Jesus Made Sure We Knew

SERVICE FLOW

Greeting → Bible Reading (Luke 24:41–53) → Prayer by a missionary

Premise

God wrote Himself into our story, paid what we owed, and made sure we knew — He left the tomb empty.

This is Sunday evening, the same day Jesus rose from the dead. Earlier that morning, the tomb was found empty.

The women had gone to the tomb and heard the message.

Later, a couple walking on the road encountered Him. And now, Jesus appears again.

You could almost think of this as the third Easter sermon —

first to the women,

then to the travelers on the road,

and now to the disciples gathered together.

This is not morning anymore. This is late in the day. The sun is going down on Resurrection Sunday, and Jesus appears again. I want you to think about this moment as the sun sets on this day.

It shows how good and gracious our God is. Not only in dying on the cross, but in spending time with them afterward so they would have understanding.

That is my prayer today, that we would receive understanding and leave here with joy.

INTRODUCTION

Tonight when the sun starts to go down I want you to consider the evening of the Resurrection.

· I want you to think about that room.

· Locked doors. Frightened people. A movement that looked finished three days earlier.

· And then someone walked in.

· Not a vision. Not a feeling. A person. With wounds you could touch and fish he could eat.

· What happened in that room changed everything. And this morning I want to show you why it still does.

Re-entry: Four Words From What You Just Heard

SCREEN: Luke 24:41 “41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?”

• Not disbelieved from doubt — disbelieved for joy

• The thing happening in front of them was too good to process as real.

• Jesus in the flesh. Sitting, eating, alive!

• Being overwhelmed is understandable. The implications of the empty tomb are huge.

Before I tell you what Jesus says next — I need to answer a question that sits underneath all of this for a lot of people in the room.

The Question Underneath the Story

The question is not whether the resurrection is historically credible. The question is more basic than that. It is this: why would God show up in human history at all? Why would the author of the universe be findable on a dusty road in Galilee or eating fish in a locked room in Jerusalem?

Here is the answer. He made us. Not as an experiment. Not as a project. In his image. Which means from the very beginning, we were made for relationship with him. The distance between God and man was never his idea. We created that. And everything from Genesis 3 forward is the story of God closing it.

With the lauch of Artemis last week. I was reminded of a story I heard about the first person to orbit the earth.

• Artemis is going 240k miles and should be near the moon

• In 1961 the Soviet Union sent a man into space — Yuri Gah-GAR-in 108 minutes orbiting the earth

• The only way Hamlet ever knows anything about Shakespeare is if Shakespeare writes himself into the play

And that — is precisely what Christianity claims happened.

• The author wrote Himself into the story — not as a concept or a force, as a person

• Born in Bethlehem. Walking the roads of Galilee. Standing trial before Pontius Pilate.

• Nailed to a cross outside Jerusalem. And on the third day — standing in a locked room eating fish.

• That is the claim. And everything about Easter rises or falls on whether it is true.

John 1:1 KJV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:14 KJV

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

SCREEN: The story you are telling yourself may not be complete.

A. Dealing with unmet expectations by God.

• Not just grief but a conclusion.

• The narrative is built. The story is over.

• They are preaching that narrative to themselves every hour behind that door.

• I am not the only who has prepared to preach an Easter sermon. We all have one we have created.

• In that room they were created a timeline – and that time line there was a break in it.

• We had hoped. I had believed. I used to think God was good.

• We have all heard this sermon. Some of you may be preaching it to yourself this morning.

SCREEN: Luke 24:21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. — Luke 24:21

▶ At Chick-Fila this week I heard some men talking about what they wanted to do on Sunday, but couldn’t because Easter was important to their mom, wife, or kids.

Maybe it was hardship?

Maybe it was a lack of understanding?

Maybe God always disappoints the person who wants to live exclusively for themselves?

But we trusted…

That sentence — in whatever form it has taken in your life — is the reason this morning matters.

B. Jesus shows up uninvited but very much needed

• Friday — six hours on the cross, darkness at noon, It is finished, He dies

• The disciples — scattered, hidden, behind locked doors

• If or when they heard “it is finished” they must have interpreted it as “we are finished.”

Jesus Himself stood among them.

• Doors still locked. He did not knock. Simply — present.

• Touch Me. Flesh and bones. He shows them the wounds.

• He asks for something to eat. Broiled fish. He takes it. He eats it. In front of all of them.

• Not a vision. Not a metaphor. A body. Wounds visible. A room full of witnesses.

Jesus doesn’t rebuke the narrative they have been preaching. He doesn’t argue with the pain. He opens their minds to the Scriptures and replaces the sermon with the one that was always true.

Four words that complete the story the locked room could not finish.

SCREEN: "Thus it is written."

So many confusing, unfinished stories in our lives are not finished until they are framed by, “Thus it is written.”

SCREEN: The message that left that tomb has arrived in this room today.

A. The Cross Was Scripture Arriving at Its Destination

• Thus it is written — not “I know that looked bad.”

• The cross was always the plan.

• Psalm 22:1 — My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me — written 1,000 years before

• Psalm 22:16 — they pierced my hands and my feet — written before crucifixion existed as a form of execution

• Isaiah 53:5 — wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities — written 700 years before

• Zechariah 11:12 — thirty pieces of silver — the exact price Judas was paid, written 500 years before

“Thus it is written, and thus it behoved 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.” Luke 24:46–47

Not might. Not perhaps.

It was written. It would be done.

The sooner you accept this the better off you will be.

B. What is the message Christ shared that must be shared?

..should be preached in his name among all nations.” (sounds pretty important huh)

• Preached — not suggested, not one perspective among many.

• Proclaimed. Announce. Say.. “it is written”

SCREEN: Repentance and Forgiveness

1. Repentance: Repentance — not feeling bad, not trying harder. An actual turning from self-rule toward Christ.

a. The reversal of the original Genesis 3 choice

b. I will no longer sit on the throne of my own life

2. Forgiveness: Forgiveness — complete, permanent, not maintained by your performance.

a. Grounded entirely in what He did — not what you do

b. The debt paid. The separation bridged. The fracture healed.

SCREEN: "This is what was written. God did not leave our story. He walked out of the tomb and now offers forgiveness for sin."

• God wrote Himself into our story — we didn’t climb up to Him

• Christ suffered — the payment was made. Christ rose — the receipt was issued.

• Pentecost confirmed — the Spirit sent because the Son’s work was complete

The message that left that tomb has arrived in this room today.

C. The Empty Tomb Is the Proof the Payment Cleared

▶ Costco asks for a receipt at the door

• Declaration — debt cleared, case closed, separation over

SCREEN: Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. Romans 4:25 “25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”

• The raising is the verdict the death was sufficient

• If the death had not been sufficient — there would be no resurrection

And God didn’t just leave an empty tomb. He made sure we knew.

The veil tore. The earth shook.

He walked among us for forty days. Five hundred people saw him.

Fifty days later, Peter stood in Jerusalem — three minutes from the tomb — and said he was alive.

He said it to people who were there. People who could walk over and check.

If the tomb wasn't empty, the movement dies in Jerusalem before it starts.

The Roman soldiers were paid to lie about it. You don't bribe guards to cover up something that didn't happen.

These men were hiding behind locked doors on Friday. By Sunday they were willing to die for what they saw.

And when Peter finished preaching, three thousand people believed in a single day.

God didn't just give them a sermon. He gave them his Spirit.

He preserved it in his Word.

And he sent someone to tell you. Today, that's me. And that can be you for someone else tomorrow!

Jesus Made Sure We Knew

And here is what that message does to a person when they actually receive it. Look at how Luke ends the chapter.

The same people hiding behind locked doors — by the end of Luke 24 they are not hiding anymore. Something happened between verse 41 and verse 52 that is the most important thing that can happen to any person in this room today.

SCREEN: You have seen too much to walk out of here unchanged.

A. The Empty Tomb Has a Meaning and the Meaning Produces Joy

•The resurrection is not just a miracle — it is the Father’s verdict on the cross

The cross was the payment. The empty tomb is the receipt.

You will never allow truth to shape your life unless you are certain of it.

Most people are not joyless because life is hard. They are joyless because they are not certain of anything beneath them.

The tomb is empty because the verdict is final. That is what makes the joy not just great but safe and secure.

B. What Understanding Produced

SCREEN: Luke 24:52–53 “52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: 53 And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.”

And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. — Luke 24:52–53

Same people — locked doors, past tense hope, disbelieving for joy in verse 41

End of the chapter — worshipping, great joy, continually in the temple

What made the difference?

Luke 24:45 “45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,”

Joy sent them out.

• Not duty. Not obligation.

• Joy. Unshakeable. Not fragile.

• Would say not because of circumstances. But certainly, due to the circumstance. The tomb is empty.

• Luke doesn’t give instructions at the end of the chapter — he gives a picture. Let the picture be enough.

This is what a sufficient death and an empty tomb produce in people who receive it.

C. You Have Seen Too Much

You came in today carrying a narrative — possibly past tense hope, honest doubt, or disbelieving for joy

The tomb is either empty or it isn’t. The verdict is either final or it isn’t.

Conclusion

We are really only left with 3 choices.

1. Accept it. Turn from yourself toward Christ. Walk out the way they walked out; with great joy.

2. Reject it. That is your choice. But know what you are rejecting. Not a rumor. Not a feeling. Evidence. And the quiet work of the Holy Spirit in your life that brought you to this room.

3. Ignore it. That was possible before this morning. We pray it is harder now.

The Invitation

• The same God who walked through that locked door is present in this room today. That day through the person or Jesus Christ, and today through the work of the Holy Spirit.

• Jesus made sure they knew the tomb was empty and what that meant for them.

My prayer is that we have done the same today — for every person in this room.