Okay, well the Great Resurrection
Day was the day that started in darkness and despair and doubting
and ended up a day that finished in great celebration and worship. And so I thought we'd just look
at this amazing chapter. where we just have so many wonderful
mountain peaks and all we can do today in our limited time
is skip across the mountain peaks of this beautiful story. But
I trust that the Lord will give us insights into what He has
for us in this chapter today and that we, like these despairing
apostles, might come to rejoice in the history and the victory
and the wonder of redeeming love in our Lord Jesus. So Luke chapter
24. Now on the first day of the week,
very early in the morning, and certain other women with them
came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. They really did expect to find
a body in that tomb that morning. They did expect to find a body
who, in the haste of what happened on Friday afternoon, had not
been anointed as they would have wished. but they found the stone
rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not
find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened as they were
greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by
them in shining garments, Then as they were afraid and bowed
their faces to the earth, they said to them, Why do you seek
the living among the dead? Why are you searching for the
Lord Jesus, the living? The way, the truth, the life. Why are you searching for him
among the dead? These wonderful words from the
heavenly visitors. He is not there, but is risen. Remember how He spoke to you
when He was still in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be
delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the
third day rise again. As we've been going through Mark's
Gospel, we see this is a quotation from Mark 8.31, but it's repeated
three times. in the Holy Scriptures, but how
many times did the Lord Jesus tell these people of this? And
here we have this Gospel proclamation from Heaven itself. The foundation
of the Gospel is a Sovereign God, a Sovereign God who is revealed
in words of prophecy. God's words of prophecy are God's
words of promise. Prophecy, promise, and here promise
is fulfilled. It's the hub of the wheel of
all of God's deeds, isn't it? That God is absolutely sovereign,
that He sits on a throne in heaven, He sits because his work is completed,
sits on a throne because it's a throne of absolute and perfect
sovereign rule of all things, and the centerpiece of all God's
work in getting glory for himself and getting glory for his people. is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is the message of the Gospel
from Heaven that morning. It was the message of the Gospel
from Heaven throughout all of the ages. It's the message of
the Gospel in Heaven at this very moment, and it's the message
of the Gospel that we pray the Lord would continue to give us
grace, not just to preach, but to proclaim with great boldness. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He must be delivered, says the
angels from heaven. It was absolutely necessary as
part of God's sovereign plan that He must be delivered into
the hands of wicked men. He must be crucified. These are not things that were
left in the hands of sinful men. They were declarations from heaven,
and as we read in Psalm 22, they were promises from God, from
that first sacrifice in the garden when God slew that lamb. to cover the shame of Adam and
Eve. He took off their fig leaves
and he slew an animal to cover them, all picturing the Lord
Jesus. And from there on in every page
of this book, every page is about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He must, He must be crucified. and his death must be a cursed
one. Cursed is everyone who hangs
on a tree. It's remarkable in the history
of the world, God's history, that the Romans had been led
to invent this wicked and cruel and demeaning way of punishing
criminals. And the Roman way of doing it,
until just a few years before these events, was that they would
tie the people up there with ropes. And the intention being
but in their humiliation as they were tied naked to a cross. It was a warning to all the people
around. If you disobey Rome, this is
your punishment. But just in a few years before
the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, the Romans have taken it a step
further. Rather than using ropes, they
now use nails. As I said, it's God's history. Why do they use nails? His death,
which must be a cursed death on a tree, is a death that must
be one where blood is shed. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sins. Every sacrifice from that one
that clothed Adam and Eve to the one that caused Abel to be
righteous and hated by his brother. Every sacrifice, morning and
evening for 1500 years, the Jews sacrificed a lamb in the morning
and sacrificed a lamb in the afternoon. Every single drop
of that blood was pointing people to a saviour. that the wages
of sin is death. What we have earned is death. And without blood being shed,
there is no remission of sins. This is Heaven's Gospel. He must
be delivered. He must be handed to these wicked
men. He must be crucified. And wonderfully,
He must rise on the third day. And see, Heaven's Gospel is,
I trust, the Gospel that God will cause us and force us to
proclaim here. It's a declaration of what God
must do. It's a declaration of what God
has done. a finished work. It's not an
offer based on anything to do with any man in all of this world. It's a declaration of what God,
who is sovereign, has done in His Son. It was a declaration when this
baby was born in Bethlehem. for Bethlehem out of you shall
come, the angel said, shall come a ruler who will shepherd my
people Israel. He will be the shepherd of my
people Israel, the Israel of God. Abraham's spiritual children,
Abraham's faith children, God's children will be shepherded. by this man. And here in this
passage before us we actually see the shepherding work of our
Saviour. What a wonderful shepherd he
is. And he's a shepherd, as Simon
showed us earlier, a shepherd of men whose hearts are stone. So these women, in verse 8, they
remembered His words, they remembered the words of the Lord Jesus,
they returned from the tomb and they told this gathering, and
the gathering was now the 11 apostles plus others. They told all these things to
the 11 and to all the rest. And look at the number of women
involved, the number of witnesses. It was Mary Magdalene, she who
had seven demons cast out of her, she who had anointed the
Lord for His burial just a few days beforehand. Joanna, Mary
the mother of James, and other women. Witnesses are plenty. who told these things to the
apostles. Things that the Lord Jesus had
been telling them for three years. Things that their scriptures
had been telling them for thousands of years. Verse 11 is shocking. It's meant to shock us. And the
words of these witnesses seemed to them to be like idle tales,
and they did not believe them. It's a strong, strong word. It seemed to them, says the Holy
Spirit, that these words were pure nonsense. Pure nonsense. It just shows
us that the heart of man is dead to all the things of God. The heart of man in his natural
state, left to himself, is blind and deaf and at enmity against
God. And surprisingly, this includes
the heart of God's children. These were God's children we're
speaking of here. How much we need to cry out like
that desperate man in Mark's Gospel, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Peter arose, verse 12, and ran
to the tomb. Stooping down, he saw the linen
clothes lying by themselves, and he departed, marveling to
himself what had happened. And so two of this band, not
the eleven, but two of the other followers of the Lord Jesus,
two of them who were cowering in Jerusalem, locked away for
fear of the Jews, fearful that what had happened to their master
may well befall them. Now behold, two of them were
travelling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven
miles from Jerusalem. And as they talked together,
of all these things that had happened, so it was that while
they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus himself drew near
and went with them." It's a wonderful picture of what
is called technically, prevenient grace. The grace that God shows
to his children is a grace that doesn't change after conversion. The grace that God has shown
us as his children now is the grace that he's always shown
us. I will never leave you nor forsake you." As little lambs,
Isaiah thought, he says, that we are carried by God close to
his heart. These men had Jesus come and
draw near and walk alongside with them. What a beautiful picture
of the Lord's activity in coming to His people. Many of us, like
these people, live in times and days where things are dark and
things are tough, and what we see with our natural eyes brings
us very, very little comfort and hope. But God draws near
to His people. He does draw near, He never leaves,
He never forsakes. But in verse 16, their eyes were
restrained, so that they did not know Him. The eyes of God's
children are restrained by sin. They are restrained by unbelief. But it seems that this word means
that they were restrained on the basis of some authority and
power. God chooses the time to open
His children's eyes. God chooses the times of our
life and sovereignly rules over them. And so there is a time
when God appears to hide His face and hide His presence. It's only in our experience and
it is only for our good, but it is the reality of all of God's
people who are honest. And like the Beloved in Song
of Solomon, we cry out for Him, where is my Beloved? Where has
he gone? And Jesus said to them, What
kind of conversation is this that you are having with one
another as you walk and are sad? Then one of them, whose name
was Cleopas, answered and said to him, Are you the only stranger
in Jerusalem, and have you not known the things which happened
here in these days? And he said to them, what things? So they said to him, the things
concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet. He had declared himself to be
the Christ of God for three years, and here are his disciples, his
faithful disciples, just declaring that he was a prophet. Such is the darkness that comes
upon God's children. Mighty indeed and Word before
God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers
delivered Him to be condemned to death and crucified. But we were hoping that it was
He who was going to redeem Israel. Not once in the Scriptures is
there a hint that the Lord Jesus was intending by His life, death
and resurrection to save all of this world. The Old Testament
prophets universally declare that He will come for His people. These men knew their Scriptures
well enough that they had hoped that He was the one who was going
to redeem Israel. God's Israel. Indeed, besides
all this, today is the third day since these things happened.
Yes, and certain women of our company who arrived at the term
early astonished us. When they did not find his body,
they came saying that they had seen a vision of angels who said
he was alive. And certain of those who were
with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had
said, but him they did not see." The women went desperately looking.
for the body of that one that they had loved, the body of that
one that they had been loved by and cherished for all of those
years, but him they did not see. And now the Lord Jesus speaks. He said to them, O foolish ones
and slow of heart to believe, What a wonderful description
of God's people. How often have you had to say
those words? Oh foolish me, how slow of heart
have I been to believe. God has shown us so much and
yet we confront another situation And we are slow of heart to believe
in all that the prophets had spoken. All of this Old Testament
is about the Lord Jesus. All of the prophets. Now the
Lord Jesus is declaring that this Old Testament book that's
here before us is a book that's all about Him. Anyone who doesn't
see Jesus in there needs to go and look hard and pray hard. For those who deny that Jesus
is in there and all through it, he has a word of rebuke. Don't
be slow of heart to believe. And then he reiterates what the
angels have said. Ought not, must the Christ had
to have suffered these things and enter into His glory." We'll
talk more about that in a little while, about His glory. But His
glory is great in thy salvation, says the psalmist. And beginning
at Moses and the prophets, He expounded to them in all the
scriptures the things concerning Himself. So the basis of the
Gospel, the foundation of the Gospel, is the sovereignty of
God. He must, He must, He must. The
foundation and the centerpiece of all Gospel preaching is we
preach Him. What a wonderful sermon these
men had as they walked along. What a remarkable sermon from
the lips of the Lord Jesus as He opened the books from Genesis
to Malachi and the ones in between. And again and again and again
He just showed them that this is about Him. The scriptures
are about Him. We preach Him. We must preach Him. We continually preach Him. Someone criticized us a little
while ago for saying that we talk too much about Jesus in
this place. What a wonderful compliment.
We preach Him. If we don't preach Him, and the
people who come here to speak do not preach Him, there is no
place for them to be here. We have seen from these texts
what man is like. We preach Him. Verse 28. Then they drew near to the village
where they were going, and He indicated that He would have
gone further. But they constrained Him, saying,
Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And He went in to stay with them.
And now it came to pass, as he sat at the table with them, he
took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened,
and they knew him. This is eternal life, says the
Lord Jesus, that they might know Him. To know Him is to know the
Father. This is what the Gospel does,
isn't it? It's based on God who sits on
a sovereign throne. The Gospel proclamation is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. And the Gospel life that comes
is a life that opens eyes. Not just open eyes to see, but
open eyes to know. It's not good enough just having
eyes to see from the Scriptures that this is all about Jesus.
You can sit down and give people theology lectures about that.
You can take them to wonderful books that have been written
that will describe the Old Testament talking about the Lord Jesus.
But God, who opens eyes through the Gospel, brings life and light,
and the reality is that they know Him. And they said to one another,
Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on
the road and while He opened the scriptures to us? That's
the wonder of what God is doing in our midst, isn't it? That
He opens eyes and He causes hearts to burn. to burn with love for
a Saviour who loved them, burn with a desire to be with Him,
to be like Him, but a desire to know Him and to be with Him,
a desire to honour Him, a desire just to be in His presence. That's heart burning. So these men now get up that
very hour and return to Jerusalem. So on the road to Emmaus, there
were men whose hopes were dashed, verse 21. There were men who
were sad, verse 17. There were men who were astonished. Now they return to Jerusalem
as men with new eyes and a heart burning. And they go straight
to the 11. and those who are gathered with
them." So quite a crowd. And then they make this wonderful
proclamation saying, the Lord is risen indeed and has appeared
to Simon. And they told them about the
things that had happened on the road and how he was known to
them in the breaking of the bread. And so by the time they get back
to Jerusalem, the Lord has already appeared to Simon. As the scriptures keep reminding
us, we have confirmation from two or three witnesses. Now it's
three at least. As the Lord Jesus continues His
resurrection appearances, He will appear to all of the eleven,
as we'll see soon. But He will appear to 500 at
one time. A couple of things to note. One
is that 500 in 1 Corinthians is left before the people of
that day as a great crowd of witnesses. And if you question
the resurrection, Paul is saying, go back to Galilee and go and
interview. Interview 500 people. Talk to the apostles. The other
thing that's worth noting is that the resurrection appearances
were never to people who were not God's people. Not once did He appear to anyone
who wasn't His. Just like these men whose eyes
were opened, whose hearts were burning, the resurrection appearances
are for God's people. We need the comfort of the reality
of all of these witnesses. But we need the comfort of that
reality in our hearts. And that's what these men saw,
didn't it? How He was known to them, verse 35, in the breaking
of the bread. Obviously symbolic. But what we do when we participate
in the Lord's Supper, that broken body reveals Him to us again. And so the Gospel foundation
is God who is sovereign. The Gospel declaration is Jesus
Christ. The Gospel fruit is life and
light. And also the gospel brings peace. It brings with it the promises
of the Lord Jesus. Now as they said these things,
they are all gathered together again back in Jerusalem, Jesus
himself stood in the midst of them and said, peace to you,
peace be with you. What a remarkable picture of
our gracious saviour. All of these people. had shamefully
forsaken him in his hour of greatest need. One had denied him three
times before a servant girl. All had been backsliders and
cowards. But when Jesus comes to see them
again, there is not a word of rebuke, not a hint of anger,
not a hint of retribution, for revenge, and not even the slightest
indication of any disapproval from their master. He said to them, they were terrified
and frightened, supposing they had seen a spirit. And he said
to them, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your
heart? Behold my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Handle me and
see. for a spirit does not have flesh
and bones as you see. And when he had said this, he
showed them his hands and his feet. But while they still did
not believe, for joy and marvel he said to them, Have you any
food here? So they gave him a piece of broiled
fish and some honeycomb. He took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, these are
the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that
all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law
of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me. Then he opened their understanding
that they might comprehend the Scriptures. And he said to them,
as the angels had said, thus it is written, it was necessary
for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third
day, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in
his name to all nations, beginning... And you are witnesses of these
things. He says, Behold my hands and
my feet. Behold what had happened to me,
to my body as I hung on that cursed tree. The reason there
is not a word of rebuke from our Saviour, there's nothing
but peace and love, is that now manifestly in their presence,
in their experience, their sins are all forgiven. Romans 8.1,
right now, right now there is no condemnation for those who
are in Christ Jesus. The blood that flowed from these
hands and the blood that flowed from these feet has washed your
sins away. He cannot charge His beloved
with one sin. He delights in mercy, as he says
in Isaiah 27, fury is not in me. His love for his bride defies
human wisdom, as his resurrection defies human reasoning. and it defies human science,
but so does his love surpass all knowledge. So from his wounds
come our blessings. He says to us, behold his hands
and his feet. Behold the reality of that shed
blood. Behold the reality of that death. and see this new life, this resurrected
life, this man who really can eat broil fish and honeycomb,
this man who really can walk alongside those who are bewildered
and cannot understand the things around them. Behold, he says, because of all
this, verse 49, I send the promise of my Father upon you. The promise of the Father is
the Holy Spirit. Christ living in them. Christ can live in his people
because before God they have no sin. And people might say,
well, that's the way God sees it, as Don Fortner often reminds
us. Well, if that's the way God sees
it, then that's the way it really is. God's children can have a
holy God living inside them, walking with them all the days
of their life. They are to wait in Jerusalem
for just a little while until that wonderful day of Pentecost
when that power from on high will come upon them. And then
in the last few verses we have this wonderful picture, and it's
the Gospel culmination. He led them out as far as Bethany,
and as we've seen in Mark's Gospel, There is Jerusalem, this magnificent
place, this magnificent city that the Herods and the Romans
have been building for decades and decades. This enormous temple,
this amazing religious center, this amazing center of human
power. And again and again, the Lord
Jesus shows his people, this is not a fit home. for him, nor
is it a home for his people. And he takes these fearful, fearful,
bewildered apostles, he takes them out of that prison that
they were in, in a sense, in Jerusalem, and he leads them
through that city, over the Mount of Olives, and again he takes
them to Bethany, the place where Lazarus and Mary and Martha were,
the place where he was anointed by Mary Magdalene. And he lifted
up his hands and he blessed them. He blessed them as He blesses
all of His people with all spiritual blessings. There is not one spiritual
blessing lacking from any of God's children ever. Now it came
to pass while He blessed them that He was parted from them
and carried up into Heaven. This is the Gospel culmination,
isn't it? verse 52, and they worshipped
him. He has now gone into his glory. It's amazing in his prayer if
you turn over in John 17, The Lord Jesus prayed just as two
nights before. He prayed this amazing prayer,
answered in every jot and tittle by his Father. But the prayer
is so much about glory, isn't it? After he had suffered, he
will enter his glory, said the Lord Jesus to these people. And
so much of this is about glory. he lifted up his eyes to heaven,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that your Son
may also glorify you. Verse 4, I have glorified you
on earth and have finished the work which you have given me
to do. Verse 5. And now, O Father, glorify
me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had before
the world was. And then remarkably in verse
10, to these disciples, all mine are yours and all yours are mine. I am right now glorified in them. I do not pray for these alone
but I also pray for those who believe in me through their word.
all of us who believe, that they all may be one as you, Father,
are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that
the world may believe that you sent me, and the glory which
you gave me I have given them, that they may be one just as
we are one. Father, in verse 24, I desire
that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for
you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous father, the world
has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known
that you sent me, and I have declared to them your name, and
will declare it, that the love with which you loved me may be
in them, and I in them." This is the glory of God, isn't it?
His glory is great in your salvation. Our Saviour's rest is His glory. His resting place is glorious. May God give us the rest today
and continue to give us the rest that He gave these apostles and
His believers that day. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven,
we do thank you and praise you that the Lord Jesus came to bear
our sins,