chuckle at that unless you be thought an undertaker yourself. Thank you. Before being convinced of his resurrection, I imagine Jesus' disciples had the look of, at least what, if we don't know an undertaker, we imagine an undertaker would look like, gloomy, long in the face, solemn, sad, depressed, or at least putting it on when he's doing his duty. He always anxious perhaps about their futures uncertain and fearful about their standing with God.
I imagine this is how the disciples felt and Jesus comes and when he comes he brings them peace and they bring, they have joy and they have assurance. He changes everything. And so we want to think about those and we want to ask ourselves, are we enjoying the benefits that come to his people because he died and he rose. Do you know this peace and joy and assurance?
He wants them calm so he speaks to them peace. He wants them convinced so he brings them the truth of the resurrection so they'll have joy in being convinced and he wants them confident in the assurance of his love for them. I want to highlight those three things in the first place. I want you to think about how they must have felt before he appeared.
Just remember the story that on Thursday night their leader and teacher whom they loved was arrested and they fled the sea. Overnight he's tortured, they had tucked themselves safely away except Peter, except Peter denied knowing him to his face on multiple occasions. On Friday afternoon then Jesus is executed in a manner the Romans found most painful and the Jews found most humiliated, stripped naked, nailed to a tree, hung before a crowd mocked and spat upon then a Jewish man who had secretly loved Jesus but one of these inner circle disciples. He takes Jesus down off the cross with permission of Pilate going boldly asking for it, puts him in his own tomb, the tomb of a rich man, makes sure he gets a decent burial and the female disciples who remember were there, the women had hung around waiting watching Jesus die and then following him to the tomb and they had even followed up preparing to make sure he got all the burial items and spices attached.
But the men for it there, Saturday passes, they're in mourning for sure, they grieve but they're also living in fear. What if the government that arrested and killed Jesus our leader decides they need to wipe us all out we're installers and no doubt they are living as well with a sense of regret and a sense of shame of knowing they didn't help Jesus or stand for Jesus they're certainly painfully aware of their failures in friendship at minimum and now it's Sunday evening and they've gathered together. They're hiding out probably in the upper room that used it before it was large they'll be there again later in the story they're behind closed doors the Apostle John tells you the doors are locked they're fearful they're hiding and they've heard the report that the women went to the tomb and found an empty in fact they've heard a report that an angel told them he's not here because he's risen Peter the Luke doesn't tell you that story Peter has actually run to the tomb with John and seen that it was empty and Peter himself the Luke doesn't tell you this the other gospel writers do Peter had actually met the risen Lord and so hadn't Mary and Mary had come back with a report of this and Peter had come back with a report of this and now in the last passage Dr Bruce Prechdon Cleopas and his wife in a companion they had been walking on the road to a man since Jesus had appeared to them and he even read with them but still they haven't seen him not the whole of the group they haven't heard from him not the 11 why is he going to say to us you could imagine them saying to themselves yeah he was nice to Mary that's her report but you know she had the decency to hang around when he was hung on the cross and then to go and seek to see that he was buried in a decent way I mean her loyalty and love her was unquestioned sure Jesus was nice to her well he met Peter and Peter may have given them a good report but we all know they might have said themselves that Peter is a habit of blurting anything out his mouth that comes to mind and Jesus had a habit of saying that's wrong Peter that's not true Peter you might think some of them would think I don't know if I can trust what Peter is telling me and in his most significant appearance to date there's the appearance to Cleopas and this other but he's not one of the inner circle he's not the he's not the closest companions so they might have begun to ask themselves has Jesus cast us off if indeed he is alive if is he going to find you know disciples who aren't chumps like us and if he does appear to us is he going to come in and what will his first words be you lousy stinking thank you man I told you all this was going to happen that you didn't believe me and then you want but you made me my friends in my greatest out of me you know imagine how they must have felt perhaps you can listen if you're here tonight and you're not a Christian and we're glad that you're here we hope that you feel treated respectfully who want to deal with the story of Jesus faithfully surely you can understand how these disciples must have felt though perhaps you have no love in your heart for Jesus and though they did seemingly surely you know how troubled their conscience must have been about this great failure friendship maybe you've experienced that kind of failure maybe you've been on the receiving end of somebody who let you down or maybe you know yourself to be the one who's let another down and simply didn't show up and you know how the conscience convicts you know how troubled in heart you know how condemned you feel feelings of shame or sorrow and if you're a Christian here you know a bit about what these disciples were feeling you yourself have done much the same as them you have promised loyalty and steadfastness steadfastness in love to Jesus you've told yourself I'm gonna follow him and I'll do it faithfully and time it again you've been disloyal you've gotten distracted you've fallen on your face and your conscience condemns you and so with them we might ask well he condemn us well if you berate us well he mockery and scorn on our heads or will he just simply say I'm looking elsewhere for followers who are better than you and now here's Jesus he is suddenly in the locked room and what are the first words out of his mouth peace to you peace I come in peace I want you to have and to be at peace he says to them I'm not here to shout at you I'm not here to throw your sin in your face I forgive you is what Jesus is saying to them at a minimum I forgive you rest easy that is the kind of forgiving Savior you and I have in Jesus he knows everything there is to know about us and about our heart about our failures he knows everything in us that that that we say ought to condemn us and he says peace to you he is dear friends far more willing to forgive us our sins than we are willing even ask him to forgive he's more ready to pardon than we're willing to even acknowledge we need his pardon for you who believe in him the apostle Paul reminds you in Romans 5 verse 1 that therefore since we've been we have been all been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ peace is not something peace with God it's not something that we have to fight for but it is something that we have been given it is not uncertain it is not future it is God's gift of grace in Jesus and you are at and have peace with God through the Lord Jesus he is no longer at war with you he is not standing against you he is for you always and forever this is the meaning of the death of Christ for your sins he takes them away and his resurrection for your justification Jesus has made it so and so this is what can make you calm win your hearts or your world or your Christian walk is in turmoil we have peace from our sorrow and grief because Jesus isn't dead after all he's risen and we have peace with God because all our sins are forgiven through the cross where Jesus died that's the first thing I want you to see the second they came to bring and that they experienced was joy in the resurrection it's not joy that they had until they were convinced of the resurrection but it's joy he came to bring them and he wanted to convince them their peace was not immediate of course they were startled verse 37 and they were frightened they thought they saw a spirit right Jesus here they imagined perhaps was a ghost and they were troubled it says he knows that they're troubled in heart and they're doubting he asked them why are you troubled why are you doubting now why were they because he's suddenly standing there in the midst of them and they're behind a locked door and they don't know exactly what it is for sure that they're seeing how he got in they needed to know he was real and that he was human he was flesh and bone so what does Jesus do of course he convinces them how does he convince them well verse 39 he says see my hands and my feet touch me and see lay hands on me grab me hold me hug me right see for yourself I'm alive it's I myself you know me guys this is what he says to them he reasons with them a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones as you see that I have any reasons with them about it they know that spirits are non-physical in that sense and he shows them the body parts that evidently bore the marks of crucifixion his hands and his feet it seems that's why he shows them those particular body parts the ones that would be most accessible seeing as how he's risen and clothed and it seems like he's showing them on the one hand that he's healed up I'm a wide guys I'm risen from the dead and yet perhaps bearing some mark yet that he was in fact crucified and now risen as revelation says the apostle john in a vision looks into heaven and he sees a lamb they're looking as though he had been slain even in the heavenly throne room the lamb bears the marks of having been killed so to speak and so he says look at my hands look at my feet it's I myself touch me and see it goes up in the flesh and bones you see that I have and still they are hesitant it says not believing because it seemed too joyful too good to be true so again wanting to convince them wanting them to believe he's not a ghost he asks for food do you have something to eat verse forty-one we're told that they give him some broiled fish broiled there simply means cooked it was ready to eat it was good to go they give him some fish and they all watch as he puts it in his mouth you can imagine they watch him chew and swallow ghosts spirits disembodied beings don't do such things this is no optical illusion by the way we might just as an aside note that the risen lord jesus ate a killed animal a fish after the resurrection and so you're welcome to be a vegetarian you're welcome to choose to be you really are you can make all kinds of arguments about why that might be healthy for you or good for your desirable it's just what you want what you're not able to do is build a Christian argument for why Christians must choose vegetarianism jesus ate fish post-resurrection but anyway that's not down at the point of the passage you don't share he has a real human body flesh phones food consumption it's pretty common stuff and yet evidently very uncommon a body that can appear and disappear wherever he pleases back at verse thirty-one the story from before he vanished from their sight we don't know exactly how or what the bible is not trying to satisfy our curiosity and here he suddenly is standing in a locked room with them how does he do that well frankly we don't know we could speculate we might speculate be wrong some have wanted to say jesus in his resurrected body could pass through walls and locked doors that may be the case if it's the case i think it's more likely something not like star trek where you know you get beamed from one place to the next to become less material and then re-established as material but if you think of it this way perhaps simply speculating here folks that he's actually more substantial and not less substantial than all the other material around him much like a steel bar passes through water and the water simply moves out of its way and then recollects behind he's certainly more and not less substantial he's risen and he's real and he just appeared i may be wildly wrong on how he appeared but he's there and they are befuddled they are confused they're filled with joy but they disbelieve for joy what's happening here well it's too good to be true it seems like he's not a ghost he's not a hallucination he's not risen in our hearts no he's risen in reality bodily and that bodily resurrection is a promise of ours if we believe in him and i want to say if you find it difficult to believe in the reaction don't you have the resurrection don't you at least long for it to be true don't you at least want it to be true that he rose from the dead wouldn't it be greater that it is true that he's risen and his resurrection is a promise of our resurrection wouldn't you want that wouldn't be great would be fantastic if you could live forever in a body in a new heavens and a new earth in a perfect world and enjoy in the body all the good things that god has made we will rise bodily the bible says in fact all will rise bodily look at the annual makes it clear that some will rise to everlasting life with a body like jesus body but that some will rise yet to everlasting shame and contempt but jesus has better things in store for his disciples and it brings them joy you know tokin's story the return of the king in the days following when the rain had finally been tossed into Mount doom and destroyed sam wakes up from sleep and he's surprised to be alive and he's surprised to see ganoff and he says ganoff i thought you were dead but then i thought i was dead myself he's everything sad going to come untrue says sam what happened to the world and ganoff says a great shadow has departed and then he laughed and the sound was like music or like water in a parched land and as he listened the thought came to say him that he had not heard laughter the sound of pure merited for days upon days without count well that's the way it was for these disciples i think and they are filled with joy in the hope that they have now convinced as they are of the resurrection of jesus and the hope of our coming resurrection on account of his resurrection brings true joy even in the midst of physical suffering whatever pains we experience in our earthly bodies whatever weaknesses whatever disease is whatever disabilities we might have god will make everything perfect when we rise again and there will be no more sadness and no more fame and only perfect health and joy in his presence forever more and they caught a taste of that joy have you the last thing is this he wants them confident in the assurance of his faithful love because they have been unfaithful but despite their unfaithfulness he remains faithful to them they've heard the word of peace they've touched his resurrected body they're filled with joy but notice their emotions haven't been working quite properly in the presence of their living savior lord they're kind of screwed up internally he tells them peace be to you and they're suddenly startled and frightened they're not responding obediently with the proper emotions he shows them his resurrected body and they're filled with joy yet they disbelieve for joy they're astonished and overcome with emotion that they can't quite believe it's real so he had to do the thing with the fish maybe you've seen one of these videos of servicemen or women returning to their families having served overseas and it's totally unexpected but the camera is rolling the soldier and marine or marine or airmen or what had is there but the wife of the kids or the mother they don't know it and then suddenly they see and what happens their eyes get huge their mouth opens they put their hand over them you can see them nothing no way right and they're filled with joy but they're almost paralyzed by it at least for a moment until they go running and leaping into the arms of their loved one and I think that's the kind of thing they had here they were disbelieving for joy they believed of course but it was so incredible and astounding and Jesus here wants in the midst of all of that to assure them that though they have been unfaithful and disbelieving he loves them and he loves them with a steadfast immovable unbreakable love and so he eats with them I think he's doing more than just proving he's not a ghost though certainly he was doing that it's interesting though when Peter preaches at the home of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10 verse 41 and following he's speaking to Cornelius in his servants and his friends and telling them about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and he refers to this incident and he says Jesus quote was not seen by all the people but by witnesses whom God had already chosen by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead what's the significant of that not just a proof that he's risen but having a meal with somebody declares peace and reconciliation especially if there's been alienation it restores and it brings assurances with it that's the way meals often work and in that day and in that place and in the Middle East even today and in some cultures it does it assures you of the love and the care and the loyalty of the person you're eating with in some cultures like the ancient Middle East it's a bond that helps solidify and bring reassurance of that there are helpful examples of this in a variety of places I've been told this one by other some of you have heard it too in 1688 I may have told you this some time ago William of Orange and Mary his wife came to the throne of Britain and they replaced the Stuart monarchy the stewards were from Scotland and other stewards were very unpopular monarchs they were the monarchs and because many of the people in the northwest highlands of Scotland were Catholics and the stewards had very Catholic sympathies the stewards were very popular among the clients so when William and Mary came to the throne first in England and then in Scotland though they were welcomed by the vast majority of even the Protestants there were clans in the highlands who were not excited about them coming to the throne and so one of the things that was done is that in Scotland the house of orange sent out pledges that heads and chiefs of families and tribes had to sign which basically said we're gonna be loyal we're not gonna rebel you're our king you're the lawful king we get it and so all the clan chiefins were either required to come to inverness or to henborough to turn in the signed document by a certain date and there were several clan chiefins who didn't do it and one of those clans was the McDonald's of Glencoe they were a small as it is said motley rather unpopular clan known for cattle leaving from their neighbors and they lived in the valley of the beautiful Glencoe and their clan chiefin he got on his horse dutifully and took his his document to inverness believing that's where he ought to be he arrived the day before it was due in inverness and the leaders in inverness said no you need to go to endborough and so he went off to endborough but he arrived days late and they decided that they would make an example of the McDonald's so that all the other drives and people would know that you obey the king when the king tells you what to do and so it was decided that they should be making an example of and some camels from argyle were sent with a regiment to Glencoe in the dead of winter a month or so later with the assignment of simply slaughtering the McDonald's in the lead code this was gonna be a message to everybody don't mess with the king so the army regiment from argyle had been given the job of slaughtering all the mcdonald's shut up in the valley of funko in the middle of the driving snowstorm and they bumped into some of the Glenco's the mcdonald's in glenco who promptly invited him into their homes and killed the fattock calf fed them gave them the best line gave them the best food sheltered and protected them and slapped them for three days in their homes until in the middle of the night the regiment awoke and went about the task of simply slaughtering their hosts some of the women and the children escaped in the snow over to the next mountains where they lived and survived to tell the tale most of the men were slaughtered by the regiment of soldiers the courses we all can imagine the outrage was in order all over Scotland and in fact it is said that until recently some 300 plus years later if your name was Campbell you couldn't get a bed at an end in the highlands of Scotland that's how despised your family name was and the terrible wickedness of the deed was that they had accepted hospitality they had accepted highlands hospitality they had pulled up their knees under the table of these hosts who had feasted them and then in a breach of honor and highland hospitality had done this terrible thing and so you get a sense of how important the idea of eating a meal together is how it creates a kind of bond that should not be transgressed now just reflect for a moment the last time we saw these disciples eating when wasn't i'm sure they'd eaten sense the last time they ate with jesus was the last supper at which they had promised their loyalty we will never turn away from you jesus we will stand with you though death should come but they did flee from him and he died and that he rose and then he came back to them and what did he do he pulled up a chair at the table and he ate with them and what he was saying is this i have never stopping never giving up unbreaking always and forever love for you my dear unfaithful disciples be assured of my love for you by cause of truth father we bless you that jesus is a great savior kind generous warm hearted welcoming giving and forgiving for we probably would know the peace and the joy and the love of christ and be rooted and grounded and established and confident in it for we ask in jesus name amen let's name and sing and give thanks