36As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, "Peace to you!" 37But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 38And He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39See My hands and My feet, that it is I myself. Touch Me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." 40And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. 41And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, He said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and He took it and ate before them. 44Then He said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." 45Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." 50Then He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. 51While He blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53and were continually in the temple blessing God.
After the Resurrection:
36As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, "Peace to you!" 37But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.
Now I want us to take a breath here and recount where we have just been… Jesus was crucified and the women came on Sun morning to wash His body with spices and ointments but the stone was rolled away and His body was gone… 2 men in WHITE apparel told them He was risen! They ran back and told the disciples who did NOT believe them… Peter was in shock!
Two disciples decide to go home after this has happened and they meet guy on the road back to their house and this man begins to share the Scripture with them and He tells them about Messiah… they ask Him to stay the night and He blesses the food and He is revealed to them to be Jesus… their risen Lord! And then He simply disappears before their eyes! These men are so excited about their news… what the women had told them was true… it was NOT idle tales… it was NOT nonsense… it was TRUE! So they get back out on the road and RUN to Jerusalem to tell the disciples… and this is where we pick up the story!
These men had made it back to Jerusalem and they were sharing their story with the disciples, when all of a sudden… POOF Jesus was there in their midst! Just as Jesus had DISAPPEARED…
Jesus reappears to the entire Disciple body (less Thomas) and the first words out of His mouth… is the Greek word ‘E-ray-nay’ and is very similar to the current day Hebrew/Jewish greeting of “Shalom” which means “peace to you…” and comes with a connotation of ‘don’t have fear or don’t be afraid…
Jesus knew and understood that these men would be terrified…that everyone there would be terrified! They had seen Him die… and now his body had been taken and He understood that this would terrify them… so He offers ‘peace’ to them!
They had seen Him die! They had seen Him be buried… and now these men fully believed they were seeing a ghost and they were terrified! THEY wanted to KNOW, but they could not understand. Jesus speaks… His voice they would KNOW and understand. tells them “peace” to settle their hearts.
Have you ever been startled? When that happens it is a ‘scary moment’ and many of us usually out of sorts when it happens to you… so I cannot say that I blame them…
How often do we find ourselves terrified when Jesus shows up in our lives? Has that ever happened to you… you are going thru your life and Jesus shows up… God shows up… unexpectedly…! Many of us would tell ourselves, “I would not be afraid… after all Jesus showing up is what I want to happen in my life!”
But what if you walked into your house and turned on the lights and POOF, he was there? You would be frightened! These men…these people were frightened and so Jesus takes the initiative to calm the room and He offers v.39-39 as comfort…
38And He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39See My hands and My feet, that it is I myself. Touch Me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."
Why are you afraid? Jesus asks… why are you doubting your eyes? Why are you doubting your hearts? Jesus was probably a little disappointed in these men… HE had trained them for 3 ½ yrs and had told them on several occasions that he would have to die, but that on the 3rd day He would rise… and yet they were full of doubt and fear!
Jesus then does what He can to make them believe… He offers himself to be touched… Look, He says, I’m real… touch my hands, touch my feet… feel my arm… I’m real… I’m alive… if I was a ghost you could not do that! He was offering a tangible and touchable solution to their fear…
Now let me ask you… has God ever moved so mightily in your life that you were afraid… that you simply could NOT believe what you were seeing? You want to believe but every fiber of your being tells you that it just can’t be true… but what we need to understand… what is impossible in our eyes and in our efforts… is POSSIBLE with God! Nothing is impossible for Him!
Jesus reached out to these men… in their doubt and in their fear He offered more, so that they could come to Him… so that they could experience peace in Him!
Jesus does the same for us today… in our doubt and fear… in the troubled and discombobulated times of our lives… Jesus takes the initiative to offer Himself so that we can experience PEACE in Him.
40And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. 41And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling…
Jesus reached out to them… Jesus came TO them with an offer of peace and an offer of Himself, but they were in shock. Even tho’ they could SEE Him and He was walking AMONG them… they just could NOT believe it!
Do you remember Feb 7th 2010? Do you remember when Tracey Porter intercepted Payton Manning’s pass in the 4th quarter and raced for a TD and then we saw the clock run down to 0:00… and we heard the words…. “The Saints are world champions!” Could you believe it?
After all, we experienced the Aints of the 80’s… we experienced the disappointment of finally making the playoffs only to lose to teams we KNEW we could beat… we had experienced the pain of losing a Conf championship game, just 2 yrs before… but NOW here it was! What we had been dreaming of for YEARS… right before our eyes and we still could not believe it!
I can remember thinking…I saw it… I witnessed it… I know in my head it is real, but I just CAN’T believe it happened! I believe this is where these men were in their mindset at this time! They could SEE Jesus… He was RIGHT THERE… they could reach out and touch Him… it was HIS voice… it surely LOOKED like Him… but they just could not wrap their heads around the fact that they had seen Him die and be buried and now He was alive! Here He was… it was what they wanted…what they had dreamed about for the past 3 days… but they simply could not grasp it!
He said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and He took it and ate before them. 44Then He said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." 45Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things.
Jesus could see that these men still could not grasp the fact that He was alive and standing right in front of them, even after his offer for them to touch his hands and feet… He takes another step toward them in their disbelief as he tells them to get him something to eat… after all, ghosts don’t eat!
They feed him some fish and He ate it and it seems to have helped break the tension and then Jesus reiterates the teaching he had shared on many occasions with the disciples about Him and the Messiah. Then Jesus opens their minds to fully understand His teaching!
There are times when we KNOW what God wants of us… He places it before us time and time again but we either refuse to understand or we miss it because of doubt and fear in our lives… but then there are times when we get close to God in our walk and His revelation is made SUPER clear to us… we FULLY understand what He wants from us… have you ever been there?
Jesus shared this with his disciples and then I believe v.48 is a very important verse here! It states that they are WITNESSES of these things… in other words… you are witnesses of Messiah… of the Christ… of God’s plan…
This is key because in Acts 1 when Jesus tells them that they are to be His witnesses… they KNOW what they are witnesses of… they know what testimony they are called to share…
God is at work in your life! He is dealing with you and there may be a time when that seems really scary to you… it takes you by surprise and startles you… but Jesus reaches out to you… he takes the initiative to calm your spirit and reveal to you WHO He is and what He wants!
You may resist, but Jesus is insistent in relating to you HIS plan! Finally God’s plan comes clear to you… and Jesus then tells you to share that with the world around you…you are HIS witnesses! It may be that you are called to preach… if so, then you are to share that with the world!
It could be that you are called to teach, if so then you are called to witness that to the world thru your actions… Whatever it is, you are a witness to what God is doing in your life and it is important for you to share that with the world around you… but that is NOT the most important point here!
The focus of what God wants is the story of Jesus… the spreading of the Gospel. If you are called to preach, you preach the Gospel, if you are called to teach, you teach the Gospel… if you are called to sing… you sing the Gospel… YOU ARE A WITNESS OF Jesus as Lord and Savior… share it with the world!
49And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." 50Then He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. 51While He blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53and were continually in the temple blessing God.
Finally Jesus gives final instructions to His witnesses… Jesus tells them to be His witnesses, but I am sure they are wondering HOW this could be, what were they going to do, how would this happen? Jesus comforts them with instruction…
“I am sending the promise of My Father…” a promise He had made in John 15 when he had told them that he had to go but he would send another JUST like Him to reveal truth and convict of sin… Jesus was speaking about the Holy Spirit… this promise is fulfilled at Pentecost! Jesus tells them to go to the city and wait on Him… what He is going to send them will be there soon!
Then Jesus led them to the top of a hill just outside of Jerusalem and He was lifted up into the sky… he ascended up into heaven right before their eyes… as if what they had seen already was NOT enough… now they were witnessing something even more spectacular! This was NOT the same day… Scripture tells us that Jesus was on earth over 40 days after His resurrection and was seen by MANY MANY people…
After this happens they were HAPPY to do what He had said… they returned to Jerusalem to wait for the HS with JOY! AND Scripture says they ‘worshipped’ Him! This is the 1st time Jesus is worshipped by the disciples…they had marveled at Him, been impressed by Him, they had been WOWED on several occasions and they had acknowledged his identity, but this is the 1st record of them publically worshiping Jesus!
When God comes into our lives and reveals a great plan and calms our spirit… we are also going to worship Him like these men and women did… but we have to understand that they were still waiting on the Lord at this time… they worshiped during the waiting!
How often are we FULLY willing to worship Jesus, but only after He has fulfilled something for us… they returned to the city to WAIT… they returned to the city with JOY in the waiting! They really did NOT know what they were waiting for… they did not know HOW long the wait would be… but they were joyful in the journey… they were faithful to what Jesus wanted them to do!
How often do we end up DEMANDING of God because it is NOT on our timing… we don’t WAIT in joy like it is demonstrated here… most of the time we wait in complaining and bickering and impatience toward God. The disciples reveal their love for God in the waiting… but not just in the waiting but in the waiting IN JOY they did before Pentecost.
Are you waiting on God in joy today? Let’s pray?
