A BRAND NEW KIND OF MORNING

A BRAND NEW KIND OF MORNING   Luke 24:13-35 April 12, 2009 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction He is Risen! He is Risen, Indeed! Because He lives, I can face . . . tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is . . . gone. And because I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living . . . because He lives! Missionaries from Bangladesh tell the story of the recent Good Friday service in Dampara Baptist Church in Chittagong. The mission church was packed for the showing of the “Jesus Film.” Little children sat on the floor in the aisles and across the front of the church. Rows of people stood in the back, craning their necks to see the crucifixion scene as it was being depicted on the screen. Weeping and gasps of unbelief could be heard in the shocked hush as Jesus was crucified. As the Bengalis watched, they were feeling the agony of Jesus' pain and the disappointment of the disciples. In that emotional moment, one young boy in the crowded church suddenly cried out, "Do not be afraid. He gets up again! I saw it before." A small boy's encouraging cry gave new hope to the viewers of the film. It is the cry that gives hope to all: He is Risen! He is risen indeed! I will confess that I was planning to preach today from the middle of Matthew 24—the story of the Road to Emmaus experience—and had been planning it for several weeks. Then a few weeks ago Ron Bersett brought a wonderful communion meditation using that story. I thought right then and there that I might change my plans—but I really love to preach the Emmaus story! In fact, I love to preach that text so much that I looked back over my preaching for the past 20 years and realized that I have preached it four times in that stretch--that’s an average of once every five years at Easter, and the last time I used it was in ’04, so I’m probably due. But, there are plenty of other texts on the Resurrection. Besides, it’s time we looked at the other 27 verses in Luke 24. Let’s do just that. Turn with me to Luke 24:1. Read 24:1-12. The Resurrection Was In-Credible I want to make just a few observations as we move through the text that ought to be obvious, but are often missed, especially by those who don’t want to see them. For example, would you notice that the bodily resurrection of Jesus was in-credible, even to His followers? (Incredible = unbelievable, not “wow”) I mean, they really didn’t expect Him to rise again after His crucifixion! In spite of the fact that Jesus told them flat out. “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” (Luke 9:22) Repeatedly He warned the disciples of His fate. They either didn’t get it (which is hard to imagine), or, because they didn’t want to believe it, went into some sort of weird denial. But the fact is that this beautiful Sunday morning, the women did not come to the grave to see if He had risen yet; they came with spices to anoint His body. And Mark’s gospel tells us what they talked about on the way. He said they wondered who might be available to roll the stone away from the mouth of the grave. (16:3) They didn’t believe it—all this talk about a resurrection. Neither did the men, apparently. They didn’t go with the women. It was the third day, after all, and if they expected Him to rise, this was the day! I should think they would have camped out all night at the tomb. People do that today just to get the newest IPOD! They are standing there and an angel appeared to them telling them Jesus was not there because He had risen just like He had told them! Then the text said they remembered his words. But when they told the others, what was their response? They did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. At this stage in the story, we don’t exactly have reason to be proud of these guys! Peter goes to see the allegedly empty tomb, gets a clear view of the linen grave clothes on the slab, and walks away wondering to himself what had happened. He’s incredulous over the whole thing! Now, I know it is much easier for us to see from our perspective, but don’t you just want to say, “Get a clue, Peter!” Here’s my point, though. Scoffers and skeptics insist that Jesus didn’t really rise from the dead. They say that Jesus really didn’t die (one wonders why the women came prepared to anoint the body). Or, they say there was a plot on the part of His followers to either steal the body or hide it and just tell everyone He rose. I don’t think so! These poor bumblers didn’t even remember He was supposed to rise, let alone that they were part of some plot. They were as surprised as anyone! It was not until after the resurrection, it says, that they remembered Jesus’ prediction. You really can’t blame skeptics for questioning the resurrection, though. This is pretty wild stuff—a man predicts He will come back from the dead, thirty hours of death, perfectly whole?! You know, Houdini, the great magician who seemingly could escape anything, told the world that when he died he could escape death and come back. But he never did. It’s funny, but some people who deny the possibility of Christ’s resurrection are the same ones who really believe Elvis is still alive? Listen, Elvis has definitely left the building. So did Jesus, but He came back! And while He was gone He wrestled and defeated every demonic power of Satan and came out victorious. The Bible says He conquered the final enemy – death. And because He did, we who trust Him will rise, as surely as He did! Jaroslav Pelikan edited a massive study called Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition—a four-volume historic-religious guide. One of his endless collections of world-wide, history-long editions is the Masai Creed. This creed Africanizes Christianity by declaring that Jesus “was always on safari doing good.” Please note these are quotes. It also declares that after Jesus had been “tortured and nailed hands and feet to a cross, and died, he lay buried in the grave, but the hyenas did not touch him, and on the third day, he rose from the grave. He ascended unto the skies. He is the Lord.” Friends, Jesus tasted death for us, so we do not have to die eternally in the second death. He said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies. And he who lives and believes in me will never die. (John 11:25-26) And then He asked the question, Do you believe this? A question we all need to answer. It is the one who believes in Christ who has the promise of eternal life. Yes, the resurrection seems incredible, but Christ is indeed risen, as He proved. The same God who created flesh and blood human beings from nothing can recreate them long after they’re dead! Jesus was God in the flesh, and the resurrection was God’s pre-determined way of vindicating His Son’s saving work. He is God and is able to do the impossible. God intrudes on our unbelief. The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin’s womb and an empty tomb. Jesus entered our world through a door marked “No Entrance” and left our world through a door marked “No Exit.” The Resurrection Was Real Tell me, if you were one of the dubious disciples, what would you feel you would need to be convinced that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead? Maybe appear to you alive? Show you His scars to prove it was really Him? Talk with you and eat a meal with you to prove He was bodily alive and not some apparition? How about fish—what if He ate a fish filet lunch with you? Well, the middle of chapter 24 is the famous Emmaus account, so let’s jump to verse 36 (but you really ought to read that story sometime today!). The Emmaus pair, once they recognized Jesus, had run back to Jerusalem to give the same report as the women had earlier, that Jesus was very much alive. As they were relating the story, here’s what happened … Read 24:36-48. … Jesus himself stood among them … “… Look at my hands and my feet …” “… Do you have anything to eat? …” “… This is what I told you while I was still with you …” I love the statement at verse 41: . . . they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement . . . I think I can understand this, can’t you? They are in the presence of what they first perceive to be a ghost, but are slowly coming to understand is Jesus, alive in the flesh. They’re speechless. Did you notice that? Not one of them says anything—not even impetuous Peter! Jesus was rightfully the only one speaking. After all their disbelief and all their thick-headedness, they’re finally listening, and getting it! I imagine Jesus had a good look at their tonsils, all of them standing before Him, slack-jawed. The point here is this: Jesus gave those who had any faith at all plenty of evidence to establish that He was alive and well, post-death, post-burial, three days hence. And He has given enough evidence to anyone whose heart is open to belief. Not only did He stick around for forty days between His resurrection and His ascension to heaven, He appeared to everyone He thought it necessary to show Himself to, including 500 at one time. That alone makes the resurrection one of the most highly attested events in recorded history. How many of you believe that Sir Edmund Hilary climbed to the peak of Mt. Everest? Just about every sane person would concede that he did. But did he? I mean, did he really make to the top? After all, on that final leg of the climb, it was only he and his Sherpa, Tenzig Norgay. Who’s to say Hilary didn’t pay off Tenzig? You know, Man, I give up! Here you go, Tenzy, 1,500 Nepalese Rupies—all you gotta do is tell them we made it to the top, right? Ridiculous, isn’t it, arguing about such an accepted historical event? Here’s a good question: why would these disciples go out and give their lives to preach the gospel, the centerpiece of which is the resurrection, literally dying for Jesus, if they were not absolutely convinced He was alive? How about you? Would you die for a lie? You’re in the Coliseum. They’re just ready to release those seven hungry lions and there you stand, naked and vulnerable, and they say, “Okay, you still say Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and the gospel is true? Last chance!” If you and your apostle cronies made all this up, are you going to volunteer to be gazelle ala carte? In April, 2002, Oxford University professor Richard Swineburne used the broadly accepted probability theory to test the truth of Christ’s resurrection in a gathering of Yale University professors. As reported in the New York Times, Swineburne said, “For someone dead for 36 hours to come to life again is, according to the laws of nature, extremely improbable. But if there is a God … natural laws only operate because he makes them operate.” Swineburne used the Bayes Theorem to assign values to things like the probability that God is real, Jesus’ behavior during his lifetime, and the quality of witness testimony after his death. He plugged the numbers into a probability formula and added everything up. The result: a 97 percent probability that the resurrection really happened. Amazing, isn’t it? But as rational as that sounds, the very real truth of the resurrection will continue to remain in-credible to most. Do you know why that is? Because there are wicked forces all around this world compelling people toward disbelief. On top of that, if these disciples who spent three years with Jesus, heard His resurrection prophecies, saw the empty tomb, and still had trouble believing, my guess is most of us would, too. That brings me to the final thing I’d like you to notice in the text. Verse 45 is most interesting: Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. We are sinfully inclined; by nature we are rebels against God. Sin has profoundly affected the way we think. Without God’s help, we simply cannot understand spiritual verities. For these confused, frightened, excited disciples to get a good clean grasp of the resurrection and its implications, they needed revelation from God. Jesus gave them that gift, there and then. Suddenly they “got it.” The fog cleared and they understood what the scriptures taught. The same thing happened just a couple hours earlier for the Emmaus pair. Verse 27 says Jesus began with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.  Then, and only then, when Jesus broke bread with them, they finally recognized Him. They then said, It was Jesus, raised from the dead! No wonder our hearts burned within us while he talked with us and opened the Scriptures to us! Listen carefully: such revelation is still available to us today. The Holy Spirit of God still energizes God’s Word in divine revelation to our hearts, if we will activate even the tiniest of faith we have. Do you want to know God? Do you want to trust Christ with all your heart? Do you want to have Him save you from your sins which have alienated you from God? Do you want to appropriate the heavenly blessings available to you on the basis of Christ’s death on your behalf? Do you want to live forever with Him, even though you go through death? Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. Trust Him and trust the gospel—the truth of His atoning death and resurrection. You say you can’t believe even though you want to? You are close to the kingdom. Read and obey His Word. Hang around a good Bible believing church and Bible-teaching people. You’ll get it—that saving revelation from God. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, found that divine revelation on May 24, 1738. He went unwillingly to a church society meeting at Aldersgate Street. There someone was reading from Luther’s teaching on Romans (in fact it was just his preface to his study in Romans). While the reader described the change God works in the heart through faith in Christ, Wesley said, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation, and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” William Holland was the reader that night. He wasn’t reading directly from the Bible even, but from Luther’s preface to a study in one of the books of the Bible. But even three times removed from the Word of God, just being that close, he received enough of the revelation of Jesus to birth a living faith in his heart. The Bible says God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. I take that to mean that everyone, at one point or another, gets enough understanding and revelation from God to be able to believe His Word and trust Jesus Christ as their savior. Is He tugging at your heart today? Don’t put Him off. Turn to Him with whatever small faith you have. He will receive you and give you more revelation. He will save you from your sins. He will give you the promise of salvation. You will be heir to the promises given in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. We’re going to stand and sing just three stanzas of an old hymn. Tens of thousands of people first gave their hearts to the Lord in faith singing this song and walking the aisle in a service just like this one. Are you ready to trust Christ this morning? Come… Just as I am, without one plea, But that thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou biddst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come! Just as I am, and waiting not To rid my soul of one dark blot; To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come! Just as I am, Thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve; Because Thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come!     [Back to Top]