I just wanted to focus today
on those glorious events of that last day as the Lord Jesus had
revealed His triumph in the most remarkable ways. He came to this
earth and He met Satan and He defeated him. He took our sins
to the cross and He conquered. Our Lord Jesus met death. He
lay in the tomb and He rose triumphantly. The arm of our Lord is not shortened. He lives and reigns as a conquering
ruler. But in a special way in the hearts
of His people, He lives to bless them. He lives to continually
bless them. They are the hands of the crucified
one. By his stripes we are healed. When wounded sore, the stricken
soul lies bleeding and unbound. One only hand, a pierced hand,
can salve the sinner's wound. Nothing comes to God's children
except through those wounds. That's how the righteous must
enter. Here is the refuge. for haunted, trembling souls."
I love the promise of Zechariah. He says, they shall look upon
me whom they have pierced and shall mourn for him. And then
the beginning of the very next chapter 13 in Zechariah says,
in that day shall be a fountain opened to the house of David
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin uncleanness. See, there is life in a look
to the Saviour. There is joy. There is, as these disciples
are told, there is gladness. There is peace. There is rest
for anxious souls. They are the hands of our crucified
saviour. He lifted up his hands. There
He was, as it were, between earth and heaven, our great Saviour. He lifted up His hands to bless
His own, that we might know that His blessings are constant, that
we might know that His blessings are gracious. These hands of
our Lord Jesus, They speak so much, don't they, in so many
ways of the glorious humanity of our Saviour. They speak so
much of His glorious Deity. They speak so much of Him being
touched with the feeling of our infirmity. Him touching us in
His humanity. Him who is God over all, manifest
in human flesh. Those hands, you think of what
those hands did during that time of this earthly ministry. They
multiplied the loaves and the fishes. They touched blind eyes
and healed them. They touched the leather, the
unclean, and He was made whole. There is something remarkable
in the Lord Jesus touching, touching His own. You see, something,
when it comes to the disease of leprosy, which is a picture
of sin, isn't it, that's in us. When the Lord Jesus touched the
leper, instant, timelessly, some things must have happened. He
who is holy, when he touched the leper, either becomes defiled
or the leper becomes holy instantly. It's a remarkable thing, isn't
it? He touched them. He took the dead daughter of
Jairus. in the Gospels and he took her
by the hand, he who is a sovereign God and can speak a universe
into existence, took that little girl, took her by the hand and
raised her from the dead in a house where there was weeping and mourning
and anguish and despair. was turned into a house of gladness
and rejoicing as he took her by the hand. These hands, of
course, as he lifted them up, are the hands of our great High
Priest. You know those verses in number
six very well. The high priest on that day of
atonement, that great day of atonement, he took off his gorgeous
garments. And he put on that white linen
garment and he took into the Holy of Holies, blood for his
own sins, blood for the sins of all of the people. And he came out, he came out
accepted. He came out with the sacrifice
accepted and he took off that white and blood-stained robe
and he puts on the robe of glory and beauty, that robe that's
blue and scarlet and fine linen, that robe with the bells and
the pomegranates that makes a sweet sound. He put on that robe and
he put on that glorious breastplate. It has our names written on it."
He put that on his chest and he put a mitre on his head, holiness
to the Lord, and he came out and he gave the blessing which
followed complete atonement. You know the blessing, don't
you? We hear it often. The Lord bless thee. and keep Thee. The Lord make
His face to shine upon Thee and be gracious unto Thee. The Lord
lift up His countenance. The Lord lift up His face upon
Thee and give Thee peace. And I love that the next verse
says, And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel. That will be their night. As
the wife takes her husband's name, he puts his name, the Lord
Our Righteousness, upon his people, and I will bless them. And here's our Lord Jesus Christ
on that great day, that great day of resurrection, the great
High Priest, his work being done. Our High Priest doesn't plead
for a blessing. He doesn't look up to heaven
for a blessing. He looks down from heaven and
he gives it. He says, because I live, you
also shall live. His life is proof of the life
of all of those united to them. He blessed them. The blessing
is particular as the blessing on the Day of Atonement was particular.
It was a particular named people, the Israel of God who had their
names on the breastplate of the high priest. And it was a particular
people for whom that sacrifice was made and for whom that sacrifice
was accepted. And he came out and he blessed
them. He loved the Church and gave himself for it. Those of
our brothers and sisters who now see His hands in heaven,
they are singing, aren't they? He has at this moment, they're
singing in heaven. He has redeemed us to God. That's what redemption's about.
Redeemed us to God out of every kindred and tongue and people
and nation. The Lord Jesus says, I pray for
them, I pray not for the world. Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. I love the picture too, the fact
that he led them out. He led them out, out of Jerusalem,
out past that Kidron Brook, out past Gethsemane, out to the Mount
of Olives and down to Bethany. He led them out. He always leads
His people out of the religious camp. He leads them there. He led them out. Hebrews 13 is
a remarkable verse and a remarkable promise. Hebrews 13, 13, Let
us go forth therefore unto Him. He led them out. We go forth
unto Him. He's outside the camp. Go out unto Him without the camp,
bearing His reproach. Our great Lord Jesus came to
a group of disciples. I don't know about you, but I
can speak for myself and I know it's true of many, many others.
that there are times, many times in our lives, when we are troubled
and anxious thoughts arise in your hearts. Does that describe
you? We are talking about the most
stupendous things. We're talking about eternity,
talking about your soul. We're talking about matters of
life and death. We're talking about judgement
and eternity, about meeting God. You will meet Him. You will meet Him who has those
pierced hands. You will meet Him who is a consuming
fire, who is holy. like these disciples, so often
in our journey through this world we are left, when the Lord allows
us to think our own thoughts, we are left to think, is it all
worth it? Is all of this worth it? Is all
the trials, are all the trials, all the troubles, all the sacrifices? What dark days they must have
been for those apostles. They had left everything. They
had left everything behind for the Lord Jesus and He was gone. He was gone from their presence
and to them He was dead and gone forever. All of their hopes dashed. What now of the future? How do I put something of life
back together again? I love the way the Lord Jesus
came to His disciples and on that night of nights when His
soul was in anguish, in the deepest anguish, what is the essence
of His great time with them at that supper? It's to comfort
them, isn't it? In the midst of His trial, He
comforts them. Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in me, believe in
my Father." He spent so much of that time comforting them,
warning them of what was coming and comforting them. I go to
prepare a place for you. Let not your heart be troubled. I go I'll come again." He said,
I'll come again to you. But here had been those three
days where it didn't seem as if he was alive and it didn't
seem to them as if he was coming at all. And he comforts them. His first, his last act, his
last words were words of comfort at that supper when he was in
their company. His last act in their presence
was a great declaration of substitution and his preservation in that
garden. He said to that huge army, a
band of soldiers that came with all the weaponry they could muster
to arrest him, He said to them, he spoke a word to show his deity
and they fell back as dead men. And then when they were raised
up, he said, you can have me, but you let these go free. Preservation, protection, and
his first words on meeting them again are words of comfort. I love what Henry Mahan said,
and I think it's so true. For every true believer, every
day requires a fresh glimpse of Jesus Christ, our Lord. To see Him again, in this situation,
a situation that I'm sure is something that you have been
through and something that I have been through on innumerable occasions. Times of uncertainty and doubt
and trouble. I love what John Trapp said,
he said, how easily can the Lord trouble us by turning our own
thoughts loose upon us. Is that true of you? how easily
can the Lord trouble us by turning our own thoughts upon us. He speaks. He speaks into this
situation. He speaks to the hearts of His
people, and I trust He speaks to your hearts. He speaks those
great words, peace be unto you, and then He gives them and asked
them to see, he says, behold my hands and my feet. Behold my hands. It's more than
just look at them. It means to perceive, to know,
to look at them and look again and look to know. He showed them
his hands and his side in John 20 verse 20, and then the disciples
were glad. They were glad. And I'd like
to think that when you see them afresh through the eyes of faith,
you will be glad. I just wanted to look at seven
aspects briefly of those hands. What do those hands, those pierced
hands, say to us? They made those disciples glad
2,000 years ago. My prayer is that when you look
at them again, you might be caused to find yourself comforted by
his words and at peace. And have a place, have a person
to go to in the anxieties and trials and troubles that are
just so much of us living in our Adam flesh. Now firstly,
of course, these hands are the hands of a sovereign God. He has the whole world in His
hands. He has this universe in His hands. He has everything in His hands,
everything that moves, everything that lives, everything in this
universe. is in His hands. Psalm 95 says, O come let us
sing unto the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of
our salvation. Let us come before His presence
with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God and
a great King above all gods, in His hand are the deep places
of the earth. The strength of the hills is
His also. The sea is His. He made it. And His hands formed the dry
land." Now come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before
the Lord, our Maker, for He is our God. We are the sheep of
His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Simon read to us out
of John 10, we are in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
a sovereign hand. We are the people of His pasture,
the sheep of His hands. He's saying to these disciples
and He's saying to us, behold my hands, behold the hands of
a sovereign God and be not troubled and be not anxious in your thoughts. I have made the earth and created
man upon it. I, even my hands, have stretched
out the heaven, and all their hosts have I commanded." The
stars and the heavens are in his hands and he rules them by
a word. Hebrews 1 says, he sustains this
universe by the word of his power. They are the hands, those hands
that were lifted up by the High Priest to bless his people, to
bless that particular group, those ones that are representative
of the Church, are the hands of the Sovereign God. They are
the hands, as we delight to proclaim, they are the hands of assurity. I'll just read some of those
verses that Simon read to us earlier out of John 10. He says of these unbelieving
Jews, he says, you believe not because you are not of my sheep
as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life. Eternal life is a gift, it's
not earned. It's a gift of grace, it's a
gift of sovereignty, it's a gift of and the purchase of assurity. I give unto them eternal life
and those shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. They are in his hands, no one's
going to touch them. My father which gave them me
is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. I and my father are one." You can see why. When they saw
those hands, they were glad. Thomas is often criticised, isn't
he, for his lack of belief. He had every reason to trust
his friends, to trust the witnesses of the ladies and trust the witnesses
of the people that he'd known so closely for three years. But
there is another sense in which we ought to rest easy with our
brother Thomas. Unless they saw the nail marks
in the resurrected Lord Jesus, sins are not forgiven. The surety must die. the surety must take full responsibility
for all of those sins. Thomas was given that opportunity
and we through the testimony of those people and the testimony
of God in the hearts of these people through time have seen
that that surety took all of the responsibility for all of
my sin and for all of my righteousness all of my holiness, all of my
guilt, before an awesome and sovereign God, and He was a surety
before the foundation of the world. When they struck hands,
as it were, in eternity, at that moment God the Father looks to
Him for absolutely everything. He will be a just God and a saviour. He will be a holy and just God
and a saviour. And sin must be punished. And these hands that those apostles
saw that day are a great testimony, aren't they, that the work is
done. The high priest has gone with
blood into the Holy of Holies and now he comes out robed in
glory, blessing his people. No wonder Paul would say, Paul
the chief of sinners, Paul a blasphemer and a violent man prior to meeting
the Lord Jesus. Isn't it wonderful what he says
in Romans 8, there is now, right now, no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus. We are one with Him. Who can
lay any charge to God's elect? It's God who justifies. And who
can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? No condemnation, no accusation,
no separation. Every believer I love what John
10 says, we're in the hands of the Lord Jesus, in the hands
of God Almighty. Security. He says he will not
lose one of them. He will not lose one. The High Priest went in with
the names of the elect, the Israel of God, the Church on his breastplate,
and we went with the blood sacrifice into the Holy of Holies. Isaiah
49, 16 says, Behold, I have grave in you, on the palms of my hands,
by walls I continually perform thee. These men saw those wounded
hands, the hands of a sovereign saviour, the hands of a surety. They are the hands of a substitute. The Lord Jesus went to great
trouble to tell them again and again in that last time that
as He rose from the dead, He is just living proof that the
Word of God is true in every jot and tittle. They have pierced
my hand and my feet." That's the promise in Psalm 22. It's the promise in Isaiah 53. It's the promise that's revealed
in so many places throughout the scriptures. That those nail prints were put
there in our place and put there in our stead. and put there for
us. See, redemption requires substitution. We have nothing to offer God. We have nothing. Nothing in my
hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. There is no substitute
other than the Lord Jesus Christ. By His words I am made whole. As God said as the avenging angel
was to pass over Egypt, He says, when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. So that's where our security
is, isn't it? Our security is not in us and
our feelings. Our security and our safety and
our peace is resting upon He who is our rock, our substitute. must honour the law of God. Our substitute must satisfy perfectly
the justice of God. Sin must be punished. God is
not going to wink at sin. He is a holy God. It's one of
the glories of redemption. It magnifies His word. It magnifies
His character. It magnifies His grace and His
love, magnifies His dear and precious Son. Sin had left a
crimson stain, said the hymn writer, he washed it white as
snow. He's quoting Isaiah chapter 1.
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson
stain, he washed it white as snow. Those words on the cross,
that last words he spoke, it is finished, it is finished. I've told you before they were
struggling in the old times to work out what that word meant
to the common people of those days. And they discovered, in
the 19th century, they discovered a stack of Greek documents. And
they were just the common documents of trade. And when I owe Norm
some money for some batteries, In those days, I would pay Norm
the due amount and he would write across the docket, he would write
across the bill that word of the Lord Jesus, Tetelestai. It
is finished. It is complete. Debt is gone. There is nothing now to the charge. My substitute paid it all. Now, Lord Jesus, change us not.
As I said earlier, our brothers and sisters in heaven, see those
hands with those wounds right now. And they plead for us in
heaven before the courts of God. They plead God's justice. His justice, that thing which
will terrify people on that day when they fall into those hands. His justice demands our freedom. I don't watch a whole lot of
news about the Americans, but I was really shocked. I thought
when that O.J. Simpson fellow was accused of
murdering those two people that it all happened while I was in
India. I thought that he had been found guilty, which is why
he's still in jail. But O.J. Simpson was found innocent
of that. He's in jail for stealing money
and doing a whole bunch of other things and they'll probably keep
him locked away for some considerable time. But it's interesting because
they cannot charge him again. It's called double jeopardy.
They cannot bring any charge against him. Isn't it lovely
how the laws of our land reflect the great lawgiver himself. We cannot be charged. God cannot
charge him with our sin and us with it. Sin cannot be in two
places at one time. If it was laid on him and he
bore it in his own body, he bore it and he bore it away and he
paid that price for it, it cannot be on His Church, His Bride,
ever, ever again. It's the hand of a sovereign
God that will lift it up and show unto these people and lift
it up to bless them. It's the hand of assurity. It's
the hand of our substitute. And it's the hand of safety. He holds us, we just read it
in John, He holds us that securely. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord. He holds them up. We fall and
stumble again and again and again. And the Lord in His mercy allows
us to fall just far enough that we might again see His gracious
hand upon us. I love the Apostle Peter. I love his boldness. I love the
way he just had a daring which was reflective at times of the
most amazing trust in the Lord Jesus. I love that story. We should be so fond of. They were on that ship, weren't
they? And the ship was in the midst of the sea, and tossed
with the waves, for the wind was against it, was contrary
to it. And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went under
them. This is Matthew 14, 25. Jesus went under them. You see,
in the waves and the storm of the sea, it is Jesus who comes
to us, and He must come, and He will come, and He's promised
to come and come again. And when the disciples saw him
walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit.
And they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spoke unto
them, saying, Be of good cheer in his eye, be not afraid. And Peter answered him. I just
love what Peter says here. Peter answered him and said,
Lord, if it be thou, Bid me come unto thee on the water." And
he said, come. And when Peter was come down
out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. He really walked on the water.
He had a promise from the Lord and he walked on water. But when,
verse 30, when he saw the wind boisterous, He was afraid, and
beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched
forth His hand and caught him and said unto him, Thou of little
faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Does that describe something
of your journey through this life at times? It does mine. I love what he
cried out. I have no strength in myself.
All of the circumstances I see around me are utterly helpless
to do me any spiritual good whatsoever. Unless you do something, Lord,
I'm lost, now and forever. Lord, save me! Lord, save me! And how long does the Lord wait?
Immediately, immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, that
wounded hand, and caught him. He rebuked him, but he loved
him. How he loved the Apostle Peter. He let him walk on the water.
He let him sink beneath the waves. He let him do all of that that
he might see how secure he is in the hand of his Saviour. And
he went on to describe it, didn't he? I wonder what thoughts came
to his mind as the Holy Spirit led him to pen those words in
1 Peter. in verse 5 of 1 Peter. I'll go
back to verse 3. He was blessed to be a blessing
to us. He said, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath forgotten
us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for
you." He, the Lord Jesus, is our crown. Whatever He inherits,
we inherit. He is our inheritance, who are kept. Preserved, held,
kept by the power of God, through faith, under salvation, ready
to be revealed. I love that word, isn't it? It's
ready to be revealed. All that's waiting is the good
pleasure of God for the last of His elect to be brought home.
We're kept by the power of God, not kept by our own power, not
kept by our own faith, kept by the power of God. They're sovereign hands, they're
safe hands. And as we see in Luke's Gospel,
They are hands of comfort, aren't they? They are hands that reveal
peace. They are hands that in the midst
of anxiety and troubles cause the disciples. to be glad, to be glad. To go back to our text in Luke
24 verse 50, he led them. He led them out as far as Bethany
and he lifted up his hands and he blessed them. He touched people
with his hands and he healed them. He took Peter by the hand
when he called out to be saved by him. He took the little ones
in his arms. A great picture of his church,
isn't it? I love what Isaiah 40 verse 11
says. He takes his own in his hands. He carries them. He carries them. He shall feed
his flock like a shepherd. Here is the great shepherd, the
great shepherd of his souls. He leads them out, out of Jerusalem. He leads them out to Bethany,
that place where he was with his friends of love, Martha and
Mary. He went from there to the cross. He went from there to the trial
and the tomb. He went from there to death and
he comes back to there. He shall feed His flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with His arm and carry
them in His bosom." If you're carried in the arms of the Lord
Jesus, if you're carried in His heart, you're carried above and
beyond the trials of this world. And even Even when he chastens
and rebukes, they are still the hands of comfort, aren't they? Behold, happy is the man whom
God correcteth. Therefore despise not thou the
chastening of the Almighty, for he maketh sore and bindeth up,
he woundeth, and his hands may hold. And the psalmist says in
the chapter, Psalm 16, I have set the Lord always before me.
Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. We sang that hymn, didn't we,
a little while ago. He'll keep me till the river
rolls this water over my feet. He'll bear me safely over where
my loved ones I shall meet. It's the sovereign hand of our
substitute and surety, and it's the hand that speaks comfort
to us, and the hand of blessing, and it's the hand, of course,
of salvation. As Peter cried out, and Isaiah
says, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened. It's a hand
that knows no limits to its power to achieve all that He has purposed. The Lord's hand is not shortened
that it cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that he cannot
hear. Behold him. Look unto the Lord Jesus and
be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. View him, gaze upon
him, study him, He just says, behold, doesn't he? So he didn't
give any preconditions. He doesn't require any preparations
or any work. He doesn't require someone to
be of a certain age and a certain knowledge and a certain intelligence.
He just says, behold, look to my hands. And finally these hands
These resurrected hands speak of hope for the future. We are
destined, brothers and sisters, like all of the human race, to
have a resurrected body. What does John say? We will be
like Him because we will see Him as He is. The end of this
life on this earth is but a journey to eternity, isn't it? Eternity
laid out before us. But it's an eternity that has,
as it were, a future. There is a resurrection day coming. There is a day of judgment coming. There is One who reigns over
all flesh. So He reigns. These hands show
that He's reigned, show that He's conquered death, that He's
defeated sin, that Satan has done his best and has failed
before a sovereign God. These hands speak of His return. You'll see Him. These hands speak
of the promise of a new creation. We despair over so much of what
our sin, our sin in our Father Adam does in this world and does
to people in this world. There is a new creation coming. It's as sure, it's as sure as
those hands were raised again to newness of life after being
so cruelly treated on that cross. There is a resurrection day,
there is a new creation. What's it called? The home of
the righteous. Not righteous in anything that
they have done. righteous in Him who is the Righteous
One. All that the Lord Jesus did,
even these great events that we've been looking at, are just
the fulfilment, the fulfilment of prophecy. May our hands Thou art hands
which hold this world, Thou art hands which hold this people,
and Thou art the hands of judgment. Hebrews says it is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of a living God. It's a fearful
thing to fall into those hands. It's a glorious, glorious, glorious
thing to find that those hands are wrapped around us and He
carries us and He holds His people. May we, like Peter, cry out,
O Lord, save me. When we walk through this valley
of the shadow of death, when we have times of anxiety, may
we, like the disciples, be given a fresh view of a resurrected
Redeemer. a glorious, triumphant saviour,
and may we be reminded that as He went up through the air, went
up to heaven to bless, He remains the same yesterday, today and
forever. He is a rock in whom we can find
our rest and our peace in the storms of this world. Let's pray.