Jesus Commissions His Fearful Followers
Sermon # 3 in After Easter Series: Close Encounters with the Risen Lord
Chuck Sligh
April 22, 2018
TEXT: Please turn in your bibles to Luke 24.
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – Lee Eclov tells of a dear friend who gave him a small cross adorned with roses bearing the inscription, “Hope raises no dust.” He read that phrase and tried his best to figure out what in the world it meant. He didn’t want to look dumb, so he didn’t say anything, but just said “Thanks.”
Pondering it for a while, he just had to get to the bottom of its meaning. It had been written on a cross, for crying out loud, so it had to mean something! When he googled the phrase “Hope raises no dust,” he found out that the phrase was originally uttered by Paul Éluard, a French poet associated with Dadaism. When he looked up Dadaism, he found this definition: “The Dada movement tried to express the negation of all current aesthetic and social values and frequently used deliberately incomprehensible artistic and literary methods.” [SHOW LOOK OF SCEPTICISM:] What?!!!! He then read some of Éluard’s other famous quotes, like, “Elephants are contagious,” and, “Earth is blue like an orange.”
All of this brings us back to the phrase, “Hope raises no dust.” You see, everyone believes hope is vital in people’s lives, but most people’s hope is about as vague as the Éluard quote painted on that little cross.
But for Christians, hope is not vague. We have a hope that is real and personal, based on the historical fact of Jesus’s resurrection. We have a hope that stands in front of the empty grave of Jesus and declares, “This world is not the end. Jesus is ALIVE AND WELL! And if we trust in Him, we too can be resurrected and have eternal life.”
We have been looking at some of Christ’s appearances to His disciples in our series on “Close Encounters with the Risen Lord.”
The first sermon in the series was, “Jesus Restores a Defeated Disciple” about when Peter was forgiven for his denial of Jesus and restored to Christ’s service.
The second was titled “Jesus Enlightens Some Dim-sighted Disciples” about three appearances of Jesus in which those who saw Him did not recognize Him because of grief, sorrow, loss of hope, busyness and just plain moodiness; how we too can be clouded from recognizing Jesus in the midst of our own distractions; and how we must look for Jesus in those difficult times in our lives.
Now for today, note with me three things from our text, Luke 24:
I. FIRST, LET’S LOOK AT THE CLOSE ENCOUNTER THESE DISCIPLES HAD WITH THE RISEN LORD IN VERSE 36.
First let’s examine the context of this verse. In verses 13-35, Luke tells us that Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, which we looked at last week. Once they recognized Him, Jesus vanished from their sight. Luke says in verse 33 that the two Emmaus disciples “found the eleven.” In verse 35, the two Emmaus disciples told the disciples about their close encounter with the risen Lord, how Jesus had expounded the Scriptures to them, and how they didn’t recognize Him until Jesus broke bread in a meal with them—whereupon He vanished from them. Thomas was in that gathering, and apparently did not believe the report of the two Emmaus disciples and left the group before Jesus makes His dramatic appearance, for John 20 tells us that Thomas only saw Jesus eight days later.
As the disciples listened to the report of the two Emmaus disciples, they must have had a mixture of astonishment and bewilderment. By now they knew the tomb was empty, as Peter and John had seen for themselves. The women had reported the empty tomb, and also Mary had reported that she had seen Jesus alive.
The disciples really having trouble processing all this—I mean, really, it all seems impossible, doesn’t it? That brings us to verse 36 – “And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, ‘Peace be unto you.’”
II. NEXT NOTICE HOW JESUS’S ASSURES THESE DISCIPLES IN VERSES 37-43.
Can you imagine the reaction the disciples must have had? Verses 37-43 records their reaction, and how Jesus dealt with their reaction. In verse 37, we see that the disciples react in sheer panic. Luke says in verse 37, “But they were terrified and [frightened], and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
When Jesus appeared to the Emmaus road disciples, Luke says that, when Jesus “drew near and went with them” like any other traveler. Nothing particularly shocking about that appearance. But here, Jesus suddenly appeared in the room among them. One moment there He was NOT there, and the next moment—POOF!—there He was! So, you can understand why they were startled and frightened and thought they were seeing a ghost.
Illus. – I read about a preacher named Freddy Fritz whose mother had an identical twin sister named Caroline. He said that even he could not tell them apart until he was around 6 ¬years old. He told of several humorous times in his childhood when people mistook Aunt Caroline for his mom when she came to town to visit.
One day his mom died suddenly of a heart attack. In time, a large group of friends and family came to the house to pay their respects and offer their condolences to the family. While he was talking with some friend in the kitchen, he heard a people suddenly start screaming in the living room. Wondering what had happened, he ran into the living room. There, his Aunt Caroline—his mother’s twin sister—had just arrived and walked into the room. Few knew his mother had a twin sister, so they thought they had seen a ghost!
Well, Jesus did not have an identical twin. The disciples in Jerusalem were startled and frightened and thought they were seeing a spirit—a ghost! But this was no spirit that they saw, and Jesus proved it in verses 38-43. Jesus gave the startled and frightened disciples two proofs that He was alive.
The first proof was an invitation to see his wounds and touch him in verses 38-40 – “And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? 39 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. 40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.”
A spirit is incorporeal, that is, it has no flesh, no bones, no physical substance to it, and Jesus pointed this out to them. What the disciples saw was no spirit, no phantom, no vision. They were seeing and touching the resurrected, glorified Lord!
The second proof Jesus gave them was eating a piece of broiled fish in their presence. – verses 41-43 – “And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? 42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. 43 And he took it, and did eat before them.”
Jesus really WAS alive!—And He demonstrated the reality of His presence by enjoying a meal in their presence. After Jesus appeared to His disciples, they never again doubted the reality of His resurrection again! In fact, historians believe that ten of the remaining apostles died a martyr’s death because they were so convinced of the reality of Jesus’ resurrection.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a necessary part of the Gospel because it proves that Jesus Christ was not just another man—like Buddha, Mohammed, Gandhi or Sun Myung Moon, but was who He claimed to be. Jesus categorically claimed that He was the unique Son of God, that is, that He was God in human flesh. He further claimed that there is no other way to God except through HIM. In John 14:6 he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
These were bold claims, but not nearly as bold as claiming that he would prove His divinity by rising from the dead. But then HE ACTUALLY DID IT!
The resurrection separates Christianity from all other belief systems. No other religious system claims its founder was God, or that He rose again. Christian Victory Magazine says this:
“The pyramids of Egypt are famous because they contain the mummified bodies of ancient Egyptian kings. Westminster Abbey in London is renowned, because in it rest the bodies of English nobles and notables. Mohammed’s tomb is noted for the stone coffin and the bones which it contains. Arlington Cemetery in Washington, D.C. is revered, for it is the honored resting place of many outstanding Americans.
“There is, however, all the difference in the world between the tomb of Christ and these places which we have just mentioned. They are famous and draw visitors from afar because of what they contain; while the Garden Tomb is famous because it is empty.”
When Jesus rose from the dead, it proved once and for all that He was who He said He was—the eternal God in mortal flesh, who came to provide salvation for all who would receive it. Take away the resurrection, and Jesus is no different than any other man. And if He was just another man, He would not have been a suitable substitute to die for our sins in our place.
III. THIRD, IN VERSES 44-45, JESUS TAKES THE DISCIPLES BACK TO SCHOOL.
For three solid years, the disciples had listened to and learned from Jesus. Those were wonderful days for the disciples. But when he was crucified, all they had were their memories of those days in the “School of the Master.” In the rest of our text, Jesus opens the schoolhouse again.
Illus. – When I was in college, one of my favorite professors was Dr. Afman. His style of teaching was not particularly engaging (he was kind of monotonous), but oh, was what he taught extraordinary. And the spirit and character of the man endeared us to him I loved to listen to him as he expounded on the Bible and biblical studies.
Years later, I had the opportunity to go back to my university and I asked if Dr. Afman, by them well into his late eighties, still taught. They said yes, so I asked if I could go and visit again one of his classes. They said “Sure” and I got the pass to go and visit.
Oh, what a blessing to again be in the classroom of a true master teacher. That must have been how the disciples felt when Jesus started teaching them again.
He began in verse 44, “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 [that is the Old Testament], concerning me.”
Why did Jesus do this? In his commentary on Luke, Kent Hughes says this, “We must understand that one of the reasons Jesus taught them from Scripture was that he did not want them to rest their belief in his resurrection on their personal experience alone….Resting their faith on a miracle was not sufficient. He wanted them to ground their experience of his resurrection on the massive testimony and perspective of Scripture.”
Jesus’s point was that all of the Old Testament is about HIM. Philip Ryken put it this way, “Jesus Christ is the key to understanding the Old Testament. To know the Old Testament truly is to know Jesus, and to know Jesus, one has to know the Old Testament.”
Now look at verse 45 – “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.”
Like Jesus had done with the disciples on the road to Emmaus earlier that day, Jesus opened these disciples’ minds to understand the Scriptures. Luke records two other times during Jesus’s earthly ministry when His disciples had difficulty in understanding Jesus’s teaching about His imminent death and subsequent resurrection.
1) In Luke 9:44-45 Jesus said, “Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men.” And Luke continues in verse 45, “But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they feared to ask him of that saying.”
2) And in Luke 18:31-33, Jesus was even more explicit about what was going to happen to Him, telling them that when they got to Jerusalem, He would be captured, scourged and crucified and then rise from the dead, but verse 34 concludes: “But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”
So here they are again, and NOW they get it! Now it all makes sense! Why?—Verse 45 says that Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures. The reality is that most of the Scriptures are incomprehensible without a divine opening of our minds to them.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that the Word of God is “spiritually discerned”: that is, that its meaning cannot be discerned without the Holy Spirit’s illumination. This means you have to be a believer who has the Spirit of God living inside you.
Illus. – My dad used to say that before he trusted in Christ as his Savior, the Word of God was like reading Shakespeare to him, and he didn’t understand a thing Shakespeare said. But when he was saved, suddenly the Word of God came alive! He didn’t understand it all in one sitting, but every time he sat down to read, the Holy Spirit opened his eyes about some new truth in His Word.
Last week I urged you to seek the Lord in His Word, but today I would mention one other word of advice: When you read, pray for the Lord to open you mind to understand what you read—to bring hidden truths to light.
Not only did Jesus explain how He was the center of the Scriptures, but notice that in verses 46-47, Jesus taught the disciples the Gospel. –“And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: 47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
Here Jesus introduced the basic content of the Gospel—that is, that Jesus would suffer for our sins and rise from the dead the third day. This is a condensed version of Paul’s definition of the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, which he defines as the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, proven by the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus to at least 50 people.
The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus paid the penalty for sin, and now sinners who repent of their sin and turn to God in faith will receive forgiveness of their sins! And this Good News is not just for us who hear, repent and believe, but is to be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.
Jesus concluded His teaching with these words in verses 48-49, “You are witnesses of these things. 49 And 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.”
Jesus told his disciples that they had seen Him alive, and so they were witnesses of these things. Furthermore, He was going to send “the promise of His Father” upon them, referring to the Holy Spirit. So, they were to stay in Jerusalem until they received Holy Spirit power on the Day of Pentecost.
The Holy Spirit has now come to all believers. All believers were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, and so we are all empowered by him to tell others the good news of the Gospel. So we have a very good reason to tell others about Jesus: not only is Jesus alive, but He has changed us, and we are now empowered by the Holy Spirit to live for Him and tell others about him.
CONCLUSION
Having examined Jesus’ appearance to his disciples in today’s text, God help us to live as if we really believe Jesus is indeed alive. When the disciples came to truly believe it, they became flaming witnesses of Jesus Christ. They turned the world upside down with the Good News of the Gospel and the resurrection of Jesus.
Brethren, Jesus is alive! There are many convincing proofs that He is alive. Belief in his resurrection is an essential part of the Gospel. Believe it!—And live like you believe it!
And tell others the Good News that Jesus died and rose from the dead so that their sins could be forgiven if they would just turn from their sin and turn to Jesus to save them. May God fill us with a holy desire to tell our friends, neighbors, co-workers, and loved ones, and the lost throughout the whole world that Jesus paid the penalty for their sins on the cross and that He rose from the dead to prove He was who He said He was and if they would turn to Him to be saved, He would pardon their sin and give them eternal life.
