Sermon Tone Analysis

As we continue this morning to look at Jesus’ post resurrection appearances in Luke 24 we are still on the Sunday Jesus rose from the dead.

We have seen there were proofs of His resurrection, proofs that people were skeptical about.

Luke even opened us up to a very interesting trip on the road to a village called Emmaus were we learned some very rich truths in respect to the Scripture Correctly Revealing Jesus.

We don’t need Jesus to appear to us face to face in a physical form to have Him revealed to us we have God’s revealed word right before us.

The two men who Jesus revealed Himself to on the road to Emmaus both spiritually and physically were so excited about Jesus’ words and appearance that they rushed back to Jerusalem to tell all of their colleagues what they heard and saw.

As they arrived back at the place where the disciples were gathered they have found they were not the only ones who Jesus revealed Himself too and they exchange their accounts of the events.

The Peace of Christ

This morning we will encounter yet another appearance of Jesus and this one is a proof not only of His resurrection but also a picture of the kind of resurrection we will also encounter.

His resurrection can also bring about the greatest peace of mind any one can have and even helps to answer what kind of resurrection we will have.

Let’s go ahead and look at this incredible revelation of Jesus.

We find it in Luke 24:36-43;

Here Luke continues the time of the disciples sharing their experiences in Jesus revealing Himself to them.

And as they are sharing and as they are excitedly talking about how Jesus explained or opened the Scriptures and how Jesus had broken the bread for them to begin their evening meal they were all suddenly shocked by Jesus standing in their midst.

Just as quickly as He disappeared and vanished from their sight now He has appeared within this crowd of men.

Jesus not only appears right before them but He speaks too.

It’s His opening words that I have been stuck on through out this entire passage and study.

“Peace be to you.”

This is what I would like to focus on is the offer of peace that Jesus provides and what this offer of peace means to us as believers.

The Offer of Peace

Jesus knows all things and don’t think for a second Jesus didn’t know these men weren’t going to be afraid when He just popped up in the middle of this very excited crowd.

So as He appears to them He tells them “Peace be to you.”

This is a very common greeting for God when He reveals Himself to someone.

It is a greeting to assure that everything is ok.

God actually utilizes this greeting through out the Old Testament to calm the fears of those who realize they are standing in the presence of God.

This happened to one of the Judges named Gideon.

In Judges 6 the nation of Isreal was actually under Midian oppression and they cried out to the Lord and the Lord chose Gideon to Judge the nation.

Well the Angel of the Lord, who is the preincarnate Christ, appeared out of nowhere sitting under a tree and called out to Gideon and commissioned Him as a Judge for God.

Look at what happens when Gideon realizes He is in the presence of the Lord.

Judges 6:19-24.

The phrase is used to assure Gideon he is perfectly fine.

Gideon is not the only one who has had an encounter with the divine, Daniel the prophet also did.

Daniel saw a vision of a man who appears to be Jesus, this is who Daniel sees in 10:5-6

This is a power vision of Jesus and this brings Daniel to his knees and he needs to be strengthened and look at how he is strengthened.

See that He offers Daniel peace so that he will stop and be strengthened.

Now these are a few examples in the Hebrew Scriptures but Luke himself has been playing on the theme of peace from the beginning of this gospel.

From the moment the angels came and announced the birth of the Lord in Luke 2 Luke has been unfolding God’s offer of peace.

This is the peace God is bringing on mankind in and through Jesus Christ.

God is the One who offers the peace.

It can only come from Him and it can only come from Jesus Christ.

Jesus now appears to these men and the first thing He says to them is “Peace be to you” as a means to preempt their fears.

He knows they will be afraid and He also knows they need the assurance of true Peace that can only come from Him.

Of course Jesus words didn’t immediately bring them comfort.

Verse 37 continues “But they were startled and thought that they were seeing a spirit.”

This at first glance is a little strange, didn’t Peter and Cleopas and the other disciple already see Jesus, why would this frighten them.

Well I have a few thoughts on this.

First of all even though those men already have seen Jesus and spoke to Jesus and two of them even saw Jesus break bread and vanish from sight, this was not a common occurrence so their fear was natural.

Second why did they think He was a ghost.

Simple because their minds were still unable to wrap around the facts revolving Jesus’ resurrection.

They knew Jesus had died and His body was no longer in the tomb so when they saw Him they thought He was a spirit, a disembodied being.

This is not a modern idea or concept it is actually pretty old as you can see here.

Third, is very much just the way I think of this.

Jesus is now in His glorified body and so what I actually picture here is not just someone popping in but something more like this.

This is Jesus becoming glorified this is what I believe these men saw was the glorified Jesus.

This brilliance of His face and clothing was so different the disciples became frightened.

So now Jesus has to calm them down some more and as He calms them down Luke provides for us a glimpse at just how unique Jesus’ glorified body is.

Identifying Marks

In verse 38 Jesus clams the men down by first speaking to them asking them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?”

Here we have something unique that is going on Jesus just appearing out of nowhere and actually in a similar account in the gospel of John we actually find that Jesus also walked through a locked door.

So Jesus has a very unique position where He can appear our of nowhere and even move through solid objects.

No wonder they thought He was a spirit because well have you ever tried walking through a locked door.

It can be painful.

Have you ever tried just appearing in the middle of a room, yeah we don’t have the ability to teleport so not going to happen.

Jesus also never did this prior to His death.

So yeah it is not a usual occurence and it would have been something to fear for any normal human being.

So Jesus offers peace and then He even assures them there is nothing to fear.

He doesn’t only do this with His words but He offers one more element of proof for them.

Verse 39 Jesus continues, “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bone as you see that I have.

And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.”

These men thought Jesus to be a spirit disembodied but in actuality He was flesh and blood not a spirit and He showed them how He was now flesh and blood.

“Touch Me and you will see.”

This is unique and this demonstrates the change in Him.

In the Hebrew Scriptures like I said when we looked at Gideon the Angel of the Lord was Jesus.

Jesus now has taken on flesh and blood and even in His resurrection He retains the physical but He never losses His divinity.

He never losses His Godliness.

A spirit can come and go and it has no coporial being.

Jesus on the other hand is coporial but never losses His godliness.

This is also unique to Jesus the fact that He even retains His wounds.

This is as a marker of what He has done for us.

He never losses these marks.

In John’s vision in the book of Revelation John sees this;

Jesus is the lamb and He retains the identifying marks of His sacrifice for all the saints and just as we see in verse 9 “He was slain and purchased for for God.”

He will never lose these marks because they are their as a reminder to the saints of the price He had to pay so we can serve Him and worship Him.

He also never losses His divinity.

Look we find this earlier in Revelation.