Face to Face with the Risen LORD

Prayer of Thanksgiving & Adoration

Christianity is in its very essence a resurrection religion. The concept of the resurrection lies at its heart. If you remove it, Christianity is destroyed.

John Robert Walmsley Stott (English Preacher)

Key Question: If the resurrection is true, how should I respond to it?

Background:

The women showed up expecting an empty tomb, but didn’t.

Peter heard the report, inspected the report, and marveled.

Cleopas and his companion meet the Risen Lord, but only recognize him during the blessing of the bread.

The people in Jerusalem hear the report

Jesus shares a meal with His disciples and begins to teach them once more.

The Living God is Getting His Church Ready to Take Off

Read Luke 24:44-49

I. Resurrection = Law Fulfilled. (v. 44)

We write Jesus’ name upon our banner, for it is hell’s terror, heaven’s delight and earth’s hope. Jesus Christ Himself, Volume 23, Sermon #1388 - Ephesians 2:20

Charles Spurgeon

A. The promises from Genesis to Malachi have been fulfilled in Jesus

B. The God incarnate is now no longer a lamb for slaughter, but the resurrected KING of Kings and LORD of Lords.

C. YHWH has removed the power of death and the grave from our adversary and accuser to give humanity the opportunity to surrender to eternal life.

II. Jesus Makes it Possible to Know Certainty and Peace. (v. 45-47)

We must not just debate the truth, we must know the truth. If we would live free, we must not just know the truth, we must live in truth and we must become people of truth.

Os Guinness

A. Jesus, now resurrected, not yet glorified and ascended, continues to teach the disciples (for forty days).

B. He recounts the promise of redemption, and opens the hearts and minds of the disciples to fully grasp the Gospel and what it implicates.

C. The path to eternal life for humanity is to repent and turn back from selfishness and pride to surrender all to the one whose love is displayed in pain and suffering.

III. We Must Proclaim Him Once We Experience Him. (v.48)

If God judges lost people for their sins, what will He do to those who claim to know Him? Privilege brings responsibility (Luke 12:48), and where there is responsibility, there will be accountability.

Warren W. Wiersbe

A. The Son came to testify of His Father and the free gift of eternal life.

B. Apostles were sent to share the message of the Son, who would fulfill the promises of the substitutionary atonement.

C. Jesus now prepares the Disciples to be sent out when the time comes.

I’ll Give You a Hint: Because we have encountered the LIVING GOD, Our lives must not remain the same as when he found us beaten down and left dead by sin.

IV. The Joy of Jesus’ Ascension is the Coming of the Holy Spirit. (v.49)

The baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs with the new birth that constitutes helpless sinners as sons and daughters of God. This baptism also empowers all believers for Christian service.

R. C. Sproul

A. The power of the Disciple is not from Him or Her, it is from the God who made Him or Her alive again in the Holy Spirit.

B. The presence of the Holy Spirit refers to the blessed promise, not to place a light under a bushel, but on a pedestal to let it shine.

C. The same Spirit that comes to dwell within us is the Spirit that raised the Son to reign forever with the Father.

Key Question: If the resurrection is true, how should I respond to it?

We Respond by…

Confessing Our Sin, Repenting from Offending a Holy God, and Giving Ourselves to Him.

Keep the Flame of Faith, Devotion, and Worship Alive within Us.

Trusting that it is God who holds us fast in His hand when our strength is depleted and long gone.

Respond accordingly, whether you are an unrepentant sinner, a disciple gone astray, or a disciple whose heart and soul needs refreshing. Trust Him. Follow Him. Live for Him.