Luke 24:1-49 - The First Skeptics (2)

Introduction

We began this morning talking about three PROOFS that Jesus used in Luke 24 to convince the Apostles of His resurrection.

The Apostles didn’t believe that Jesus had been raised from the dead when the announcement of His resurrection first came to them. But by the times of their deaths, they had all spent their lives preaching the reality of Jesus’ resurrection.

As we talked about this morning, Jesus opened the OT Scriptures to them so they could understand that the Messiah had to live, die, and be raised.

From Moses, the prophets, the Psalms—from all the Scriptures—Jesus showed them that He had to be raised from the dead.

He proved to them the necessity of His own resurrection.

[TS] Tonight we want to talk about two more PROOFS that Jesus gave the Apostles.

The PROOF from the Scriptures showed the necessity of the resurrection.

These next two PROOFS will show the reality of the resurrection and the power of the resurrection.

Major Ideas

Proof #2: The Senses (Luke 24:36-43)

Luke 24:36–43 NASB95

36 While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be to you.” 37 But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. 38 And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. 41 While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; 43 and He took it and ate it before them.

[EXP] The Apostles were really committed to NOT believing that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Even when He stood among them, they still didn’t believe that He had been raised in the body but thought they were seeing a ghost. But Jesus invited them to use their senses to verify His bodily resurrection.

Specifically, Jesus told them to see the scars on His hands and feet and to feel those scars with their own hands.

He also told them to watch as He ate a piece of broiled fish.

If Jesus’s resurrection was just some sort of ghostly resurrection, then the skeptical Apostles couldn’t have felt the scars, and Jesus wouldn’t have been able to eat fish.

With their own senses they were able to see and feel that the resurrection of Jesus was real.

This whole scene reminds us, of course, of Jesus’s interaction with Thomas.

When Jesus first appeared to the Apostles, as He did here in Luke 24, Thomas wasn’t with them. When the others said to him, “We have seen the Lord,” Thomas said, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe,” (John 20:25)

In other words, Thomas was saying that he wouldn’t believe unless he verified Jesus’s resurrection with his own senses.

And then Jesus showed up and said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing,” (John 20:27).

Thomas did so and then exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

At the invitation of Jesus, Thomas also used his senses to see and feel that the resurrection of Jesus is real.

[ILLUS] I have some new neighbors across the street, a Muslim family with a minivan that has a bumper sticker that says, “Christ in the Quran? whyislam.org”

I went to whyislam.org to see what kind of website it was. It was very respectful and very accurate in laying out the common ground and the differences between Muslims and Christians.

Regarding one of those differences, whyislam.org says…

“Muslims do not believe that Jesus died on the cross as depicted in the Gospels. The Quran does not describe in detail what happened, but insists that Jesus’ enemies did not manage to kill him. In response to those who said, “We killed the messiah, Jesus Son of Mary, the Messenger of God,” the Quran says: They killed him not, nor crucified him, but it was made so to appear to them.”

Now, hold on to that last line for a moment, “They killed him not, nor crucified him, but it was made so to appear to them.”

But if Jesus wasn’t really crucified, then he wasn’t really raised from the dead either. That too must’ve been made so to appear to the Apostles.

Now, there is nothing new under the sun, and what Islam teaches concerning Jesus on this point is really just an old heresy called docetism.

The term docetism comes from a word meaning “to seem”. It was a heresy that taught that Jesus only seemed to have a human body and be a human person.

A group of people in the early church known as the gnostics (i.e., the knowledgeable ones or the enlightened ones) adopted docetism because they believed that all matter was evil.

Thus, Jesus couldn’t have died in the body on the cross or been raised bodily from the grace, because bodies are made of matter, matter is evil, and God wouldn’t attach Himself to matter because it is evil.

But to the false teachings of Islam, Docetism, and Gnosticism, the Apostle John says in 1 John 1:1…

1 John 1:1 NIV84

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

What’s John saying? He saying that Jesus was really crucified and really raised from the dead in the body.

John says, “We’ve heard Him.”

John says, “We’ve seen Him.”

John says, “We’ve touched Him.”

And this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

[APP] Of course, you and I, we aren’t able to see Jesus and touch His scars tonight, but one day we will be able to do so. Until then, let us remember that Jesus said, “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed,” (John 20:29).

And let us be encouraged by the continual reminder of Jesus bodily death and resurrection—that continual reminder being The Lord’s Supper.

Go back to Luke 24:35 for a moment. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus appeared to them showing them from the Scriptures that the Messiah had to suffer and rise again.

But they didn’t recognize Jesus until, as it saying in v. 35, “He was recognized by the in the breaking of the bread.”

What was it about the breaking of the bread that caused them to recognize Jesus?

Some say it was that Jesus broke bread in the same as He did during the feeding of the 5,000, and these two disciples remembered that so recognized Jesus.

Others say it was that Jesus broke bread the same way He did during the Passover meal He shared with His Apostles on the night before He was crucified.

Perhaps the Apostles told these two disciples on the road to Emmaus all about it and so they recognized Jesus when He broke the bread.

But another explanation is that when Jesus broke the bread, the two disciples headed to Emmaus could see His hands. They could see the nail scars, and they knew who He was.

Every time we break bread during the Lord’s Supper we are reminded of those nail scars in the hands of Jesus.

We are reminded that His real body was broken for us.

We are reminded that He real blood was poured out for us.

And we are reminded that He was really raised in the body from the dead.

In the Lord’s Supper we are reminded that His real death and real resurrection are just as real as the bread and wine we partake of with our sense of touch and taste.

[TS] The senses testify to the reality of His resurrection.

Proof #3: The Spirit (Luke 24:46-49)

Luke 24:46–49 NASB95

46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 “You are witnesses of these things. 49 “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

[EXP] The Apostles would witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus. They had seen the necessity of it from the Scriptures. They had the reality of it verified by their own senses. But it would be as the Holy Spirit came upon them as that final proof that they would experience the power of Jesus’s resurrection.

Acts 2 says they were all still huddled together in Jerusalem when the Spirit came upon them, and then they preached or witnessed to the necessity and reality of Jesus crucified and resurrected.

Acts 2:22–24 NASB95

22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— 23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 24 “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.

Acts 2:32–33 NASB95

32 “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. 33 “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.

Acts 2:36 NASB95

36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Acts 2:38 NASB95

38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

That day about 3,000 souls were added to the family of God.

But the Spirit was at work in the disciples of Jesus before Acts 2. In Luke 24, notice vv. 31 and 45…

Luke 24:31 NASB95

31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight.

Luke 24:45 NASB95

45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,

Any time eyes are opened to see Jesus as Messiah or understand that the Scriptures point to Him, it’s the work of the Spirit.

It’s ultimately the Spirit working through the Word that shows the necessity of the resurrection.

It’s ultimately the Spirit working through our senses that shows us the reality of the resurrection.

And it’s ultimately the Spirit who empowers us to tell others about Jesus.

[ILLUS] Yesterday I took the big three (Dalton, Lydia, and Madelyn) to their cousin, Clayton’,s birthday party. During Clayton’s party we played laser tag and Clayton and all his little buddies wanted to be on the blue team together. That meant that me, Dalton, Lydia, Madelyn, their other cousins, Abigail and Hannah, and Clayton’s dad had to be on the red team together. We formed no strategy and had no plan, but we destroyed the blue team. The final score was 9,000 blue vs. 22,000 red.

Afterward we were thinking about the difference in the score and what could have caused it. Then we remembered that while the red team spread out, every time we saw a blue team member, we saw almost all the other blue team members because they were always huddled together. If you shot one of them, you could easily shoot three or four of them because they were all right there.

Staying huddled together wasn’t a very effective strategy.

But spreading out required confidence and a willingness to take risks.

[APP] Spiritually speaking the Apostles did not have that confidence and willingness until the Spirit empowered. We won’t have that confidence and willingness unless we too are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Empowered to believe that Jesus has really died.

Empowered to believe that Jesus has really risen.

Empowered to share with others the necessity, the reality, and the power of Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected.

[TS] …

Conclusion

Is that Spirit empowering you tonight? Are you willing to spread out and tell others about Jesus? To tell others that His resurrection is real and that it changes everything?

Being huddle together is comfortable, but its not a very effective strategy for winning others to Christ.

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to empower us to reach others with good news of God’s grace in the death and resurrection of Jesus.