Let's begin today in the book
of Luke. Last chapter of the book of Luke,
Luke 24. Luke chapter 24. We'll begin reading in verse 13. And behold, two of them went
that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem
about three score furlongs. And they talked together of all
these things which had happened. And it came to pass that while
they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went
with them. But their eyes were holding that
they should not know him. And he said unto them, What manner
of communications are these that ye have one to another as you
walk and are sad? And one of them, whose name was
Cleophas, Answering, said unto him, art thou only a stranger
in Jerusalem, and hast thou not known the things which are come
to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, what things? And they said unto him concerning
Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and
word before God and all the people, and how the chief priest and
our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified
him. But we trusted that it had been
he which should have redeemed Israel. And beside all this,
today is the third day since these things were done. Yea,
and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which
were earlier to sepulcher. And when they found not his body,
they came saying that they had seen a vision of angels, which
said that he was alive. And certain of them which were
with us went to the sepulcher and found it even so as the women
had said, but they saw him not, but him they saw not. Then he
said unto them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into his glory and beginning at Moses
and all the prophets He expounded unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village,
whither they went, and he made as though he would have gone
on 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 tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat
at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and break, and
gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and
they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight. And they
said one to another, did not our hearts burn within us while
he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the
scriptures. And they arose up the same hour
and returned to Jerusalem and they found the 11 gathered together
and them that were with them saying, the Lord has risen indeed
and hath appeared unto Simon. And they told what things were
done in the way and how he was known of them in breaking of
bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst
of them and said unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified
and affrighted and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he
said unto them, Why are you troubled and why do thoughts arise in
your hearts? Behold, my hands and my feet, that it is I myself
Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye
see me have. And when he had thus spoken,
he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they believed
not yet for joy and wondered, he said unto them, have ye any
meat? And they gave him a piece of broil fish and a honeycomb.
And he took it and did eat before them. And he said unto them,
these are the words which I spoke unto you, while I was yet with
you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written
in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me. Then he opened, then opened he
their understanding that they might understand the scriptures
and said unto them, thus it is written and thus it behoove Christ
to suffer and derived from the dead the third day. and that
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name
among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you're witnesses
of these things. And behold, I send the promise
of my father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until
you be in due with power from on high. And he led them out
as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed
them. And it came to pass While he
blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him and returned
to Jerusalem with great joy. And they were continually in
the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen. Now, this text tells
us that the two men who were walking along the road to Emmaus
were Peter and one called Cleophas. And verse 13 tells us that this
journey from Emmaus to Jerusalem was about 60 furlongs or roughly
about seven and a half miles. So it would have taken them probably
two and a half to three and a half hours to walk that distance. And shortly after this journey
began, verse 15 tells us that Jesus himself drew near and joined
them. But it says their eyes were holding
that they did not know him. And the Lord asked him what they
were talking about. which brought forth an amazing response. And they said, are you new in
town? How can you have not heard of what has happened here in
the last few days? So they filled the Lord in on
all that had happened and how they thought this one named Jesus
was the one who would redeem Israel, what they thought was
a physical Israel. And they mentioned how a couple
of the women who were also followers of this one named Jesus had gone
to the temple and found it empty, and how these women had seen
a vision of angels, and these angels had told them that he
was alive. Then in verse 25, we find the
Lord rebuking these two men over their unbelief, which, after
this, he gives them a lesson on all the Old Testament scriptures,
speaking of himself. We need to understand they only
had the Old Testament scriptures at this time. And as I thought on this, I thought
this must have been the most incredible conversation that
ever took place. God Almighty, now risen from the dead in a
glorified body, expounding unto them in all the scriptures the
things concerning himself. I was talking to someone a few
years ago, and somehow his conversations turned a different subject Somehow
or another, we got on the subject of time travel. Where would you
go if you had a time machine? This right here is where I would
go. To hear from the very mouth of
God himself all the things in the Old Testament scriptures
concerning him. Of course, I'd have to learn
Hebrew. That would be the easy part. Getting a hold of that time machine
obviously would be the hard part. But anyway, at the end of this
journey, they asked the Lord, who they still did not recognize,
to stay and eat with them, which he did. And then in verse 30,
we read this, and it came to pass, as he said it, meet with
him, he took bread and blessed it, and break it, and gave to
them. And their eyes were opened, and
they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight. Poof. Gone. Now it would seem to me that
if I witnessed such a thing, that would be the first thing
I'd be talking about. This guy was standing before
us, and instantly he's gone. Not so with these two men. Rather,
they talked about all the things that our Lord had told them as
they walked together in the way. Verse 32, And they said to one
another, Now, wasn't that amazing how this guy disappeared? No,
they said to one another, did not our heart burn within us
while he yet talked with us by the way, and while he opened
to us the scriptures, the fact that he disappeared right before
their eyes seemed to pale in comparison to the things that
they had heard on that road. So immediately they arose and
walked another seven and a half miles back to Jerusalem and told
the other disciples what had happened. But they had not quite
concluded that story when, in verse 36, we read that Jesus
himself stood in the midst and saith unto them, Peace be with
you. As quickly as he had disappeared
before Peter and Cleophas, he reappeared before the disciples.
And now the expected reaction took place. It says that they
were terrified and affrighted. thinking they had seen a spirit.
And I can understand that. But of all the miracles and the
wonders that these men had witnessed as they walked with the Lord
for three and a half years, the healings, the curing of leprosy,
the raising from the dead, they had never seen anything that
could compare with this. Seemingly out of thin air, our
Lord is standing in their midst, But our compassionate Lord, he
calms him and says, why are you troubled? Why do thoughts arise
in your heart? 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. Behold the hands
and feet that you saw three days ago being pierced with cruel
nails. And I've taken the title for
this message from this text. These six words, behold my hands
and my feet. And I thought on these six words
for a long time. Behold my hands and my feet.
And we know from the accounts in the four Gospels of the abuse
and the resulting injuries that our Lord was made to endure,
how He was mocked and beaten by battle-hardened Roman soldiers.
Now you have to understand that these men had seen more gore and blood
than you can imagine. They had seen heads lopped off,
intestines cut out, arms cut off. And that was back in the
days when you used to have to look a man in the eye to kill
him. You couldn't sit at a council in Virginia flying a drone and
launch a hellfire to kill somebody on the other side of the world. You had to look men in the eye
as you slaughtered him. So we have to understand that
these men had seen so much gore in battle that the suffering
of this Jew that they were beating on did not move them whatsoever. There was not the slightest measure
of compassion. They actually enjoyed it. They
were making sport of this man and the pain that they were inflicting
upon him. We're told that they blindfolded him and struck him
in the face and said, prophesy, who is it that struck thee? They
put a robe on him, a purple robe, and mocked him and said, hail,
king of the Jews. And of course, a king needs a
crown. So later they fashioned a crown
of thorns and placed it on his head. And as I thought on that,
I thought that had to be excruciatingly painful. I don't know how many
of you have ever been in the woods and been stuck with a good-sized
thorn, but it's painful. and it hurt for several days.
I can't begin to imagine the pain that was caused as they
rammed this crown down on his head and later beat it with a
rod, beat it into the surface of his skull. But what about the other wounds
that were inflicted on our Lord, the scourging, the turning of
his back into a mass of mutilated flesh?
The ripping out as they grabbed his beard and tore it from his
face. The ripping out of entire chunks
of flesh from his face. The repeated beating of his face
until it was just simply a mass of mutilated flesh. Isaiah 52
14 tells us that his visage was marred more than any man to the
point that he was unrecognizable as a human being. So I spent a long time contemplating why the only scars that remained
to be seen on our risen Lord were those in his hands and his
feet and his side. How was it, or more importantly,
why was it that the scars from only these five wounds which
were actually much less severe than any of his other wounds.
How is it that the scars from these five wounds were the only
ones that remain to be seen on our risen Lord? And from all
indications of what we read of the appearance of the appearance
of our resurrected Lord, his face was completely healed, completely
recognizable as who he was. The chunks of flesh that had
been torn from his face, the way it had been beaten, were
completely healed. His back, which was torn to shreds,
showed no sign of injury. So why was it that the only scars
that remained to be seen were from the smallest wounds that
he endured that day? And I asked the Lord to give
me some insight into this, and I believe he did. Of all the wounds that were inflicted
by man as a precursor to crucifixion, the beating and the scourging, we're the only ones that were
completely healed on our risen Christ. These wounds had all happened
before He was nailed to that cross. Those wounds that were
inflicted as a result of the wrath of man, and like every
other works of man, God the Father completely nullified, as he does
every other thing that men do. But our Savior had not yet begun
to endure the wrath of the Father, not until his promise that is
found in John 12, 32, came to pass, and I, if I be lifted up
from the earth, shall draw all men unto me, did the pouring
out of the Father's wrath begin. when our precious Lord suffered
in the space of three hours the wrath of God, which was the equivalent
of an eternity in hell for his people in three hours. Now, many
men before and after the death of our Lord died of crucifixion.
It was a common punishment that the Romans carried out. But none of those men ever endured
the punishment of being made to suffer the unmitigated wrath
of God while they were still alive on this earth. Only after
men died do they suffer the wrath of God. But this man is the only
man who ever lived who experienced the suffering of the damned in
hell while he was still alive human being on this earth. This was the only time in all
of human history that this occurred. Now, these wounds in his hands
and his feet were the wounds that he received on the cross.
As was the wounds from the spear in his side. These wounds happened
as he was being made to be a bloody sacrifice for his people. When
he offered himself up to be a sacrifice to atone for the sins of those
people, this moment was a fulfillment of what Abraham told Isaac My
son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering,
provide a lamb for himself, and provide himself to be that very
lamb, making himself a curse for us that we might be freed
from the curse of the law, being hung by his hands and feet upon
a tree. The scripture tell us, cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. The Old Testament scripture that
Paul quotes there in Romans is found in Deuteronomy 21, verses
22 and 23. It reads thus, it says, if a
man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death,
and thou hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all
night upon the tree, but thou shall in any wise bury him that
day. For he that hangeth on a tree
is accursed of God. That thy land be not defiled,
which the Lord thy God had given thee for an inheritance. Now
this is why the Jews went to Pilate and begged for the body
to be taken down before nightfall. They wanted to make sure that
even though they had just had a hand in murdering this man,
that they kept the commandments in God's law. But when our Lord
was hung from that Roman tree, he was not hung By his neck,
he was hung by his feet and his hands. We've all heard a description
of how our Lord was nailed to the cross as it lay on the ground
and it was raised and dropped into a hole. But I did much research
on this thing of crucifixion. A lot of research. If you ever
want to look into some gut-wrenching subject, I would encourage you
to look into the history of crucifixion. It's not something pleasant to
read. But I found in researching that
many times the victim was nailed only to the horizontal member
of the cross while they lay on the ground. And that member was
then raised with the victim attached up onto a post that was already
planted in the ground. And this method caused even more
pain as that victim was dragged up that post with his back already
shredded from scourging. Now this horizontal member to
which the victim was attached was referred to as the cross
or the cross member. And that method better explains
why the post already in the ground was called a tree. Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now, in Revelation 5, 6, John
sees a lamb as it had been slain 17 times in the book of Revelation. Our Lord is referred to as a
lamb, capital L, as a lamb. It is used to describe the glorified
Christ. And this is how we will view
Jesus Christ, our Savior, throughout eternity, as that lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. We will look upon him and see
those scars in his hand and his feet. We will then see by sight,
not by faith. We'll be like Thomas after he
saw the resurrected Lord. Now, we all know the story of
Thomas found in the 20th chapter of the Gospel of John, how that
he was not present the first time that the Lord presented
himself to his disciples. And Thomas said in verse 25 of
that chapter, except I see in his hands the print of the nails
and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand
into his side, I will not believe. So eight days later, we find
Thomas gathered with the other disciples as the Lord once again
appears unto them. And the Lord said to Thomas,
reach hither thy finger and behold my hands. and reach hither thy
hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. Thrust it into my side, the Lord
said. The Lord used the exact words
that Thomas had used eight days earlier when he said that he
would not believe it until he thrust his hand into his side.
I've always heard the term to describe Thomas is doubting Thomas.
We've heard that our entire life. But a better term would be faithless
Thomas. Our Lord didn't say to him, be
not doubting. He said, be not faithless, faithless
Thomas. A lot like us much of the time,
unfortunately. The Lord said, behold, my hands,
those hands that gave life to the dead, sight to the blind,
hearing to the deaf, curing to lepers, and even raise the dead. Those hands that washed the feet
of his disciples and gave us an example on how to serve one
another. Those hands that were never used to strike a blow in
self-defense of our Savior. Those hands that were told, hold
us firmly and safely so that it is impossible for us to be
lost. Our Lord told us in John 10,
28, and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. Those hands that created all
things in heaven and in earth. Isaiah 66, 1. Thus saith the
Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
Where is the house that you shall build unto me? And where is the
place of my rest? For all of these things hath
my hand made. John chapter 1 tells us the same
thing. All things were made by him,
by his hand. And without him was not anything
made that was made, made by those hands, those same hands that
would later be pierced at Calvary. The Lord said, behold my feet,
those feet that in three and a half years walked thousands
of miles to seek out his lost sheep. Those feet that wore the
sandals that John the Baptist said he was not worthy to loosen. Those feet that were washed with
the tears of that woman who came to him in Simon the Pharisee's
house, washed his feet with her tears and dried them with the
hairs of her head. Those feet which the women held
to and worshiped when they met the resurrected Christ in Matthew
28, while they were on their way to tell the disciples of
his arising from the dead. Those feet that Isaiah 63 verse
3 tells us have trodden the winepress of
the wrath of God alone. Those feet that are spoken of
in Revelation 1, it says, and when I saw him, this is John
writing, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid
his right hand upon me and said unto me, fear not, for I am the
first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead,
and behold, I am alive forevermore, alive evermore in a glorified
body, but a glorified body which will ever carry those scars that
he received on that cross at Calvary. Throughout the ages to come,
as God's people stand and sing the praises of this lamb, as
we look upon him, We will look upon those wounds
in his hands and his feet to remind us that he is indeed that
lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That lamb slaughtered
for the sins of those very people who will forever be seeing his
praises. That spotless lamb that will forever carry these wounds
that he was given as he poured out his blood, gave his body
to be broken, and offer his very soul as a sacrifice for sin. And we will indeed forever. Throughout
eternity, obey our savior's command. Behold, my hands and my feet.