Luke chapter 24 beginning in
verse 33. And they rose up the same hour,
and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together,
and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed,
and hath appeared to 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 saith 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 you see me have. And when he had thus spoken,
he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet
believed not for joy and wondered, he said unto them, have you here
any meat? And they gave him a piece of
a broiled fish and of honeycomb, and he took it and did eat before
them. And he said unto them, These
are the words which I spake 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 opened he their understanding, that they might understand the
Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus
it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the
third day. and that repentance and remission
of sin should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning
at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these
things." May the Lord bless His Word to all of us today. If you
will now let us bow our heads as we go to the Lord in prayer. Today we are looking at our Lord's
first appearance to the apostles as a group. after his resurrection
from the dead. Last week we looked at his appearing
to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and I said last time
that neither one of those men were apostles. I also said last
week that that was his third appearance, but I should have
said that was his fourth appearance that we know of after his resurrection. because we are told that he appeared
first to Mary Magdalene and then he appeared to some women according
to Matthew's gospel. And now if you notice down in
verses 33 and 34, when these two disciples that he walked
with on the road to Emmaus, when they returned to Jerusalem, we
read, and they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem,
and found the eleven, that is the apostles, gathered together
and them that were with them saying, and it is the apostles
now who say this, the Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared
to Simon. So to Mary first and then to
the women as Matthew records his appearance to them. And we
know that was different from his appearance to Mary. And then
he appeared to Simon. Then he appeared to the two disciples
on the road to Emmaus. And this would be his fifth appearance,
at least his fifth appearance after his resurrection. Now the
term eleven means apostles, the apostles. And we know that at
this first appearance that Thomas was not with them. Now, we're
not told why. We're not told why Thomas was
not with the other apostles this evening. But one thing for sure,
Thomas missed the blessing. And not only that, but he earned
that name down through the years as Doubting Thomas. He missed
the blessing. And those who do not attend regularly
and faithfully in the services of God. When God's people gather
and worship the Lord, you miss the blessing. You miss the blessing. Because God has promised the
Lord Jesus Christ, He's promised to be in our midst when we come
together in His name. And we come to worship Him, to
sing these hymns of praise, to seek His face, and to hear His
Word. If you're not here, when you
could be here, I know there are many who cannot come to all the
services, but when you could be here and you're not here,
you miss the blessing. You miss the blessing. Now, I
have three points to the message this morning. First point, the
Lord Jesus Christ both rose and was raised from the grave. Let me say that again. The Lord
Jesus Christ both rose and was raised from the dead. Now I want
to say this to us today to remind us of who He is, that is, His
person. The Lord Jesus Christ, that He
is both God and man. He is God manifest in the flesh. And as the God-man, He rose from
the dead. In the Gospel of John chapter
2, he told the people at that time, destroy this temple. And he was speaking of his body.
And this body is a temple. It's really more compared to
a tent, a tabernacle. Why? Because this body can so
easily be taken down like a tent. A tabernacle, we think of that
maybe as something a little bit firmer, something a little bit
better built. But he said, you destroy this
temple, speaking of his body, and in three days I will raise
it up. Notice that, I will raise it
up. So I say it is correct to say
that the Lord Jesus Christ, first of all, rose from the grave. In John chapter 10, he said,
no man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again."
As the God-man, he had received that commandment from the Father
to lay down his life and to take his life. So he rose from the
dead, but also he was raised from the dead. And this reminds
us, saying it like this, this reminds us of the Trinity. that God is a triune being. There's one God, we recognize
that, one God, but he exists in a trinity of persons. And all of these words I recognize
are words that are part of our human language. And God so far
exceeds us. As he said, with whom can you
compare me? There's no one that we may compare
God with. And I made a statement recently
in a message about the Trinity and how every illustration that
we've tried to use, every illustration that I've read over the years
breaks down. And Brother Reese, he came to
me later and he said, I found one for you. I said, what is
that? And he told me about a particular
kind of algebra. And he said, A plus A plus A
equals A. Well, that's right, isn't it?
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, one
God, one God. He raised Himself. He rose from
the grave, but He was raised And you see that in a couple
of places, but let's look at one of them in Acts chapter 10.
In Acts chapter 10, the words of Peter here as he
is speaking in the house of Cornelius. In Acts chapter 10 and beginning
in verse 39, Peter said, We are witnesses of all things
which He, the Lord Jesus, which He did both in the land of the
Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him God raised up the third day."
God raised up. God raised up. So He both rose
from the dead, rose from the grave, and was raised from the
dead. raised up the third day, and
showed Him openly, not to all the people, but unto witnesses
chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink with
Him after He rose from the dead." Now, God the Father raised Him. And in Acts chapter 2, we won't
turn here, but The Apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost is quoting
from Psalm 16. And he said it was not possible
that death could hold him. It was not possible. Why? Because God raised him from
the grave. And then God the Holy Spirit.
God the Holy Spirit. He also is spoken of as raising
the Lord Jesus Christ. We find this in Romans 1. You
don't need to turn here, but you can if you'd like. Romans
1 and verse 4, Paul said, He was declared to be the Son of
God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, that is the
Holy Spirit, according to the Holy Spirit by the resurrection
from the dead. So, the Lord Jesus Christ, He
both rose and was raised from the grave. We serve a living
Savior. We have a living Lord to worship. There's no shrine, at least there
shouldn't be any shrine, there certainly isn't any tomb that
contains the ashes or the dust of the Lord Jesus Christ here
where men may go and As they say, pay their respects.
There's no place like that here upon this earth, is there? Why? Because He rose from the dead. Because He was raised by God
Almighty on that third day. Now, back here in our passage
in Luke, here's my second point. The Lord Jesus Christ gave infallible
proofs to His witnesses. In this passage here in Luke,
he told these apostles, now they were not alone, there were others
with them at this time, but he told them that in verse 48, you
are witnesses of these things. And I say the Lord Jesus Christ
gave infallible proofs to these witnesses. And I borrowed those
words from Luke in Acts chapter 1 when he said, to whom also
he showed himself alive after his passion, that is after his
death, by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days. So from the time of his resurrection
until his ascension on the fortieth day, he showed himself alive
by many infallible proofs. He showed that He was raised
from the dead. And let's look at what is recorded
here. Now what I have been impressed
with in preparing last week's message and again this week's
message is how we see God overruling even the unbelief of these disciples. And they were all unbelieving
at first. On the day of our Lord's resurrection
there was not one of these eleven apostles nor any of the disciples
who believed that he was alive. They were convinced that he was
dead. They had seen him crucified.
Some of them had seen his body laid in the sepulchre. And they
were convinced that he was dead. And that unbelief Here's the
thing that impresses me. That unbelief of these apostles
and disciples of the Lord, how God overruled their unbelief
so that they would be sure witnesses of His resurrection. They had
to be convinced. They had to see proof that, yes,
He is alive. They knew He had died. There
was no question about that. and they now must be convinced
that He was alive. And so, just as our Lord overruled
His crucifixion, those men who crucified the Lord, and the apostles said they did
it with wicked hands, but also they did what God's hand and
what God's counsel had determined before to be done. You see what I'm saying, how
that God overruled sin, first of all, the sin of those men
in crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ, so that they did what
they wanted to do, but in doing what they wanted to do, they
did exactly what God had determined before the foundation of the
world should be done. And the same thing is true concerning
the unbelief, and yes, unbelief is sin. These apostles, these
disciples, they didn't believe that He was alive even though
He had told them many times that He would die and rise again the
third day. Now I said last week when our
Lord spoke to those two disciples on the road to Emmaus and He
said, Oh fools and slow of heart to believe all things. I said
that unbelief is foolishness but I want to to come back this
morning and say unbelief is not only foolishness, but it is sin. It is sin. It's foolish not to
believe God. He's trustworthy. He's faithful. He cannot lie. It'd be foolish
not to believe Him, but it's also sinful not to believe Him.
And if you're here this morning and you have never believed in
the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, to continue
in unbelief is to continue in sin. Sin against Almighty God. Wicked sin not to believe God,
not to believe the witness concerning His Son. The apostles and disciples at
first, they did not believe. And so they had to be convinced
of His resurrection with the strongest of evidences. Now let's
look at these evidences. Again in verse 48, He told them
that they were witnesses of these things. And we'll look at in
this passage of some of these infallible proofs. When He appeared
in their midst, they supposed that they had seen a spirit.
Notice that in verse 37, when the Lord Jesus Christ appeared
in their midst, they were terrified and affrighted and supposed that
they had seen a spirit. They believed, now think about
this, they believe what we know is true. They believe what we
know the Bible teaches and that is this, that the spirit may
exist without a body. We know that's so. We know that's
true. And they knew that was true.
They thought they were seeing a spirit, but they did not believe
they were seeing Him in a body. And that just convinces us and
reminds us again that the body and spirit are two separate entities. And when the body dies, the spirit
does not cease to exist, does not die. When a man dies, no
matter if he is a child of God or he is not a child of God,
he does not cease to exist. His body goes to the grave, his
body turns back to dust. Yes, but he, the man, the real
man, the person, the soul, the spirit, if he is a believer,
if he is a child of God, goes to be with the Lord. Immediately
goes to be with the Lord. The Lord's impressed upon my
heart recently the words of our Savior to that thief who was
saved on the cross. At the same time when our Savior
was being crucified, when the Lord said to him, today, today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. It's not going to be a hundred
years from now or a thousand years from now that you will
be with me. No, today thou shalt be with
me in paradise. And when one of God's children
leaves this world, the same thing is true of you, and the same
thing will be true of me today." And that is going to be a blessed
day, isn't it? That's going to be a day of rejoicing,
my friends. Today thou shalt be with me in
paradise. And to be with Him is heaven,
to be with Christ. The body dies and returns to
the earth. Paul tells us that the body is
sown a natural body, but for believers it will be raised a
spiritual body. And he says in that same passage
there in I Corinthians, there is a natural body and there is
a spiritual body. Now our Lord gives them proof
that He is appearing unto them in a resurrected body. This body
that Paul refers to in Philippians as a glorious body, a body of
glory. That's what he meant when he
said there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body.
Our Lord appears to them in a spiritual body. Now, in verse 38, when
the Lord said, Why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Notice
that in verse 38. He said unto them, Why are you
troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your heart?" That word
that is translated there, thoughts, is the same word for doubts.
And it wasn't only Thomas that was doubting, my friends. He
was just the one who was not there. And later, when they told
him that they had seen the Lord, he continued in his unbelief.
But they were all filled with doubts. When they saw the Lord,
they were doubting, not that they saw Him, but that they saw
Him in a body. They thought they were looking
at a spirit. And so our Lord now is going
to give them infallible proofs that, no, He is with them in
body. Let me point out several things.
First of all, they hear Him. That's the first thing we see
in verse 36. That's one of the senses, isn't it? Hearing. And
they heard Him. He said unto them, Peace be unto
you. Now I believe that they recognized
His voice. Just like Mary Magdalene. When our Lord spoke her name,
she knew who He was. When she heard Him speak Her
name she knew. He wasn't the gardener. He was
her Savior. She recognized Him. And I believe
these disciples, when they heard Him and they heard those words,
Peace be unto you, those were almost His last words before
He went to the crucifixion. In John chapter 16, the end of
that chapter, He said, These things I have spoken unto you
that in Me you might have peace. Now when the Lord Jesus Christ
speaks peace, I know that was a common greeting. Shalom. I
think it still is among the Jewish people. Shalom. But when the
Lord Jesus Christ, when He speaks peace, we're talking more than
just wishing people good health and things like that. When He
said, Peace be unto you, let's remember that just before this,
three days before this on the cross, He had made peace. He had made peace through the
blood of His cross for these apostles and for all of His people. There's no way that anyone may
have peace with God apart from Jesus Christ our Lord. The Scripture
says there is no peace to the wicked. The wicked is like the
troubled sea. It's always casting up dirt and
mire. But He speaks peace, and He has
that right to speak peace unto us because He has offered Himself
as that one sacrifice for sins forever. He has satisfied God. for His people. He has satisfied
the justice of God. So that Paul said, therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God. By faith
we have peace with God. Peace is a wonderful thing, isn't
it? It's a wonderful thing. We were singing that hymn just
a little while ago about crowning him with many crowns. And one
of those stanzas said something about war, wars ceasing. And won't it be wonderful when
wars are truly brought to an end? I mean, we live in a world
of wars and nations against nations and individuals against individuals
and families sometimes. It's a wonderful thing to have
peace. I'm thankful today that, as far as I know, I have peace
with everyone I know. But more than that, I'm thankful
to know that I have peace with God. And I have that peace because
of Christ. He made that peace for me. And
He said, peace be unto you. They heard Him. That's the first
evidence of His being alive and in the body. They heard Him.
He spoke to them. And the second thing, they saw
Him. He showed them, the Scripture
says in verse 40, He showed them His hands and His feet. Now John,
in his account of this, he mentions also His side. And John tells
us that He invited them to behold His side. This shows them that
it is He in a resurrected body. A spiritual body, yes. A glorious
body, yes. But the same body. The same body
because they could see the marks. They could see the scars in His
hands, in His feet, and in His side. So they recognized that
it is Him, that it is He rather, He's alive in the same body that
was crucified. A glorified body, yes. A spiritual
body, yes. But it's not a body that was
created, it's the same body that is resurrected. We believe in a resurrection,
do we not? The same body, the same dust,
the same DNA, whatever it is, no matter where it may have gone
to, someday is going to be raised. They recognized Him. We're going
to recognize, we're going to know one another in heaven, are
we not? We're going to know Him and we're
going to know each other. It's a wonderful thought. I hope
sometimes you just meditate on this fact, but what a blessing
it's going to be, my friends, when we're together again in
heaven. Some of our Our friends and loved
ones and believers, they've gone on ahead of us, haven't they?
But we'll be together one day. And together with Him and together
there to worship the Lord. They see Him. The third infallible proof is
they touch Him. At least, He said, handle me.
Notice that in verse 39. Behold, my hands and my feet
that it is I myself handle me and see, touch me and see, for
a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have." That word
handle, that's the same word, you know, the first epistle of
John, most people say, well it was written to show that he really
did have a physical body because The Gnostics, they were teaching,
he only appeared to have a physical body. The Greeks, they believed
that all matter was evil. Remember? They believed that
all matter is evil, so if he's God, he can't have a physical,
a material body. And John, in that first letter,
he shows, yes, we saw him and we touched him. We handled him. Uses the same word. We handled
him. And our witness is true. They
were able to witness, first of all, that he had a body, a physical
body. He did not come as a spirit being,
but as a spirit man he came into this world. And now, he says,
touch me and handle me after he has died, so that they could
witness, not only that when they first met him, He had a physical
body, a material body. But now, after His resurrection,
He has a body. Different, of course. You notice
He doesn't mention blood, flesh and bones. He doesn't mention
blood, does He? And I would be the first to admit
there's much about His body and how He was able to appear and
disappear. I can't explain because the Scriptures
do not reveal. But it was Him, and it was a
real body. A spirit body, yes. A spiritual
body, I should say. Yes. Now at this point, they
were still not convinced. They heard Him, they saw Him,
and they were invited to touch Him, to handle Him. But they
still were not convinced. Now I think of it like this.
They wanted to believe it. They wanted to believe it with
all their hearts that He was alive. And they had such joy, the Scripture
says, they had such joy in seeing Him alive that I suppose they
were afraid that their eyes were playing tricks on them. They
wanted something so bad to be true They wanted this to be true
so bad, but yet they were afraid that maybe their eyes were playing
tricks on them. And so for the last thing, he
said, Do you have any meat? Now the word meat, of course,
we use that word thinking of flesh, but it means food. Do you have any food? And they said, Well, we've got
some broiled fish here. honeycomb, and they gave it to
him, and he ate it." What more proof could they want, my friends?
They heard him, they saw him, they touched him, and they witnessed
him eating. Now, the body that we're going
to have, the body that he had, does not need food to sustain
it. This body, this natural body, this weak body,
We must have food, right? You go without food so long and
that'll be the end of you. But that's not true of this spiritual
body. He was able to eat, but it was
not necessary that he eat. He eats as a proof so that they
might witness of his resurrection. Now Luke does not tell us this,
but John does when he said, then were the disciples glad. when
they saw the Lord. Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord." That's when we're glad, isn't it? When
we see the Lord. When we see the Lord as the sacrifice
that God requires. When we see the Lord, that He
is that acceptable sacrifice. That God is well pleased with
His work that He did for us what we can't do for ourselves. If
men could only learn that. And all of God's children learn
this. But He does for us what we cannot
do for ourselves. That rich young ruler came running
to the Lord and he said, Good Master, what good works must
I do to inherit eternal life? What did our Lord say? Why callest
thou me good? There's none good but one, that
is God. God is good. This man didn't
recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as God. He approached Him as
a teacher, as a rabbi. What must I do to inherit eternal
life? And so he is confronted, first
of all, that God is good. And for you and I, because we're
just the opposite. We're just the opposite. The antithesis of God. He's good. And we, by nature,
are evil. And for us to come into His presence,
for us to be accepted by Him, We need someone as a mediator
between us to do that work of reconciliation that we cannot
do for ourselves. And Jesus Christ is that one.
Amen. He is that one, that one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He was able to
satisfy God because He is God. And He was able to suffer and
die because He is man. the God-man. Here's the third
thing. The Lord Jesus Christ opened
the understandings of these witnesses. Verse 45, Then opened He their
understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and
said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to
suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. He opened their
understandings so that they might understand that the message of
the Scripture is Christ. He began with the law, with Moses,
and with the prophets, and with the Psalms, the books of wisdom,
and He showed them how that all of the Scripture spoke of Him,
of Christ. He opened their understandings.
Sometimes we hear men and they use the Bible for a multitude
of things. You know, some of them will have
a diet. They get out of the Bible. And some of them will have a
financial program. They get out of the Bible. You
know, they use the Scriptures for everything except why the
Scriptures were written. And that is to reveal Christ. to point to Christ. He opened
their understandings, and He's the only one who's able. He opened
the Scriptures last week to those two men on the road to Emmaus. Now we see He opens their understanding,
and He's the only one who is able. But the Scriptures that
He opened unto them testified, all of them testified of Christ,
of His sufferings first of all, and how He would enter into glory. How He would enter into glory.
How He would be victorious. And He did rise from the grave
victorious. And He said, because I live,
you shall live also. The wonderful thing to me about
the resurrection, studying and bringing the message on the resurrection
is realizing that he did this for us. He did this for us. And this body that we live in,
it's a tent, it's a tabernacle, it's soon going to be taken down. And it can easily be taken down. But oh, what a privilege to know
if this body is taken down, we have a temple made of God eternal
in the heavens. The Lord Jesus Christ in our
flesh, in the likeness of sinful flesh, He came. And He, yes,
died that He might satisfy God, but He rose victorious. He conquered. He conquered death. He conquered
the grave. He conquered sin. He conquered
hell. And He did it all for His people,
all for you, all for me. those of us who trust in Him
as Lord and Savior.