Proclaiming The Resurrection – Part 2
Luke 24:36-49
April 11, 2021
Last Sunday we began looking at this text here in Luke’s gospel.
Because it was Easter Sunday,
I was mostly compelled to drive home the point
That Easter is NOT a holiday.
The resurrection is not something
We just sing about and celebrate 1 Sunday a year.
The resurrection is THE REALITY IN WHICH ALL BELIEVERS NOW LIVE.
Paul said this:
Romans 6:4-11 “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Keeping with the concept of identification
• Paul reminds that just as we were crucified with Christ
• And even buried with Christ,
• Paul also notes that we have been raised with Him.
He says that now, having been raised with Christ,
We now “walk in newness of life”.
The ramifications are even seen:
“He died to sin once for all…Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin”
Paul is talking about the Christian reality that
Through the resurrection of Christ
We have been SET FREE from the bondage of sin.
• While we do still live in the flesh…
• While we do still face the temptations of the enemy…
• While we do still fail at times and sin…
• It is still very important to understand that we do not have to.
Believers are free from sin.
We have new life in Christ.
This was Paul’s answer that depressing reality of Romans 7.
Remember the depressing Romans 7 mindset?
Romans 7:18-19 “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.”
Paul would eventually cry out:
Romans 7:24 “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”
Well the answer is Christ.
When we identify with Him we are crucified, buried, and raised with Him.
WE RECEIVE NEW LIFE.
Romans 8:1-4 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
This is the new resurrected life that believers now enjoy.
• We walk by the Spirit.
• We walk in the New Covenant.
• We are no longer slaves to sin.
• We are now free to choose righteousness.
THIS IS WONDERFUL NEWS FOR BELIEVERS.
We understood Jesus in the beatitudes about the realities of
Being “poor in spirit” and “mourning over sin.”
WE KNOW THAT GRIEF.
But now, through the power of the resurrection,
We have new life in Christ.
• We don’t have to do the things the world does.
• We don’t have to talk like they talk.
• We don’t have to think like they think.
• We don’t have to participate in what they participate in.
So to think the resurrection is just some holiday
You celebrate 1 day a year is to totally MISS THE POINT.
We live in the reality of the resurrection.
• Every time we resist temptation…
• Every time we put away sin…
• Every time we walk in righteousness…
• Every time old habits are broken…
• Every time old vices are laid aside…
It is all because Christ, through His resurrection, has set us free.
We live in that reality.
It is not a one-day-a-year holiday, it is our life.
We also know the resurrection is our DAILY HOPE
1 Peter 1:3-5 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Not only do we walk in the spiritual power of Christ’s resurrection,
But we also live with the hope of His bodily resurrection.
Jesus said:
John 14:19 “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.”
Paul said:
1 Corinthians 15:20-22 “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.”
We don’t just hold out hope that our souls will live forever.
• Christ was raised in a physical body.
• Christ had a bodily resurrection.
THIS IS OUR HOPE TOO.
Peter called it a living hope.
That now, even while we live in this world of suffering,
We rejoice because we know that this life is NOT all there is.
There is another life awaiting us.
There is another body awaiting us.
Right now we grieve and groan and labor and toil and struggle
But it won’t always be this way.
• Our current struggle is producing an eternal weight of glory.
• There is coming a day when God will raise us from the dead as well.
• And we will, like Christ, receive a glorified body.
• And we will live in the body in glory with Christ forever.
The writer of Hebrews reminded us of that as well.
Hebrews 2:14-15 “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”
• For the believer there is no longer a “fear of death”.
• For the believer “death has no victory, it has no sting”.
• We are promised that as believers we only “pass through the valley of the SHADOW of death”
• That Jesus was dead, and is now alive and because He holds “the keys of death and of hades”, death has no power over us.
• We who believe in Him we will “live even if we die”.
• So much so that often times for the believer the Bible merely speaks of the death of a believer as one who has “fallen asleep”.
Death holds no power over us.
Christ died and was raised in a bodily resurrection and so will we.
THAT IS OUR DAILY HOPE.
• That is why we can forsake this world.
• That is why we can deny ourselves.
• That is why we can leave it all and follow Jesus.
We have hope of an inheritance that is waiting for us
Far better than anything here.
Easter is not a one-day-a-week holiday,
1. It is the reality in which we live
2. And it is our hope for eternity.
But that is still not all.
Easter is also THE MESSAGE we proclaim throughout the world.
And that is really the emphasis of the end of Luke’s gospel.
In fact, it is the emphasis at the end of all 4 gospel accounts.
They don’t all tell of the same incident.
• Mark, Luke and John speak about what took place Sunday night
• Matthew records a meeting that happened later in Galilee
But all of them end with the same admonition.
YOUR NEW PURPOSE IN LIFE IS TO PROCLAIM THE RESURRECTION
And for 2,000+ years this has been the passion of the church.
• Starting with the 11 apostles in the upper room,
• Trickling down through every believer,
• The calling has been to go into the world and proclaim the gospel.
The message that Jesus came, suffered, died, and rose from the dead.
The promise that all those who repent and believe in Him will be forgiven.
IT IS WHY WE ARE HERE.
I am often reminded (and even reproved) by
The final chapter in John’s gospel.
It is the story of Peter and his decision to return to fishing.
John 21:3 “Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will also come with you.” They went out and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing.”
This WASN’T a vacation trip or a relaxing get-a-way,
Like we might say, “I’m going fishing this Saturday” or “I’m going to play golf next week.”
No, Peter was saying, “I’m going back to fishing”.
He was still a believer in Jesus.
But he was going to be a fisherman first.
Jesus confronted Peter and asked him 3 times if Peter loved Him.
And all 3 times after Peter acknowledged his love for Christ,
Jesus said basically the same thing.
• (21:15) “Tend My lambs”
• (21:16) “Shepherd My sheep”
• (21:17) “Tend My sheep”
Peter was no longer a fisherman, Peter was a shepherd.
That didn’t mean he never caught another fish in his life,
It simply speaks to who he now was.
Peter had it in his mind that
He was going to be a fisherman who believes in Jesus.
Jesus corrected the order of his thinking.
“No Peter, you’re gonna be a believer who may occasionally fish.”
It forces each of us to ask the question.
• “Who am I?”
• “What am I?”
And IF your answer is based on your worldly title or worldly occupation
YOU’RE MISSING THE MANDATE OF GOD ON YOUR LIFE.
You may very well have a career, but don’t let that title confuse you
As to who you are or what your primary mandate is.
We are followers of Christ.
• We have been bought with a price.
• We have been crucified with Christ and raised with Him.
• We have been placed under obligation to preach the gospel.
Whatever our worldly position we must remember that
First and foremost is our calling
To proclaim the risen Christ to the world.
That is the emphasis of these verses here in Luke’s gospel.
We looked at quite a bit of it last week,
But I want to continue looking at it this morning.
Here we have the disciples on Sunday night
They are in a state of confusion and panic.
• We see words like (37) “startled and frightened”
• We see words like (38) “troubled” and “doubts”
John’s gospel told us that they are holed up in this room
With the door locked for fear of the Jews.
In their mind Jesus is dead and they are next.
In many ways they are all in agreement with that “Impotent Gospel” that Cleopas preached.
• To them, the life and message of Jesus now only represents wasted potential and boatloads of confusion.
And if you follow Luke’s theme it all centers around the fact that
They are unwilling to believe the Scriptures.
• They didn’t listen when Jesus said this would happen
• They hadn’t paid attention to the message of the Old Testament
• Like those two men on the road to Emmaus they were also “foolish men” and
“slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken”
BUT ON THIS NIGHT JESUS WAS CHANGING THAT.
• They were no longer going to be men of confusion they were about to become men of conviction.
• They were no longer going to be fearful men locked in a room, they were going to be courageous men preaching openly in the temple.
• They were no longer going to be weak men unable to handle adversity, they were going to be powerful men who put on display the very power of God.
It was all about to change.
Jesus was taking these disciples (learners)
And He’s about to make the apostles (sent ones).
These 14 verses in Luke’s gospel make that point.
Jesus here gives these men what they need to be preachers of the gospel.
#1 SIMPLE EVIDENCE
Luke 24:37-43
• We saw this last time so there’s no need to spend a lot of time here again.
• But you again notice the obvious rebuke of the Lord as He instantly stood in their midst.
(38) “And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?”
• It was unwarranted anxiety
• It was baseless doubt
• They should’ve known better
• They should’ve expected this
Later Peter will give a similar admonition to suffering believers.
1 Peter 4:12 “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;”
• A believer may certainly grieve in the midst of suffering and persecution
• But they should never be surprised or confused by it.
• It is well-documented in Scripture that persecution awaits those who follow
Christ.
In that same way the disciples should not have been confused
Regarding the death and resurrection of Christ.
That message is seen throughout the Old Testament
And it was even personally proclaimed to them by Jesus Himself.
So the rebuke is because they didn’t listen.
Then Jesus gives them the simple evidence that they apparently needed.
• He shows them His hands,
• He shows them His feet,
• He asks them to touch Him.
And when that is not enough,
• He even eats a piece of fish in front of them to prove, He is alive.
The apostles needed this.
It was also necessary that they see Him because they would become the initial proclaimers of that truth to the world.
Now, it must be noted that WE DON’T have that.
• We believe the resurrection based on the Scriptures.
• We proclaim the resurrection without having actually seen Jesus alive.
And incidentally Jesus pronounced a SPECIAL BLESSING
On those who do believe without seeing.
• Apparently on this night Thomas wasn’t with the rest.
• He won’t see Jesus until Jesus appears a second time.
• And Thomas’s pessimism provokes Jesus to talk about the importance of
believing without seeing.
John 20:26-29 “After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then He 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.” Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”
The blessing is ours when we believe without seeing.
But you see that Jesus still gave the disciples the simple evidence they needed.
We also saw last time the second thing the disciples needed.
#2 SCRIPTURAL INSIGHT
Luke 24:44-48
What a fascinating reality when Luke says (45) “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures”
• We know that God’s word is spiritually appraised.
• We know that no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
And so we know that understanding Scripture has NEVER been a matter of intellectual capacity, but a matter of grace and revelation.
This was certainly the case for the disciples.
Acts 4:13 “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.”
What a marvelous reality that even the “uneducated” and “untrained” were graciously granted such insight from God that even the religious elite could not debate them.
Indeed Paul would say:
1 Corinthians 2:12-13 “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”
What a great passage regarding Christian preaching.
• We take the things of the Spirit;
• The things God reveals to us in His word,
• And these are the things we preach!
We need that Scriptural understanding.
SO DID THE DISCIPLES.
And on this day, instantly, Christ imparted to them spiritual wisdom.
Starting that night, they would never read the Old Testament the same way again.
If you read the NASB this is actually an easy study because the NASB puts all Old Testament quotes in small caps when they show up in the New Testament.
But travel sometime through Acts and note all the Old Testament passages that the apostles preached.
• They love Psalms 2, Psalms 16, Psalms 110, and Psalms 118
• They preach Joel 2, Isaiah 53, and Jeremiah 31
• The writer of Hebrews is especially fond of his Old Testament as he faithfully shows us Jesus in all those passages.
• Read Galatians 3 and 4 and listen as Paul unpacks the entire Abraham story and shows you Christ in all that God did in Abraham’s life.
• Look at 1 Peter 3 and listen as Peter explains to you how Noah’s Ark is about Jesus.
They now saw the true subject of all Scripture and that is Jesus.
And instantly the gospel began to immerge in every page.
Jesus said when they rightly understood their Old Testament
The gospel would become clear all through it.
(46-47) “and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
There is you a good checklist to look for as you read the Old Testament.
Jesus said these are things that are written in the Old Testament.
• “Christ would suffer”
• “and rise again from the dead the third day”
• “repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name”
• “to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem”
The disciples had not seen those things in their Old Testament before,
But now they would see them everywhere.
THEY NEEDED SCRIPTURAL INSIGHT
Because they were going out to preach the Scriptures.
And of course you need that too.
Even as this first generation of apostles would pass the torch on to the next generation the mandate was clear.
Listen to Paul instruct Timothy:
2 Timothy 4:1-2 “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
That is our mandate, to go out and preach the word.
• We now take the Old Testament which points to and proclaims Christ and we preach it.
• We now take the New Testament which clarifies the gospel and we preach it.
THIS IS THE CALLING.
What else in your life could have more importance
Than the proclamation of the gospel to another human being?
By comparison,
THERE IS NO OTHER JOB and THERE IS NO OTHER MESSAGE.
This is why they were here.
This is why you are here.
To proclaim that Jesus Christ died for sinners and was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, and that through repentance and faith in Christ sinners can be forgiven.
So they needed Simple Evidence, They needed Scriptural Insight
#3 SUPERNATURAL POWER
Luke 24:49
This is a fascinating command from the Lord here.
There is no message more urgent for a lost and dying world
Than the message that Jesus Christ atoned for sinners
And conquered the grave.
THAT IS AS URGENT AS IT GETS.
So it is almost strange that following the mandate to preach
The first command of Jesus is to wait.
“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.”
You of course know that Jesus is speaking of the Holy Spirit.
• He is the promise of the Father.
• If you go into Luke’s sequel (the book of Acts) you’ll read Peter’s sermon at Pentecost about this promise.
Peter will quote from Joel 2.
Joel 2:28-32 “It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. “Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. “I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke. “The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. “And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be delivered;”
It was a remarkable promise.
If you ask: Was the Holy Spirit present in the Old Testament?
The answer is “Yes”.
No one was ever saved without the regeneration of the Holy Spirit,
And that includes even men like Abraham or Moses or Daniel.
The Holy Spirit awakened men, convicted men, drew men, saved men, enlightened men, and sanctified men.
You say, “Then what is the difference in the New Testament?”
The difference is that in the Old Testament
Only a few were recipients of the Spirit’s power.
• We read about how “The Spirit of the LORD came upon” Samson or Moses or David or someone else.
Remember the story about Moses in Numbers.
• In Numbers 11 Moses was overwhelmed with the burden of leadership and he
cried out to God.
God answered:
Numbers 11:16-17 “The LORD therefore said to Moses, “Gather for Me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. “Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit who is upon you, and will put Him upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you will not bear it all alone.”
So God did that very thing and those 70 men all prophesied once, but not again.
However there were 2 who continued to prophesy.
Numbers 11:26-29 “But two men had remained in the camp; the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them (now they were among those who had been registered, but had not gone out to the tent), and they prophesied in the camp. So a young man ran and told Moses and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” Then Joshua the son of Nun, the attendant of Moses from his youth, said, “Moses, my lord, restrain them.” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’S people were prophets, that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!”
Moses looked for a day when the power of God’s Spirit for ministry
Would be upon every single believer.
• This was the promise Joel spoke of in Joel 2
• This was the promise Jesus spoke of Luke 24
• This was the promise Peter said was fulfilled in Acts 2.
THE SPIRIT CAME WITH POWER.
Years ago, I attended a conference in which R.C. Sproul spoke about the power of the Holy Spirit which came at Pentecost.
“We also know that in the Upper Room, Jesus gave His longest discourse on the Holy Spirit when He said that when He would leave, He would not leave us comfortless, but that He would send along with the Father the paraclete, or what the Old King James Version of the Bible translated as the Comforter. And there’s a little problem with that use of the term “Comforter” in translating the Greek parakletos because it goes back to earlier English, indeed Elizabethan English, when the English language was more closely informed by ancient Latin than it is today. And the translation “comforter” had its roots in the Latin cum forte. So what Jesus was saying when He was saying, “I’m going to send you a Comforter,” what the King James called the Comforter, was that He was saying I’m going to send you the One who will come with strength. You know, we say a person may have a particular strength and we call it his forte and the use of the term forte is familiar to those of you who are engaged in music. You know, that little “f” or the double “ff” stands for forte, it means you play it with strength and with power.
And so what Jesus was saying is, I’m not sending the Holy Spirit to dry your tears, to console you, to make you feel better after you’ve been beaten up by your adversaries, although He does that. Rather the promise of the coming Spirit was for power and for strength.”
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/TM13-3/undervaluing-pentecost-rc-sproul
This is what Jesus is talking about here too.
We are aware of the benefits of the Holy Spirit.
• We know that He sanctifies
• We know that He convicts
• We know that He guides
• We know that He glorifies Jesus
And all of those are important.
But the emphasis here from Jesus is that
The disciples dare not begin their ministry
Without the power that the Holy Spirit provides.
And in all honesty,
This is perhaps the main reason why so many people who claim to be believers never share the gospel.
• It could be that they aren’t really believers at all…
• It could be that since they are not believers they do not have the Holy Spirit…
• They do not have power.
The only other option or explanation would be blatant disobedience.
• The only other option is that they are a believer,
• And they do have the Holy Spirit,
• But they just refuse to obey the Lord.
But the point to be made here is simply this.
THERE IS POWER FOR THE MANDATE
• Christ has chosen to entrust His gospel, not to the angelic realm, but to the
human realm.
• Angels aren’t called to preach the gospel; that is a job for the church.
• But Christ did not leave them powerless.
He sent supernatural equipping to accomplish that goal.
He sent His Spirit.
Not just upon a select few of called men and women,
But upon all saved men and women.
Every believer now has the Spirit of God
And THE NECESSARY POWER to preach the gospel.
Paul said:
2 Corinthians 10:3-4 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.”
He’s NOT talking about miracle working power,
• Not all believers have that.
• I would argue that only the apostles had that.
He is talking about the power it takes to proclaim the gospel.
He is talking about the courage and confidence and conviction needed.
AND THESE MEN NEEDED THAT POWER.
On this day they were anxious, terrified, confused men
Locked in a room out of fear of the Jews.
But after the Spirit would come, they would break out of that room.
• They would take up residence in the temple
• And they would proclaim the gospel from the rooftops.
They became men of confidence and courage and conviction.
And the difference was the Spirit of God.
They needed Simple Evidence, Scriptural Insight, and Supernatural Power
AND JESUS GAVE IT ALL TO THEM.
What I want to remind you of is that
Christ has given those things to you as well.
• The Evidence they received has been declared to you also.
• The Scripture they understood has been enlightened to you also.
• The Spirit they received has been imparted to you also.
And the mandate that were given has been given to you as well.
Go forth and preach the gospel.
Acts 1:8 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
• Peter preached that gospel in Jerusalem.
• His preaching also reached Judea.
• When persecution broke out it was Philip who took the gospel to Samaria.
• Paul took the gospel to Asia minor, to Rome, and even to Spain.
But none of them carried it to “the remotest part of the earth.”
The church is still doing that to this day.
And you are to be a part of that.
TAKE THE GOSPEL TO THE WORLD.
Preach Jesus crucified and raised from the dead.
• It is the message you are entrusted with
• It is the message you are enlightened to
• It is the message you are equipped to preach
Go preach it!
