We generally assume that what
a person has been, he is and will be. With men, that is sometimes
not the case. Men do change, and they are changed. But with regard to the Lord Jesus
Christ, that is never an assumption. He is never changed, and he never
changes. what He has been, He is now,
and He forever shall be. Our Lord Jesus Christ, we are
told, is the same yesterday and today and forever. He declares, I am the Lord, I
change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob,
are not consumed. It is He alone of whom it can
be said, He is, and was and is to come. Turn with me to Luke
24. We're going to look at the last
section of this blessed chapter tonight. And I want to talk to
you about our risen Savior and the blessings that are ours with
Him and by Him. The title of my message is Risen
but Still the Same. Remind you again of the context.
The two disciples who had walked with our Lord Jesus along the
Emmaus road after the Savior made himself known to them were
so utterly overwhelmed with joy that they seemed to have forgotten
what business they had that took them to Emmaus to start with.
They had made a long, long walk, at least seven or eight hours,
to this village of Emmaus for some reason. But when the Lord
Jesus made Himself known to them, that same hour, they turned around
and went back to Jerusalem. They were utterly overwhelmed. They had something they had to
tell their brethren. Look at verse 33. They arose
up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven
gathered together, and them that were with them. Verse 35. And
they told what things were done in the way. and how the Lord
Jesus was known of them in the breaking of bread. Then in verse
36 we read, And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in
the midst of them. The disciples were gathered together,
probably in that same large upper room which our Lord had secured
in which he established the Lord's Supper with them, in which he
ate the blessed feast we're about to eat tonight, celebrating his
accomplishments as our Redeemer. How troubled and perplexed they
were. Then, as they thus spake, Jesus
himself stood in the midst of them. How I pray he will repeat
that deed of his goodness tonight. He stood in the midst of them,
obviously because our Savior delights to meet with His saints
when they gather in His name. He delights to reveal Himself
to us when we most need Him. Luke, you will recall, also wrote
another book in the Scriptures. He wrote the book of Acts. In
verses 36 through 53, he gives us here a brief summary of those
40 days which he described in Acts chapter 1. A brief summary
of all that transpired in those 40 days between our Savior's
resurrection and his ascension. Now we're going to look at these
last several verses of Luke in three sections. In verses 36
through 43, we see that our Savior comes to his assembled disciples
and speaks peace, declaring that he is the same in his person
and in his grace. In verses 44 through 48, the
Lord Jesus gives a summary of everything he had taught while
he walked with his disciples upon the earth, showing us that
he is the same, though risen from the dead, the same as he
always has been in his doctrine, in that which he teaches. And
then in verses 49-53, the Lord Jesus ascends to glory. Luke gives us here a picture
of His climactic, glorious end, showing us that our Savior is
the same in His glory as He has always been. Alright, let's look
at the first appearance then of our Lord Jesus in verses 36-43. his first appearance after the
resurrection, but his first appearance to his assembled church. His
first appearance to the assembled disciples took place as is described
here. Our Lord Jesus himself stood
in the midst of them, uninvited, unexpected, certainly undeserved,
but oh, how welcome he was. Jesus stood in the center of
them all, so that he might be near to them all. He appeared
in the midst of them to bestow peace upon them all. Verse 36,
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 defrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
And he said unto them, Why are you so troubled? And why do thoughts
arise in your hearts? Behold my hands. Now that's not just a command. That's a declaration. It should
be literally read this way. You shall behold my hands and
my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me. and see." Again, this
is a statement made in the imperative. The Lord Jesus is saying, you
shall behold and you shall see. Behold and you shall see. And when He had thus spoken,
He showed them His hands and His feet. And while they yet
believed not, now notice the words, for joy. For joy. It's one thing to believe not
for fear, to believe not because of ignorance, but to believe
not for joy of something else. The blessed revelation of Christ
in the experience of His grace is such that our hearts are so
overjoyed with that which He bestows upon us and does for
us, so overjoyed with His grace, His goodness and His glory, that
it's almost impossible to believe the things we see. They believed
not for joy, and wondered. He said unto them, Have ye here
any meat? And they gave him a piece of
broiled fish, and of an honeycomb, and he took it, and did eat before
them. The Savior had now finished his
blessed work of redemption. He had already entered in once
into the holy place, with his own blood, having obtained eternal
redemption for them. And now he appears in the midst
of them in exactly the same character as they had seen him for the
past three and a half years every day, in exactly the same nature
in which he had walked with them upon the earth. He appears to
them to bestow exactly the same blessing he had bestowed upon
them before. Nothing had changed. Nothing
had changed. Now that's important. I'm going
to remind you in a minute who these men are to whom He appears.
The Lord Jesus appeared and said, Peace be unto you. In John 14,
you remember He said, My peace I give unto you. The very same
peace He had bestowed upon them just before He was crucified.
Now this is particularly blessing when you remember who these men
were to whom these words were spoken. Our Savior spoke these
words, peace unto you, to those very same disciples who three
days before shamefully forsook it and fled. They had promised
They had promised they would never leave him. They had promised
that they would go to Jerusalem and die with him. But they had
broken their promise. They forgot their professed allegiance
to him and readiness to die for him and to die with him. They
had been scattered, every man to his own, the scripture says,
and left him to die alone. One of them had even denied him
three times. They were all, as Jeremiah describes,
backsliding children. But the Lord Jesus had promised
long before their backsliding took place, I will heal their
backsliding. I will love them freely. Therefore,
Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them,
Peace be unto you. I find this remarkable. Not a
word of reproof is spoken. No sharp rebuke is given. Calmly,
quietly, He appears in the midst of these poor, sinful, unbelieving,
redeemed believers. And He said, Peace unto you. Now, I have to draw some conclusions
from that. How free is His grace? How infinite is His love? How great is His mercy. He is more willing to forgive
our sins than we are to seek forgiveness. He is more willing
to pardon than we are to be pardoned. He is ever gracious. It is written
of Him, He delighteth. He ever delighteth in mercy. He constantly delights to be
gracious to His own. He has blotted out our transgressions. He's cast them behind His back. He's buried them in the depths
of the sea. And He remembers them no more. That's His character. Always
has been, is now, and always will be. I am the Lord. I change
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Though like these poor disciples,
We are constantly stumbling and constantly falling, constantly
backsliding children. His forgiveness is free, full,
undeserved, constant forgiveness. The peace and forgiveness He
speaks to our hearts is the same peace He spoke to these disciples. It is peace obtained by His blood
flowing from our crucified risen Savior The peace of complete
redemption, perfect atonement, and absolute forgiveness. I can't
avoid reminding you again, when our Lord Jesus spoke to Peter,
and he told him in John 13, before the sun rises tomorrow, before
the cock crows the second time, you're going to deny me three
times. His next word is, Let not your heart be troubled. You
believe in God, believe also in me. Peace unto you. Christ is He who declares, I
have blotted out my sins. Fury is not in me. He is the
Savior who gives peace to needy sinners. In His pierced hands
there is mercy and enough to spare for our souls. There's
forgiveness with Him. that he may be feared. Yet, how
slow we are to believe. How slow we are to believe. Though he spoke peace, these
poor disciples were still incapable of believing. We read in verse
37, they were terrified and afraid. Then the Lord Jesus did something.
He did something by which he would assure them that the peace
he spoke was real. He did something by which he
would assure them that he had indeed died and risen again. He was not a ghost. He was not
a spirit. They were not hallucinating.
He had died and rose again, and he's standing in their midst
in the body of flesh just exactly like I'm standing here in front
of you in this body of flesh. He said, you're going to see
my hands and my feet. You're going to behold them and
you shall see that it is I. And then he stretched out his
hands, showed them his feet, and they
just overwhelmed. Just overwhelmed. He said, by
the way, have you got any food? And they gave him some fish and
honeycomb, and he ate it. And he said, ghosts don't do
this. And by these things, gently,
sweetly, graciously assures them that he has done all that he
said he came here to do. It's one thing to hear him say,
peace unto you. It is something else to behold
his hands and his feet and to feast with him. He doesn't just
say, have peace. He causes his own to have peace. He doesn't just say, now, I want
you to enjoy my peace. He causes his own to enjoy his
peace in the sweet experience of grace. Turn to 1 John 1. Let me show you this. We can talk about believing.
We can talk about it, and we can recite creeds and confessions,
and we can learn Sunday school lessons and Bible stories, and
we can talk about being Christians and all that stuff. I'll tell
you when you will believe His grace. When you handle Him yourself. When you personally, personally
experience His grace. This is exactly what John tells
us here in 1 John 1. That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the Word of Life. Is that talking about the Bible?
No. No. No. We do that naturally. You pick it up and read it. If
you've learned how to read when you're in grammar school, you
pick it up and read it. You can leave it on your coffee table
and pick it up and dust it once in a while. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about him to whom John constantly refers
to as the Word. Christ, who is the living Word,
the Word of life to our souls. For the life was manifesting.
And we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that
eternal life. It's not a theory, it's a person.
That eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested
unto us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you. This is not a second-hand testimony.
We declare it to you that you also may have fellowship with
us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son, Jesus Christ. Those very same wounds with which
our Savior gave peace to these disciples, convincing them of
His accomplished redemption, of His triumph over death in
His resurrection, are the wounds that He perpetually and everlastingly
spreads before our Father in heaven as our great High Priest
and our Advocate. He appears in glory, constantly
making intercession for us according to the will of God. His blood
speaks to God for us. He stands forever, as John saw
it, as the Lamb which had been slain. He is our great High Priest
and our Mercy Seat. He has our names engraved upon
His breastplate, upon His heart, and He stands before God, interceding
for us. You remember in the Song of Solomon?
How the saints of God of old earnestly desired that He would
set me as a seal upon His heart, as a seal upon His right arm.
Because His love is stronger than death, it has come to pass.
He has set us as a seal upon His heart, as a seal upon the
arm of His strength. His love is stronger than death. What a blessed encouragement
this is to my soul. in times of spiritual barrenness,
leanness of soul. He stands and stretches forth
His hands before the Father. When I cannot plead my own cause,
He takes my cause in His hands and pleads in my stead before
my Father. If any man sin, we have an advocate. with the Father. Nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. Now, workmongers
will say, that opens the floodgates to sin. Well, let them say it. Let them say it. Jude tells us
such men turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness. That
is to say, they declare that the preaching of absolute free
grace, absolute free grace, causes men to live licentiously. Oh,
no it doesn't. Oh, no it doesn't. If there's
anything on this earth that will melt this hard heart of stone,
it is the reality that our Savior, in all His grace, is never changed
by what changes me. Never. What a great example our
Savior gives us. He speaks to His disciples who
by their actions and deeds fully deserve to be scorned, reproved,
sharply rebuked, but He speaks to them gently. He stoops to
their need to supply their need. Here they are, unbelieving. Here they are, unbelieving. He
stoops to their need, to supply their need. God teach me so to
deal with you. Let us ever deal with our brethren
as He deals with us, in gentleness, patience, and with grace. Verses
36-43 describe our Lord's first appearance to His assembled church
after His resurrection. And here we see the Lord Jesus
in the midst of His brethren, assembled with His saints, when
they had acted shamefully, fleeing from Him at His betrayal. When they had stood unbelieving,
unprepared for His presence, doubting His promise, refusing
the testimony of those witnesses who had seen and heard Him after
His resurrection. He appeared in their midst when
they had come together in His name, remembering Him, lamenting
His absence, and most desperately needed Him. I suspect maybe that's
when He will appear in our midst, when we desperately need Him. Now, there was one disciple who
wasn't there. We're told plainly in John 20,
24, Thomas wasn't there. I don't know why we're never
told. Perhaps he wasn't there in God's providence because we
needed for him not to be there. And we desperately needed for
him not to be there. Oh, he may have had something
he thought was more important. He may have had some family responsibilities
he needed to take care of. He may have just been in such
a low state of unbelief and coldness and indifference that he decided
he wouldn't gather with them. Whatever the case, he wasn't
there. But I was just almost, I just
almost bet my last dollar he never wasn't there again. When he finally saw the Master
with those disciples, when they were gathered together, when
he handled his hands, and he reluctantly, he said, I won't
believe until I put my hands in the holes, and I stick my
hand in his side. The Master said, okay, Thomas,
here, stick it right here. Children of God, don't ever,
ever, ever presume that you can do without the assembling of
His saints to worship Him. Here, His Word is preached. Here, He spreads His banqueting
table. Here, as Brother Lindsay pointed
out this morning, He is always with us. And sometimes he sweetly
makes us know it. And when he does, Darwin, I wouldn't
miss it for the world. I wouldn't miss it for the world.
God saved me when I was not quite 17 years old. And immediately
I understood something about the importance of this business.
And I want to tell you something. I've never absented myself from
the house of God since then. For anything or anybody, anytime. Never. And I don't plan on doing
so tomorrow. I don't plan on it. I'll come.
Once in a while, when we gather in this place, He speaks to me. And I hear His voice. And I see
Him. And that's enough to keep me
coming. Now, look at verse 44 through 48. Here, the Lord Jesus gives his
disciples a summary of his doctrine, summarizing everything he had
taught them while he walked with them in the flesh. His doctrine
hadn't changed. 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 sins should be preached in his name among
all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these
things. Now let me give this to you quickly.
First, the Lord Jesus showed these disciples the meaning of
the Old Testament scriptures. They, if you just read the language
of the four gospel narratives at a casual reading, you'll recognize
that they knew the Old Testament. These fellows were not ignorant
of what was written in the Old Testament. They knew its history. They knew its precepts. They
knew its law. They knew the ceremonies and
the sacrifices required in the Old Testament. They knew the
days appointed for worship in the Old Testament. They understood
that the Old Testament was divinely inspired. They understood that
it had been compiled and preserved for them by God's good providence. They understood those things.
They memorized the Old Testament, and they'd fight you over it.
That's true. But they didn't know its meaning
or its message. Like most religious folks in
our day. One day years ago, I was sitting
in my study, and I looked out the window and saw some birds. The wind was blowing hard, sitting
on the telephone line out there. And I had to be talking on the
telephone. And they were just hanging on. Just hanging on. And I thought to myself how aptly
that portrays preachers and religious folks all over the world who
stand on the book, the blood and the blessed hope, and they
cling to it just like those birds cling to that telephone line
and don't have a clue about the conversation going on. Don't
have a clue what this book's about. And so it is with all
men by nature. Our Lord Jesus opened their understanding,
and then they understood. The fact is, there is no understanding
of this book except by divine illumination in your heart. This is a book of revelation,
and the only way you can understand it is if the revelation is open
to you. The natural man understandeth
not the things of God. He can't. He has no apprehension,
no understanding whatever of the things of God. They're foolishness
to him. Neither can he know them. I don't
care how clever you are. I don't care how well you can
argue the points. He won't know them. Quit trying
to make it. Just quit. Bear witness of the
truth and leave it alone. Just leave it alone. Don't you
think you ought to argue with others? The only reason you argue
with them is because you're proud and you want to prove yourself
right. Oh, I want them to know the truth. Tell it. Just tell
it. That's enough. And if God's pleased
to open their understanding, He will. If He doesn't, you're
not going to make them understand. Just tell the truth. Keep telling
it. Keep telling it and wait for
God to work. And then our Lord Jesus spoke
to his disciples about his death. Now, what he says here in verse
46, he had told them repeatedly, I mean, not including the times
we don't have it recorded in scripture. If you read through
the gospel narratives over and over and over and over and over
and over again, he said, I'm going to Jerusalem. I'm going
to be betrayed, I'm going to be delivered by the scribes and
Pharisees, the chief priests, into the hands of Romans, and
they're going to torture me, and they're going to crucify
me, and I'm going to die, and the third day I'm going to rise
up again. And they didn't have a clue what
he was talking about. I mean, it's written in plain
language, but they didn't understand, until he opened their understanding.
And then when he opened their understanding, he said to them,
thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and
to rise from the dead the third day. Now listen to what I've
got to say. This is vital. The death of Christ
is not spoken of here as something to be lamented. It's not spoken
of as a sorrowful happening that just somehow took place beyond
God's control because the Jews wouldn't let him be their king.
But rather the death of Christ was exactly according to the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. It was done by the will
of God and by the decree of God. And it was done by the will of
God and the decree of God because it was absolutely necessary. to the saving of our souls. God
declares himself to be the just God and the Savior, but he could
not be the just God and the Savior except justice be satisfied.
He declares himself to be just and the justifier of the ungodly. But he cannot justly justify
the ungodly until the ungodly are made righteous by a sacrifice
of infinite worth. Until their sins have been put
away and righteousness fulfilled by them. Yes, by them. Not by their personal deeds,
but by the doing and dying of their substitute, the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is only by the blood of Christ
that the question by which men and women are perplexed all over
the world can be answered. How can a man be just with God? How can it be? How can it be?
One way. It behooved him to die in our
room and in our stead. Christ Jesus died for our sins
according to the scriptures, as portrayed by all the Old Testament
sacrifices. The sacrifices were made for
a specific people, weren't they? Always. Not one of the Old Testament
sacrifices was made for folks in general. It was made for a
specific people. The sacrifices were accepted
by God as they were lifted up to him. And the sacrifices were
the basis upon which the high priest pronounced God's blessing
upon his people. So it is with the death of our
Savior. He died for his people. His death is accepted of God
for His people, causing us to be accepted of God in Him, and
by the virtue of His accomplished redemption, the blessings of
God flow to us freely. The death of Christ is all our
hope before God and all our salvation. Now, look at verse 47. Listen
carefully. I've got something that will
help you. Our Lord goes on to tell us that he died as our sin-atoning
substitute, that, that is for this purpose, that repentance
and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Notice he does not say he died
that we should command men to repent. Now we do. God commands
all men everywhere to repent. We call on men everywhere to
repent. And as we preach the gospel, we preach with the authority
of God, and God calls men everywhere to repent. No question about
that. But he didn't die so that men could be commanded to repent.
Well, what's he talking about here? He died so that we, in
preaching the gospel, should proclaim to men repentance and
remission of sins. Have you ever noticed how often
we presume what a word means? Because that's what we've always
heard that it means. It might do you good to look
them up once in a while. I looked up this word repentance
this week. What's it mean? Reversal. Reversal. John the Baptist came
preaching repentance to the Kingdom of Heaven. Preach Reversal! The
lamb's about to die. The Lord Jesus began his ministry,
preaching repentance, preaching reversal, because he had come
to make a reversal. And in preaching the gospel,
we proclaim to desperately needy sinners the reversal of everything
by the sacrifice of God's Son, so that now, if any man be in
Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away, and
behold, all things become new. And we call upon men to repent.
Proclaim repentance, reversal. Reversal accomplished by his
blood and the remission of sins. This is how sins are remitted.
You see, all men everywhere, by nature, presume. How often
have you heard it said? Well, it just stands for reason.
It just stands for reason. You've got to do something. It
just stands for reason if you want to be accepted of God. You've
got to do something to make up for your sins. You've got to
do something to atone for your sins. You've got to do something
to please God. After all, you're going to be judged by your works.
And you know you've got to do something. That's how everybody
since Adam's fall thinks. Everybody. That's the reason
all men love works religion. It's as natural to man as drinking
water is to a thirsty dog. Our Lord comes. And he says,
you proclaim to men reversal accomplished in the remission
of sins and call for sinners to reverse their opinion about
how sins are remitted. They're remitted by my blood. They don't. Our Lord Jesus commands
this message of grace to be preached to all nations because His elect
are scattered everywhere. Beginning at Jerusalem. Oh, what goodness. What grace. Beginning where these scribes
and Pharisees and Herodians and priests, where the people clamored
together in the streets crying, let his blood be on us and on
our children. And the Lord Jesus says, my blood's
going to be on you. Some in judgment, but some in
mercy. And you read in Acts 2, when
the Lord poured out His Spirit on the day of Pentecost, many
of these whose hands dripped with His blood were given the
reversal, the remission of their sins by His blood. What's that tell you? is beyond the reach of omnipotent
mercy. Nobody. No sinner is beyond the
reach of his free grace. No deed cannot be washed away
by his precious blood. He, our great physician, delights
to heal folks with whom healing is impossible. Who then can be
saved? Who can be saved? If this is
what it takes to save a sinner, who can be saved? With men, it's
impossible. But with God our Savior, all
things are possible. Look at verse 50. The Lord Jesus,
now we see Him in the last moments. He's upon the earth. And Luke
takes a giant step. He goes from the first day of
the resurrection to the 40th day here in verse 50. And he
led them out as far as to Bethany, the place where Lazarus was raised
from the dead. The place where Mary sat at his
feet and heard his word. The place where he was anointed
for his burial. 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
were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen. He's the same now in his glory
as he ever was. Do you remember how he prayed
in John 17 5? Father, the hour has come. Glorify
thy son with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. And now He is glorified as our
Mediator, just as God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit glorified
Him as our Mediator in covenant grace before the world began.
He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And it came to pass while
He blessed them, He was parted from them. He left them when
he was in the very act of blessing them. Now, I'm not a priest. Don't misunderstand my gesture.
I'm showing you what he did. And as he started to raise his
hands, he started to rise. The high priest in Israel would
come out after offering the sacrifice. When he went in, you hear preachers
tell things. You know, sometimes folks get
carried away. They say they had the bales and pomegranates Rustling
about in there, no. No, when they went in to make
sacrifice, they took off all that gorgeous apparel and put
on white linen britches. But after the sacrifice was made,
they came out from that place, all disbanded with blood, and
they took off those common, white priestly garments. And the priest
would put on the gorgeous apparel of the priesthood, and the crown
and the breastplate over the head that was prescribed by God,
and he'd come out now as the glorious priest of Israel. And
he'd lift up his hands and bless the people on the basis of atonement
made. by the Word of God with His authority,
pronouncing blessing. But those priests only did it
typically and prayed for the blessing. Here is our priest. He lifts his hands and blessings
fall. Because the work is done. Everything
God requires of His people is done! And now the blessings are
ours as He ascends up into glory. And as they saw Him ascend, our
Advocate ascending to the Father, assured of their indestructible
everlasting salvation and security, their everlasting blessedness
in and by Him, the disciples worshipped Him and went home
with great joy. And they went to church. constantly
because He had blessed them. And the blessings continue forever. Oh, if He will seal to your heart
your own interest in His great salvation, you will go home tonight
worshiping Him with great joy. But the story doesn't end there.
Turn over to Acts chapter 1, let me show you one more thing. Verse 10, And while they looked
steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood
by them in white apparel, which said, Ye men of Galilee, why
stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, this same Jesus,
which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen him, go into heaven. Soon our Savior
will come forth in his gorgeous, priestly, kingly glory to receive
us into everlasting blessings. Let us until then serve him as
his witnesses in the place where he's put us standing on the tiptoe
of faith, looking unto our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life,
and thereby put our Amen to everything He is and did and teaches by
the grace of God. Amen.