It is truly wonderful to be with all of you today.
We have a wonderful crowd here and we appreciate that so very
much. We have visitors that are among
us. We have visitors from other
congregations. We have visitors from the
community. And we want you to know that
you're our honored guest and we say welcome and please come back
every time we have an opportunity to assemble.
We're continuing this morning in our series that I began the last
time, that is after the resurrection.
We began a series on the 40 days that the Bible says in Acts
chapter 1 and verse 3, the 40 days that Jesus made himself
alive before them. So the 40 days from the time of
the resurrection to the time of the ascension, I began a series,
and this is Part 2. Jesus had just met with those
two disciples, and we'll get into that in just a moment.
Those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, that little village.
And then after that, this appearance here, this is the 5th
appearance that our Lord made after his resurrection.
And by the way, there's 10 appearances and five actually
hit on the actual day the Lord was resurrected from the dead in
Luke's account in Luke chapter 24, Luke only mentions 2 of
them. He mentions the account on the
road to Emmaus that we've already studied, and he mentions
this account when Jesus came back to Jerusalem and met
between before those disciples, all were present except Thomas.
That's next time we'll get to Thomas a week later.
But Jesus met with them here. And this is number 5 appearance.
Interesting though Luke only records 2 of the 10.
And then after this appearance here, Luke skips 39 days and
goes to the ascension. So we're going to keep things in
chronological sequence. We'll do this today.
And the next time we're going to John chapter 20.
And that's the 6th appearance post resurrection.
We come to our passage in Luke chapter 24 and verse 36.
And let me just set this up. Jesus had already met with those
disciples on the Emmaus road. And just a couple of things
about that. They're travelling along.
They left Jerusalem, the Sabbath is now over.
And the Bible says they're speaking about all the things
that had happened. And on the scene comes Jesus,
but they don't know who it was. In fact, the Bible says their
eyes were restrained, that they did not know him.
And as we noticed last time, that was indeed something
supernatural. It wasn't time for Jesus to be
revealed to them. And Jesus shows up and they
don't know who it is. And Jesus says, what manner of
communications are you Speaking of and are sad.
And they said, you must surely be the only stranger in
Jerusalem to not know about the things we're talking about.
And Jesus says this. He says what things?
And Jesus allows them to unburden their aching hearts.
And then the Bible says he begins with Moses and all the
prophets He began in the Old Testament.
And he expounded unto them the word of God, the things
concerning himself. They travel 7 miles.
They get to Emmaus, that little village.
And Jesus Acts is always going to keep on going.
But the Bible says that they called Him to come to their
home. They made the choice.
He was not going to force himself on them.
And you know what? He didn't force himself on us
today either. You want Jesus, you've got to
invite him in your home. You want Jesus in your heart,
You've got to do the invitation. He is knocking on the door, but
the doorknob is on of your heart is on your side.
Same is true back then. They invite him into their home
and the Bible says then finally Jesus reveals himself to them in
the breaking of bread and then he disappears and he's gone.
Quite an experience, wasn't it? Wouldn't that have been an
amazing experience to all of a sudden Jesus is there, and then
all of a sudden Jesus is not there.
Yeah, amazing experience. Except that's not what impressed
them the most. What impressed them the most is
what they said. They said this.
Didn't our hearts burn within us when He showed us the Scriptures
along the way? The Word of God burned in their
hearts. And you know what they did?
They didn't wait. They got up immediately and they
went back to Jerusalem and they told the others what they had
saw. They told the others He's risen
and He showed Himself to them in the breaking of bread.
And then as they're talking about these things and He's
telling all that is, they're telling the other disciples what
they saw. Jesus himself stood in the midst
and he said to them, peace to you.
This is really amazing. I want to make a point here
about peace. Jesus was not wishing them a
good day. He wasn't saying like we do, how
you doing? He wasn't saying like we
sometimes say, good to see you. When Jesus said these words,
peace to you. It's the same thing that he said
a week later when Thomas is now present and he begins that same
greeting, peace to you. What was Jesus doing here?
First of all #1 Jesus is the Prince of peace #2 Jesus is the
author of peace. Therefore, Jesus is the giver of
peace. It's the same thing as when the
great apostle Paul said may the God of peace grant you peace in
all things. You know why?
Because God is the giver of peace, so is Jesus.
Here's my point. He wasn't wishing them a happy
time. He was giving them peace.
And if you in your life you want peace, I mean real peace, I'm
going to tell you right now, there's sometimes in our life,
our lives are filled with turmoil.
Our lives are filled with all kinds of stuff and everybody
knows what I'm talking about and I don't have to elaborate.
The world slings mud our way. It's just the way it is, right?
We get it and sometimes in our mind we think, you know what?
I'm peaceful when everything is going just as I want it to go.
That is not the peace that the Lord offers.
The peace that the Lord offers is a peace that you will have
regardless of the circumstances in your life.
It's the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.
Philippians chapter 4. It is the greatest peace of all.
You know what? Practically speaking, it's
knowing this, that God is in control of my life.
And even though I got to go through some difficult stuff,
that's not fair, that is rotten, that's difficult and hard.
It doesn't matter. Two things.
God's in control #2 that was 1 #2 everything is OK between me
and God. And you, what you have, you've
got the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.
One more thing and I'm moving on.
I'm going to tell you something right now.
You want real peace. You'll only find it in Jesus
Christ. If you are out of Jesus Christ
and you are away from the Lord, you have no peace.
But if you have Jesus, you got it all.
You got it all. Notice what happens though.
Jesus says peace to you. But they're terrified and
frightened. And then it says and supposed
they had seen a spirit. You know, Luke does something
amazing here. He actually describes their
fear. And I realize sometimes we just
get afraid, right? But this says terrified and
frightened. Now, I tell you what, I've been
nervous during certain times in my life.
Everybody has fear. Everybody gets afraid.
They were terrified. I don't even know how to really
wrap around the degree of that fear, but they were terrified.
There was one time I'm going to share with you, you know, when
it talks about people talk about your knees are knocking because
you're nervous. I was a kid one time.
I was a young, well, I say a kid.
I was very, very young. And I got up to give a lesson at
a big meeting and one of the five minute talks, I was the
first speaker. And I remember I was so nervous.
My knees were literally doing this.
They were moving and I knew what that meant.
There was a level or a degree of fear that came over me.
I'm so thankful that those days are so far gone.
They are so far a go. I don't even know what that's
like anymore. But I remember that day.
Terrified. Frightened.
That's what they were. Why?
Why were they so terrified? Why were they so frightened?
Because they had supposed they saw a spirit.
Here's the problem. They couldn't wrap their mind
around the actual significance of Jesus actually being there.
So let their mind do. Their mind goes to their
superstitions, and we can do that too.
We got to be careful about that. There was another time you were
in Matthew chapter 14. That's exactly what they did.
They saw Jesus coming and Jesus is walking on water.
The disciples are out on that boat and they see Jesus coming
and it's dark and all of a sudden here it comes, Jesus, and
they're scared out of their mind.
They thought the Bible says they thought they saw a ghost.
Why superstition? Here's the same thing.
They were terrified because they thought they saw a spirit.
And the reason for that is simple.
Even some Jewish people who believed in heaven and hell
inconsistently believed in ghosts or other kinds of spirits
associated with the dead. People often believe that they
saw apparitions of the dead, often in dreams or soon after
the appearing of a person's death.
Now, I'm just going to share this with you very, very
quickly. My father passed away over 26
years ago, and for years, maybe you've had a similar experience
with somebody that you have loved and lost.
But for years, I dreamt that my dad was alive.
I had that same dream over and over, different circumstances,
but the same dream. There was my dad, and we were
talking and it was real and he was there.
Yeah, that's bad. I'm going to tell you, as real
as it seemed, it was just a dream.
It wasn't an apparition. He didn't come and visit me.
Sometimes people think that they can get these mediums and break
up. I'm telling you, I don't want to
be disrespectful. That doesn't happen.
How do I know? I'm going to give you Bible, but
don't turn to the passage. Do that later.
I want you to pay attention, Luke 16.
There's no connection between those that have died and those
that are living. I'll just leave it at that.
In your own time, read Luke 16, OK?
There's no connection. Sometimes people can feel like
we could think, man, that loved one's right here with me.
And you know what? There's times when I felt like
my dad was right there with me because in my memory of him, he
was in my memory, not literally superstition.
They thought back then that somebody that just died may show
up as an apparition or as a ghost or as a spirit after they
had just passed away. Now Jesus proves this is no
apparition in verse 39, but let's look at verse 38 first.
He said to them, and I love this.
Two questions. Why are you troubled and why do
doubts arise in your hearts? Jesus is brilliant.
He's going to address 2 things. Number one, their emotional
state and their intellectual state.
And there's so much I could say about this.
There really is, but I'm just going to say this.
He's, he's addressing their emotions by saying why are you
troubled? Then he addresses their
intellect and says, why did doubts arise in your hearts?
In other words, as I paraphrase, I might just say it like this in
the common vernacular. Calm down and use your head.
Use your intellect. By the way, the Bible
religiously always appeals to our intellect.
Always. Then we put our emotion behind
it in our service to God, everything we've got behind it.
But religion that is emotion or experience driven is not
sufficient. Religion that is Bible based and
scripturally based with emotion behind it is everything.
That's called living the Christian life.
Jesus deals with these two things.
Sometimes people want to just deal with emotion and experience
only. Jesus says use your head and
then he gets specific. He said behold my hands and my
feet that it is I myself handle me and see for a spirit does not
have flesh and bones as you see that I have.
Now the reason that that's significant is many ancients
believed in a shadowy afterlife such could not be grasped with
the hand. So what is he doing?
He's proving I am the son of God, I am Jesus, I am the one
that was crucified. It's me and I'm back.
And he did so like this. He showed them his hands and his
feet. Now, how many times we just read
past this as proof that he rose from the dead knowing that his
hands and his feet had holes in them because he was nailed to a
cross. But I think there's something a
little more added to it than that.
He showed them his hands and his feet.
In other words, not just the mark of crucifixion, but the
specific marks of his crucifixion.
Every one of the disciples knew that Jesus was nailed to a Roman
cross. Now, why is it significant?
I did a little reading. I did a little research.
Maybe you knew this already. If you did, bear with me.
I've always thought that on a Roman cross all crucifixions
were done with the use of nails, but then I read a little bit and
I found out that's not true. Sometimes they were tied,
sometimes they were tied by way of their their hands and their
feet. And since death on the cross was
death by suffocation, meaning this, you would hang there and
you couldn't breathe. So you would pull yourself up
and then you would get a breath and then you would sink back
down. And that's why people live for
even days on the cross because after all, what is the number
one thing that causes people to die?
The number one cause of death, By the way, did you know it's
the only cause of death? Somebody can actually be
expedited death by a gunshot, but the one thing that stops
life is breath. At some point you stop
breathing. So that was the cause of death,
except for Jesus. Now, he didn't die of
suffocation. We we already studied that.
But everybody else died of suffocation.
So sometimes they were tied and they lived for days on the cross
sometimes. And by the way they did that I
read when the crime wasn't all that bad as other crimes.
Sometimes they did both. Sometimes they drove nails into
the hands and tied the feet. But when it came to the most
vile criminals and the worst crimes of all, do you know what
they did? They drove nails into the hands.
And they drove nails into the feet when it was the worst of
criminals. In the Lord's case prophesied he
would die between two Mal factors. 2 thieves prophecy
fulfilled. But he also did absolutely
nothing wrong. In fact, 6 times, Pilate said I
find no fault in him. Six times this morning I'm in my
office thinking about this and I thought about that song as Jesus
was crucified like that. Remember that song?
He bore it all that I might live.
Jesus took it all and tasted death for every man.
John 20 and 20, John adds this. When he had said this, he showed
them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad
when they saw the Lord. So if they were glad when they
saw the Lord, then why in Luke chapter 24 and verse 41 does it
say this? But while they still did not
believe for joy and marvelled, why did they not believe?
The unbelief was not denial. He's standing before them.
They can see him, they can touch him, they can hear him.
It wasn't that they disbelieved because of the facts.
Here we find that Luke says they didn't believe for joy.
What does that mean for joy? Lensky said it this way.
It's one thing to disbelieve. It's quite another to disbelieve
because of joy. The heart is too small to take
in the great joy all at once. It's another words, another way
of saying this, and we say this too.
It's just too good to be true. You ever have something that is
absolutely so amazing? You just say, I know what's
happening. I don't doubt it, but it's just
too good to be true. That's what they were saying.
So then Jesus asked him for some food.
Again, very important. He's asking them for some food,
not because he's starving. Stay with me on that.
He says, do you have any food? So they gave him a piece of
broiled fish and some honeycomb. And I highlighted that honeycomb
for a reason. And the reason for that is some
have contested this phrase because it's not found or it's
omitted in some manuscripts. So some manuscripts do not
include some honeycomb. And now I'm going to say this.
It doesn't matter because that's not the point.
The point wasn't what he ate. The point was that he did eat
and proving that he was not an apparition, but that he was in
the flesh. That's the point.
So that's what happened. He took it and ate in their
presence, and that's what's significant.
In other words, proving he's the resurrected Lord in the flesh.
OK, why is this significant? This is significant because many
Jewish sources doubted that angels ate human food.
So this is for the proof that he is the risen Lord, He is the
risen Lord, He is before them. Then verse 44, well, let me just
add this, what Lenski said about that He's not eating for his
mere hunger or enjoyment, but as a further proof that his body is
undeniably before them. Now we go to verse 44.
And now it's time for the Lord to preach a little sermon.
He says. Then he said to them, These are
the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you.
That all these things must be fulfilled, which are written in
the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms
concerning me. So, in other words, in addition
to the physical proof of His resurrection, in addition to
that physical proof, here I am, He offers them scriptural
evidence. Now it is not certain in study
of this whether these words were actually spoken on this night
during this 5th appearance, or whether Luke is just putting all
the combined things together that the Lord taught in 40 days
and condensing it in these passages.
We don't know for sure. And again, it doesn't matter.
Bottom line is the Lord taught this, The Lord said this, and
what was He doing? He was preparing His disciples
during that 40 days that he spent with his disciples, He's
preparing them for the Kingdom to come and they would be
ambassadors and they would be preachers and they would spread
the word of God. So he continues to prepare them
and he points out four areas to illustrate that his death and
resurrection are in fact part of God's predetermined plan.
He does this in two ways. Number 1, he says these are the
words which I spoke to you while I was still with you.
Now, sometimes it's hard to hear words like I told you so
sometimes we don't like to hear that.
But respectfully, I think what the Lord is telling them is this
is nothing new. You are afraid, you are
astonished, you are amazed, and you can't wrap your head around
it. I've showed you my hands and my
feet. Now we're going to go to the
Word of God. And by the way, before we do,
this is nothing new. This is exactly what I told you
while I was still with you. How many times did Jesus say I'm
going to suffer, I'm going to die on the third day, I will
rise again one time. What do you mean by that?
They didn't get it, they didn't get it, still didn't get it.
All of a sudden they know it's Jesus too good to be true proves
physically that's him. And now he says, by the way,
this is exactly what I told you. And what Jesus is going to do
now is he's going to actually equate what he predicted while
he was with them, and he's going to equate that with Old
Testament prophecies concerning himself.
And he said this. These are the same words that I
spoke to you, that all things must be fulfilled.
Do you remember one time when Jesus said I'm going away and
they didn't want him to? And I can't even imagine what
that would have been like to be in the inner circle with Jesus
and then all of a sudden have Jesus say I'm going away.
And all they can just think is no, this is our leader, this is
our Messiah, this is our king. And all they can even fathom is
don't go. Jesus one time said, though, he
said, I have to go. It's expedient that I go.
If I don't go, the comforter will not come.
The comforter is the promise of my Father.
It was the Holy Spirit. He's going to send them to the
apostles to guide them into all truth.
What had to happen first? He had to suffer.
He had to die, He had to be buried, He had to race from the
dead. And he's going to have to ascend
to his Father. All things are going to have to
be fulfilled. Why does he direct them to the
Old Testament? For the same reason he directed
those two men on the road to Emmaus to the Old Testament.
There are over 300 prophecies about Jesus Christ in the Old
Testament. That's amazing.
Amazing. 300 In addition, all of the types and shadows and
pictures that foretold about Jesus adding all that, and by
the way, it was all fulfilled in one event by one man, and that's
Jesus Christ. So he goes to the Old Testament
and he teaches them concerning the word of God.
He says this everything must be fulfilled, which is written in
the law of Moses and in the prophets and the Psalms
concerning me. OK.
The Hebrew Scriptures are divided into 3 divisions, 3
divisions. There is the Law, there is the
Prophets, and there is the Psalms.
Now the Law is also known as the Torah, The prophets is known as
the Nevium, and the Psalms is known as the KET.
Is the the KET of the KET to them?
I had to, by the way, look up those words and the
pronunciation apps and then phonetically put it down because
I don't speak Hebrew. Maybe you do.
I don't speak Greek. Either I'd rather just tell you
what it means. The law, the.
Prophets and the Psalms, Scriptures in the Hebrew, those
divisions. This is the only place where the
Lord in all the gospel accounts mentions all three together.
And these three sections combined make up the Tanakh.
Which is by the. Way an acronym derived from the
1st letter of each one. And Jesus puts.
It all down. Are you starting to get the
point here? The entire Old Testament is
about Jesus. He's going to prove.
Himself, he said, This is what I've said to you while I was
with you. I got more stuff though, and all
things must be fulfilled which are written in the Law, the
prophets, and in the Psalms. OK, So what actually is that?
What constitutes all that? Well, the first one's easy.
The Law, the Law of Moses. That's the easy one.
The Law of. Moses, the Pentateuch comprised
the Torah. It's the first five books of the
Bible. It is the books of the law.
It is also called the books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The first five books of the Bible.
So in the first five books of the Bible, Jesus uses that too
to teach him concerning the things fulfilling that need to
be fulfilled concerning himself. Now that's the easy part.
What about the prophets? Now maybe you're thinking this.
Well, the prophets are the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets.
If we go to our Bibles. And we opened it up.
We have 5 books of major prophets and 12 books of minor
prophets. 17 books of prophecy. OK, but.
What was the Lord? Talking about when?
He said prophets plural. He's talking.
About two things. He's talking about two groups of
scripture. One, he's talking about former
prophets and #2 the second one he's calling, he's calling that
latter prophets. So the former prophets were
these. It contains 4.
Sections Joshua, Judges, First and Second Samuel and 1st and
2nd Kings. That was called or referred to
as the Former prophets. What about the latter prophets?
The latter prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the 12
books of the minor prophets, which is Hosea, Joel, Amos,
Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai,
Zechariah, Malachi. OK, that is the first.
That is, the former prophets and the latter Prophets.
Now notice. Concerning Jesus, everything had
to be fulfilled. That was written in the law of
Moses and also in the prophets. But what about the Psalms?
What are the Psalms? The Psalms comprised 11 books,
Psalms, Proverbs, Job, A Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations,
Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra and me and my and I have a
hyphen here, and I put that together for a reason.
I'm going to show you why. And also the two books of
Chronicles, First and Second Chronicles.
OK, now. Under Judaism, the.
Jews recognize the same material that we recognize in our 39
books of the Old Testament. We have 27 books of the New
Testament, 39 of the Old Testament.
What the Jews did is, though the Jews actually compacted it and
made it 24 books, still same material.
And this is how they did that. The consolidation was done by
merging First and Second Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, First and
Second Chronicles, and then they joined Ezra and Noor Maya
together as one. Then they made the 12 minor
profits into one volume. And because of that, that's how
they came up with 24 volumes that they stood for under the
Old Law now, under the old Law of Moses.
And that's what Jews commonly do even today, even though they
recognize the content in the 39 books that we have in our Bibles
today too. All that being said.
It had to be fulfilled in the law of Moses, the prophets, and
the Psalms concerning Jesus. And then notice verse 45.
He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the
scriptures. Do you see that?
Don't let anybody tell you that the scriptures cannot be
understood. Don't let anybody.
Ever say, well, everybody has their own interpretation of it?
Or what's? True for you is good for you is
true for me is good for me, and we all just do our own thing.
When the Bible. Says that we work out our own
salvation. It does not mean we choose our
own path and all paths lead to heaven.
That's not what that means. When it says that I have to.
Work out my own salvation, and you got to work out your own
salvation, and you got to work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. It means this.
I got to do it on my own, in my own Christian life, and make the
determination to follow and serve God as God has instructed
me to do. There's only one.
Truth of the Word of God. There was always one.
Truth of the Word of God. And when Jesus preached this
sermon to them, he said he opened their understanding that
they might comprehend the scriptures.
Just like they did on. The Rodo Emmaus, the word of God
is knowable. It is understandable in John 832
and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free. Then in verse 46.
Then he said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was
necessary for Christ to suffer and arise from the dead the
third day. What's the Lord's point in
summing up? Here's his point.
Not only was it necessary for Christ to suffer, die and be
raised on the third day, it was also the determined purpose of
God. You know the suffering.
And death of Jesus. The burial in the.
Resurrection of Jesus is anticipated in scriptures, as
many scriptures I could show you.
I'm just going to give you one from the New Testament.
It's in First Corinthians chapter 15 concerning the
gospel. The Gospel is the good news of
the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
When the Bible talks. About we have to obey the
gospel. How do you obey a historic event
like that that already happened of the death, burial and
resurrection of Jesus? We know according to Romans
chapter 6, it's when you're baptized to the mission of sins.
That's how you obey that form of doctrine.
The gospel is the good news of the death, burial and
resurrection. So notice in first Corinthians
15, beginning in verse 3, For I have delivered to you first of
all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins. According to what the
scriptures, how he was buried and how he rose again the third
day. According to the scriptures,
through his triumph over death he proves to be the Christ, the
Son of God, Romans chapter 1 and verse 4, and declared to be the
Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by
the resurrection of the dead. Did You Know?
You know we talk about the Godhead, right?
And in the Godhead there are three that bear record in
heaven. And sadly, people.
Get that all out of whack sometimes and they
misunderstand. The Bible says there's three
that bear record in heaven, and we know the three.
It's God. It's Jesus, it's the Holy
Spirit. And then the Bible.
Says and these three are one. It doesn't mean they're one
purpose or one person. It means they're one and
purpose. They work together, they agree
and one, I have a point. Stay with me setting this up.
We have always. Said they stand together, they
work together, they agree together, and all that's true.
Have you ever stopped? To consider that with regards to
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that all parties in the
Godhead participated in the resurrection working together.
Let's go to the Bible and find out.
How about Romans 8:00 and 11:00? I love this passage.
But if the Spirit of him, who's that?
That's the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit of Him, who's
him? That's God.
So if the Holy Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead,
dwells in you, this tells us, by the way, that the Holy Spirit
participated in raising Jesus from the dead, and the emphasis
is on the Holy Spirit who dwells in you.
Let's go further. He who raised Christ from the
dead, that's God, will also give life to your mortal bodies
through His Spirit. That's the Holy Spirit who
dwells in you. God, this passage is showing,
and the Holy Spirit. Both worked together and.
Participated in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but there's
more. First, Peter 318 For Christ also
suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made
alive in the Spirit. So in other words, Caldwell
summed it up like this. Jesus was both.
Raised by God on the throne in heaven and by his own divine
power. Who participated in the
resurrection of Jesus Christ? Who was involved?
God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And guess what's going to happen
according to Romans, if the Holy Spirit is in you and dwells in
you and you live that godly life.
And by the way, the Holy Spirit indwells the faithful Christian.
God will give. Life.
In that day when? Jesus comes back through the
Spirit that Paul says dwells in you.
Isn't that great? And by the way, you know what
life. Means there there's only one
resurrection of the dead, those that are resurrected to the
resurrection of life and those to the resurrection of
damnation. That's what it says.
That's what the Bible says. Those that are resurrected.
To the resurrection of life are those that are saved.
What a powerful, powerful passage.
OK, all that being. Said and we are wrapping up our
remarks. Here's my question.
Jesus Christ did. Not need a physical body to
continue to exist in. Fact.
I'm going to tell. You right now when you die, and
you for all of you that have seen me at funerals and heard me
at funerals, I say this all the time, when you die, you are just
as alive as you've always been. You're just not here.
We no. Longer have a physical body when
we die so. My question.
Is why was a bodily resurrection necessary for Jesus?
He didn't need the He didn't need the physical body.
He didn't need that physical body to exist.
He still existed. Why did he need the physical
body? What was that?
I think there's five reasons really quickly #1 to demonstrate
the Lord's victory over sin. You know an amazing.
Thing in First Corinthians 15 at the end of time, when time shall
be no more. Here it says the last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death. When Jesus comes.
Back. There's only one enemy left.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, when death
shall be no more and Jesus comes back right.
That victory would have not been whole or complete had Jesus not
been resurrected 1st and incidentally has become the
first fruits of them that slept. Meaning this he was the first
one to be resurrected from the dead, never to die again.
He had to do it to demonstrate his complete victory over sin
#2. To prove ultimately.
That he is the Son of God. You know, had Jesus.
Remained in the tomb, you remember.
Even the disciples themselves had disbelief and great dismay.
Had there not been a body presented?
There would have been. Continued disbelief.
And continued. Despair and dismay.
Had to happen. With the body #3 to show God's
purpose in the redemption of man.
You know what God's purpose is for your life?
You know, I've heard this my whole life.
What's God's purpose for my life?
Well, I do think God does work in our lives.
Specifically, yes I do. But overall?
What God wants for me is the same thing He wants for you.
And it's the same. Thing that he wants for
everyone, that's his purpose, His great purpose in the
redemption of man is this, that one day we're going to have a
glorified body and be in heaven and glorify him forever.
That's what God wants. How bad does he want?
It wants it pretty bad. He wants it so badly.
He said his son to pay the price that you have it.
What else? To demonstrate that God was
satisfied with the sacrifice, His glorified body is tangible
evidence, visibly seen that God was satisfied with that
offering. And finally the last one, and I
love this, to demonstrate his ability to mediate between God
and man. There is no one worthy like
Jesus to be the go between between God and man and not only
that but man and God. He was in all.
Points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
He knows our infirmities, He knows us, He knows what we're
going through. If you think in your life you're
going through something that nobody understands, I'm in here
to tell you there may not be anybody in this world that
understands, but there's somebody that's out of this
world that understands. I guarantee you that.
Don't ever forget that Jesus was not only fully God.
But he was also. Fully human.
And when he was? Resurrected.
He was resurrected in his body in human form.
Demonstrating his. Ability to mediate between God
and man and man and God. So never forget.
There's somebody in heaven. Who can relate to us, that can
be touched with our feelings and our infirmities?
I'm going to close with one more passage until we're finished.
Not bad today. Hebrews 4 Beginning.
In verse 14. Seeing then that we have.
A great high priest who has passed through the heavens.
Jesus. The Son.
Of God. Let us hold.
Fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who
cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was at all
points tempted. As we are yet without sin, so as
a result, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. I don't know of a more.
Encouraging passage than that you ain't alone.
You got somebody that's on your side.
And just never. Forget this, the Lord never
leaves us. If we think that.
In that there's a time in our life when we're away from the
Lord or the Lord is distant from us.
Just remember, it wasn't the Lord that left, it was us.
Oh, he's there making intercession and also our
mediator. Powerful, powerful stuff.
Next time. Now after this, by the way, he
goes into words about the establishment of the Kingdom and
repentance and remission of sins preached in His name among all
nations began in Jerusalem. We'll get to that later on as we
are close to the ascension of Jesus in Acts chapter 1.
Next we go to John chapter 20 because guess who wasn't here
when Jesus met? Thomas.
We're going to talk about old Thomas next time, and we're
going to talk about what Jesus says to him in that in the 6th
appearance post resurrection of Jesus.
That'll be next time. Thank you so much for your kind
listening. I hope something was said that
was encouraging to you and helpful to you in some way.
We never know the hearts and minds of those that are present.
Maybe you're here today and you're just not a Christian.
If you're not a Christian. If you're not a child of God,
the steps to become one a very simple.
We extend the invitation. It's very, very simple.
And what we want to do is we want to go to the Word of God
and find out what the Word of God says and not what somebody
else decides that it says #1 you got to hear the Word of God.
Romans 10/17 So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word
of God. Just like those men on the road
to Emmaus. What produced faith?
It was the Word of God. What did Jesus prove to them?
Not only physical evidence, but scriptural evidence.
It always goes back to the Word of God.
You want to be saved. It's got to be based on the Word
of God. Faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the Word of God. Then you have a choice.
You got to believe it. Believe with all your heart.
Hebrews 11 and 6. Without faith it's impossible to
please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and
that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Then you got to make a change in your life.
You got to repent. Repent of your sins.
Acts 1730. Truly these times of ignorance
God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.
Then you must be willing to confess Jesus Christ as the Son
of God. Acts 837.
Then Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. All these steps lead toward the
point of salvation. But you're not saved.
Yet the point of salvation is be baptized for the remission of
sins. Mark 1616.
He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does
not believe will be condemned. Is it necessary for salvation?
Do you have to be baptized to be saved first?
Peter 321 The like figure where to even Baptism does also now
save us. Not the putting away the filth
of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
If you've never taken those steps of obedience, we'd love to
assist you in that. Become a child of God.
Become a Christian today, washed in the blood of the Lamb.
Maybe you have, maybe there's just something in your life.
It's not what it should be. Maybe you've drifted away.
What a great time to come back. This is the greatest thing in
the world. Just change, repent, confess
that sin. We'll pray with you and for you.
And you know what? It's over with.
And God will forgive and restore.
Be one of either class. Come forward while we stand,
while we see.