Well, good morning, everybody.
It's Luke chapter 24 this morning, and verse 39. If you want to turn with me there,
Luke 24, 39. The Lord said to the disciples,
the 11 and those disciples that had gathered together, and remember
they were speaking about him and how they'd seen him, and
he had revealed himself to them. He appeared in their midst and
said peace be still and in verse 39. He says behold my hands and
my feet That it is I myself Handle me and see for a spirit hath
not flesh and bones as you see me have The first question I
have for you is this it does it seem strange that he didn't
say behold my face and see that it is I myself. That's the way
we recognize other people. We look at their face. Usually
we can even look at a picture of somebody from 30 years ago
when they were just a little kid and say, oh, I know who that
is, I recognize them. And we know it by their face.
We don't look at their hands and feet. But the Lord Jesus
Christ's identity all through the scriptures, is like this, listen to Galatians
1.4, who gave himself for our sins. That's who he is, he's
the one that gave himself. He's the only one that could.
Gave himself for our sins that he might save us from this present
evil world according to the will of God and our father. Galatians
2.20, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me, in the life which I now live in
the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son
of God, who is he, who loved me and gave himself for me. Ephesians 5.25, Husbands, love
your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself
for it. First Timothy 2.6, who gave himself
a ransom for all to be testified. in due time. Titus 2.14, who
gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity. Not that he might give us a shot,
but that he might redeem us. That's why he gave himself. Did
he do that? He said he did. He said it's perfect. Redeem
us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people,
that is, a people that's his, uniquely his. Zealous of good
works, We've never, you and I have never seen his face, but we know
by grace through faith what he did for us. We know, we haven't
seen his hands and feet physically with our physical eyes, but we
know by his grace through faith that he gives what he gave himself
for. That's how we know him, because
he reveals himself as our redeemer. the Son of God crucified for
our sins, dying the just for the unjust, that he might bring
a countless multitude of wretched, vile sinners to God. And what's amazing here is that
even those who had seen his face, they would have recognized him
At times he hid himself from them, he hid his identity from
them, but they could have recognized his face. But the way he identifies
himself to them was in his character as their redeemer, as him who
gave himself for them, who died for their sins according to the
scriptures. The scars in his hands and feet
are a symbol of what Christ did for his elect. We always say
that the gospel is Christ, the person of Christ, what he did,
why he did it, and where he is now. And included in why he did
it is that whatever he did it for is done. He accomplished
the redemption of his people. He obtained it for us with his
precious blood. Now these scars symbolize what
he did for us. And think about how important
that is. We're saved by his faithfulness to his father and to us. He's faithful to do what he promised
for us. But faithfulness to his father,
and how is faith identified? If you look up that word faith
as it's normally used in the New Testament, it includes faithfulness.
Faith includes, I'm faithful to the one in whom I believe
by his grace. But Christ was faithful to his
father. He said, I must be about my father's
business. I do always those things that
please my father. He accomplished everything the
father sent him to do. How is faith identified? How
is it seen? You remember what James said
about that? He said, a man may say you have faith and I have
works. Show me thy faith without thy
works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. And always
remember this, the way to understand the book of James. If you wanna
see that the book of James is not contradictory in any way
to Paul saying we're saved by grace without works. The book
of James is not about the difference between faith and works. The
book of James is about the difference in two kinds of faith, two different
faiths, the one that God gives that works and the one that's
not of God, that's of the flesh that doesn't work. The Lord Jesus
Christ showed his faith in and faithfulness to his father by
what he accomplished on Calvary. His hands and feet prove it. It's faithfulness that works,
faith that works. Now think about it this way,
we're saved because he loved us. It's the difference between
being saved and loved. Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I hated. Jacob's saved, Esau's lost. And his love is the difference,
his electing everlasting love. How is love shown? What is love,
just an emotion? Just a warm, fuzzy feeling? No,
it's always he loved us and, as we've spoken about before,
Revelation 1.5, unto him that loved us and washed us from our
sins. How did he wash us? Look at his
hands and feet and you'll see. By faith, by faith. The love
of God for his elect, the love of Christ for his sheep is love
indeed. and think about the word indeed
as two words. Indeed, in doing, in what he
did for us, his hands and feet, prove it. That's why he showed
them to them, to show everything. Really, it shows everything about
God. What is love? Look at his hands and feet. You
wanna talk about the holiness of God? Look at his hands and
feet. It took the blood of God's son
to wash us from our sins because God is holy. He can't even look
at us without putting us in hell unless the Lord Jesus Christ
sheds his precious blood for justice. Look at his hands and
feet. When our sin was laid on him,
God crushed his own son. but because of who he is, the
spotless lamb of God, he put away our sin by that sacrifice.
So he showed his love. Everything really is revealed
in Christ crucified, all of the character of God. And that's
what his hands and feet here are all about now when he was
showing them that. The love of God for his elect,
the love of Christ for his sheep is love indeed. And his hands
and feet prove it. Even in glory, how is the Savior
identified? Even in eternal glory in heaven
itself, in the very presence of God, how is he identified?
John said, I saw a lamb as it had been slain. Notice also that the Lord comforted
them. This is how he comforted them.
What's our comfort? Look at his hands and feet. We
see that Christ's love is not just, well, I hope you do the
right thing and go to heaven instead of hell. His love, he
did something about it. That's my comfort. Paul said,
I'm uncondemnable before God because it's Christ that died
for me. It has nothing to do with me except that he did it
for me. Revealed himself to me and had mercy on me But even in glory But he comforted
them and the reason he did this is because verse 38 you see where
they were troubled You remember that they were troubled and he
said why are you troubled? But he didn't just ask him that
question He showed him why? We can find complete comfort
and peace and rest in Him because of who He is and what He did
for us. He made, when we're in trouble,
let me ask you this. This is another question I've
got for you this morning. There was two things that happened
in verse 38, I believe it is. Yeah, we're in verse 39. And
in verse 38, why are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in
your heart? And he didn't say it there because
he didn't have to, but they were wrong thoughts. So these apostles
and disciples, they were troubled and they had wrong thoughts about
the Lord Jesus Christ. They thought wrong, false thoughts,
erroneous thoughts arose in their hearts. Okay, let's talk about
being in trouble. When you're in trouble, what's
gonna comfort you more than to think about how the Lord Jesus
Christ made his own soul an offering for your sin? And by those nail
prints in his hands and feet, he shows us how much he loved
us. This is, herein is love that
the Father, he loved us so much that he gave his only begotten
Son, and the Lord Jesus dying for us is the very definition
of love, herein is love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and sent his son to be the sin offering for our
sins. And when wrong thoughts arise
in your heart, whatever they are, why do those thoughts arise
in your heart? Well, I'll tell you this, when
they were thinking wrong, when that happens, you know what the
remedy to that is? Looking to him and seeing who
he is and what he did to be shown by Christ himself that all that
really matters is that he took our place under the wrath of
God and because he did, we have an opportunity? No. Because he
did, we have a chance? No. Because he did, our sins
are gone and we're spotless in the sight of God. That'll put
away the wrong thoughts that matter You might have a wrong
opinion about some worldly thing, and that's not gonna really matter
that much, probably. But when wrong thoughts arise in our hearts
that have to do with him, as was here, he's got to show himself
crucified for our sins. And if he's gracious and does
that, the right thoughts will arise in our hearts, and we'll
praise him, and we'll thank him forever. Gracious Lord, show
us your hands, and your feet. When we come to the table, the
Lord's table, and bread has been broken and laid out on the table,
and wine has been poured out, and we remember our Savior. We
think about when he said, this is my body that is broken for
you, and he's the one, I lay down my life for you. Nobody
takes it from me. This bread is broken for you
by him, for us. and this wine is the new covenant
in my blood. And when we remember our Savior
that way, I can't help by his grace, I can't help it anymore
because of his grace, but think, not only is this a beautiful
time of worship, of family worship around his table, commemorating
our great Savior and what he did for us, how he saved us,
But I think of it also as a reminder from the Lord of how simple and
clear my preaching should be. I can't help but think of it
that way anymore. And what the subject of it must
always be, the simplicity that's in Christ, His body, His blood,
His person, His work, Christ and Him crucified. If I preach
anything else, I'm wasting, it's worse than wasting our time. It's so clear and simple that
may God give us grace that we're never, me, you, all of us are
never removed from the simplicity, the all-inclusiveness that's
in Christ Jesus. At the table, he said, you show
my death. As long as you do eat this bread
and drink this cup, you do show forth my death until I come.
That's what I want to do when I preach. That's what he did
when he showed them his hands and his feet, the Lord crucified
for his loved ones. He's the subject, he's the simple,
all-inclusive subject of our message because only Christ alone
and only the message of Christ alone, by that means, God saves
his people. So he accomplished by simply
showing them himself crucified, he calmed their troubles, And
he changed all their wrong thoughts into right ones. May he do that
for us every time we meet. And then verse 40, let's talk
about this just for a little while, verse 40. And when he
had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. Now, I've been talking about
him showing already, kind of looking ahead to this verse,
knowing that that's what's coming next. But think about this now. He spoke in verse 39 and said,
behold, my hands and feet, that it is I myself. And that's our
message. Now, we identify somebody who
was crucified for our sins, who gave himself for our sins. But
when he had thus spoken, he showed them. Let's think about that
for a minute. The Lord tells us about himself and how sinners
are saved by his precious blood through the preaching of the
gospel. And through that means, he actually shows us himself. He got to show you himself. I
can study hard, and I can say all the right things, but the
Lord Jesus Christ has got to actually show you, I can't do
that. We can talk about it, and he does it through the preaching
of the gospel, and that's got to happen, but the Lord himself
has got to show us what he did for us. That's faith. That's
faith. You're not gonna see it. He can
say it, and there could have been others in the room, At many
times he spoke to multitudes and some believed and some didn't
the words coming out of his mouth Or the words of eternal life,
but he's got to show you you got to show you now You've got
to give you faith to believe on him Now the word the gospel
is vital It's it's by the foolishness of preaching that God has been
pleased to save them that believe that which is foolishness to
this world and And when the gospel is preached, when and where God
is pleased, he gives faith in his son. He himself opens your
eyes and shows you his hands and his feet. Faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I know that
in our text, you know this, I know this, that when it says he showed
them, it's talking about him physically revealing to their
natural eyes the wounds and the hands and feet that were wounded
for them. I know that's what that's saying,
but that's not all it means. It means that, but that's not
all it means. It means something a lot more
important than that. Well, how do you know that, Chris?
Where are you getting that from? Well, the last two verses of
this chapter say they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem
with great joy And we're continually in the temple praising and blessing
God. And I'll tell you this, you've
got to have more than a physical sight of the Lord in the hands
and feet, wherein are the wounds, showing that he suffered for
our sins in order to worship him. It's got to be a lot more
than a physical sight. It was for them, and it's got
to be for us. They saw him physically, but
that wasn't gonna cut it. That's not gonna cut it. There
were many who saw him wounded that never worshiped him. They
never praised God for his son and him sending his son to die
for our sins. Never did. That one thief, I
believe it's the one on his left side, saw his precious blood
flow down. and died cursing him and mocking
him. It's not just a physical sight
this is talking about here. He showed them his hands and
his feet. He showed them himself crucified
for their sins. No, it takes another kind of
showing now. It takes another kind of sight. It takes simply faith. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves. You're not going to come up with
it. You're not going to decide to believe. He's going to have
to give you faith in himself. And so we pray for it. We say,
Lord, help our unbelief, even we who do believe. The way he
shows us his hands and feet and the way he showed them also in
our text is by giving them faith in him. That's how he did it.
That's why they worshipped him. Otherwise, they wouldn't have.
They couldn't have. So it was much more than just
the physical. They worshipped him for that. Because he is the
Lamb of God that sits on the throne. It's one thing to be
historically aware that somebody named Jesus died on a cross a
couple thousand years ago. It's another thing altogether
to worship him because you know he gave himself for you. Because he gave himself. And
you know by God's grace, through faith, that you are uncondemnable
in the sight of God Almighty, just as Paul was, and for the
same reason, because it is Christ that died. He's shown us that. Yea rather that is risen again
who is even at the right hand of God Who also maketh intercession
for us? That's when you'll worship him
and not before And how gracious he is let's just say a couple
more things how gracious he is to show us Our blindness is our
own fault We never would see really see him and what he did for us. Even
if we had stood at the foot of that cross and watched him bleed
and die for the sins of his people, we would never see himself and
what he did unless he gives us faith. And our blindness is our
own fault. Our unbelief is our own fault.
If he left us in our blind rebellion and pride and evil and just hatred
of him by nature, He'd be right to do it. He'd be right to do
it. But he's been pleased to show
us that which is most precious, the most precious of all sights. Our Lord crucified, yet risen. They saw the wounds that proved
it was him that died for them, but there he stands before them. This is how he described himself. He that liveth and was dead.
He that liveth and was dead. And
behold, he is alive forevermore. And because he is and was and
is, we are by his grace. We're now, instead of being dead
to God and alive unto sin, we're dead to sin and alive unto God
by his precious blood. And as he is now, so are we in
this world. Because of him and what he did,
we are who we are. It defines us. We're his. As he is, so are we in this world.
Is God pleased with his son? Then he says to his sheep, the
ones for whom Christ died, well done, thou good and faithful
servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Does God love
his son? Our Lord Jesus prayed in John
17, thou hast loved them even as thou hast loved me. All because of what we see. when
he shows us his hands and his feet. Ah, Lord, show us, increase
our faith, cause us to worship you, cause us to show your death
until you come and cause us to rest completely in your finished
perfect salvation accomplished for us by you. Amen.