Resurrection Day, March 31, 2024 AM

Christ is risen.

Amen.

The Resurrection as God’s Prepared Day of Worship

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we rejoice in this day that You have prepared. A day that You have foreordained for Your glory and our good. A day to gather together Your saints in mass all over this world today, all over the earth.

Already, the choruses have been sung. Already, many have been baptized and brought into Your church. Publicly, even risking their lives for this act of obedience to Christ. Already today, Father, You have rejoiced as those who were raised as blood enemies have come together by the blood of Jesus to share communion and celebrate You.

Already today, for hours, Father, Your praises have been sung in many languages, in many dialects, by many people. God, be pleased to receive our worship in our turn. Thank You for the hope that we have by the Savior You have given.

We pray all these things for the sake of Jesus Christ, the One with whom You are well pleased.

Amen.

The Troubled Women, the Empty Tomb, and the Road to Emmaus

I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Luke 24. Luke 24. And we will be reading verses 36 -45, but talking a little bit about how the whole chapter relates to our passage. Luke 24, verses 36 -45.

We'll be reading that in a moment. It's a question that Jesus asks in our passage. Why are you troubled? Why are you troubled? It's a question that really fit the audience to whom He was talking, because the women were there.

The women who had gathered together the burial spices and started off very early on that morning of the first day of the week. They walked towards the garden tomb knowing that Jesus Christ was dead. Convinced of it.

Certain of it. They went mourning, bearing not only their grief, but the spices to adorn His body. This would be their measure of worship and devotion and love. How had it all ended this way? They were confident He was dead.

They brought the burial spices. When they arrived, the stone had been taken away and the tomb was empty. They were troubled. They were perplexed. Their troubled, grieving hearts now turned to fear as men with bright light appeared, indeed, angels appeared, declaring to them the truth.

They asked the women, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. And then, to give them context, the angels told the women, don't you remember what He said? Didn't He tell you that this was what was going to happen?

Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee saying the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again. It was only then that they remembered His words.

So the women run and go tell the eleven. Noticeably, the eleven, Luke says, for Judas Iscariot had betrayed the Christ and killed himself in his despair. They run to the eleven and tell the disciples this wondrous news, and the disciples become troubled.

The eleven are troubled. They doubt what the women are saying. They think these women are way off base. They don't know what they're talking about. They must have gone to the wrong tomb. We're going to prove them wrong.

Some of them go, and they find that the stone had been taken away. And the tomb was empty. And the disciples are troubled still. Doubting yet, because they don't know what to make sense of this situation.

A little bit later on, on the road to Emmaus, two of the disciples, not the eleven, but two of the others who were still loyal to Jesus even after the crucifixion, Simon and Cleopas by name, they walk along the road to Emmaus discussing in earnest all the strange things going on, for they are troubled.

And what do troubled people do but swap stories of how bad everything is? Worst thing that possibly could happen, happened. Jesus of Nazareth, despite all of His miracles, despite all of His powerful teachings, despite the amount of transfiguration and the casting out of demons and the healing of leopards and the healing of the blind and even raising up of the dead, Jesus Himself has been arrested, falsely accused and destroyed, killed by the enemies of Christ.

Not only that, now His body is missing. And all these strange rumors are going around and these disciples, Simon and Cleopas are troubled and they are full of doubts because the stone had been taken away and the tomb was empty.

Unrecognized, Jesus Christ Himself sidles up next to them and matches their pace and walks with them on the road to Emmaus as was customary because people traveled in groups so as to be more safe. And then He says, anything interesting going on?

Sounds like you're having a very important conversation. Care to share what all the news is? They can't believe it. They can't believe Him. They are shocked that He does not know.

What is going on.

They say something to the effect of, where are you from? Podunk, Faroffsville? Did you just get into town? How is it that you have not heard?

So they tell Him the whole saga.

As they understand it.

And obviously they are very worked up and when they get done sharing all of their bewilderments and astonishments and how troubled they are and all the doubts that they have, He replies something like this, where are you from?

Obtuse, slow-mindedsville? Do you not know the prophets? How is it that you have not believed all that was written? And He says in verse 27, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.

It was only after this when they all sat down together to eat that He broke the bread and He blessed it and revealed Himself to them. And as suddenly and as quietly as He had appeared to them at the first, so He disappeared from them in that moment and thoroughly excited, they forget their trip to Emmaus and they turn around and run back to Jerusalem and they come into the upper room where the 11 and the other disciples and the women are all gathered, all those who were troubled, all those who were doubting because the stone had been taken away, because the tomb was empty, and then something wonderful happens.

Christ Standing in the Midst: Peace, Resurrection, and the Empty Tomb

I invite you to stand with me as we read God's Word, beginning in verse 36 of Luke 24. Now, as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, peace to you. But they were terrified and frightened and supposed they had seen a spirit.

And He said to them, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? 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 I have.

When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. While they still did not believe for joy and marveled, He said to them, have you any food here? So they gave Him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb, and He took it and ate in their presence.

Then He said to them, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.

And He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. You ever notice the use of stones in the Old Testament? There's a debate about whether a stick or a stone is more to be desired.

In the Old Testament, it was definitely stones. Stones were so useful. So useful for communicating for several generations. Abraham left stone altars all over Canaan as he traveled the full length and breadth of the land, declaring the one true God.

And as Abraham's descendants wandered as pilgrims in the land, they would remember God's covenant with Abraham where they would see those altars here, there, and everywhere. Abraham didn't own the land yet, but he was building altars there like he did because that was the strength of the promise of God.

Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, set up a stone at Bethel and anointed it knowing that one day he would pass back by that place and recall the promises and the faithfulness of God. And when he came back that way, he would see the stone that he set up at Bethel that he had anointed, and he would recall that God spoke to him from heaven atop a ladder filled with angels.

God spoke to him by a mediator. The Israelites crossing over the Jordan heaped stones up on the edge of the Jordan that they had gathered from the very bottom of the river. They coated them in lime and they wrote the covenant upon them.

They wrote the Ten Commandments upon them. The future generations who would come back by that very place would see stones that had been in the very bottom of the river, and they would remember that God had parted the river and brought his people faithfully into the land because of his covenant faithfulness.

Joshua led the Israelites to victory throughout the land, and they used stones to mark out their allotted inheritances, the portions of their promised inheritance from the Lord. Samuel, the prophet, set up a stone in the midst of Israel being victorious over the Philistines.

He called it Ebenezer, meaning stone of help. Thus far, the Lord has helped us. He put it on a well-traveled road so that all would remember time and again God's faithfulness. Stones were set in place so as to dispel doubt.

Doubt. Israelites would say, did my great, great, great, great grandparents truly walk across the Jordan on dry ground led by the ark of the covenant?

Go look at the stones.

They came out of the base of the river. They were landmarks for guidance in more than one way. The stones spoke of the settled past so as to guide the people in their troubled present as they moved into the untested future.

We sing about these stones. Come thou fount of every blessing, has the line, here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by thy help I am come. That's Samuel. And I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home.

That's Jacob.

Come back home by way of Bethel. These are given to those in times of trouble and doubt and fear that they would not be troubled. That they would not doubt. The people were instructed, remember they were instructed to not move the ancient landmarks which their fathers had set up.

Because those ancient landmarks, those stones were there to declare to them the faithfulness of God, the goodness of God, the character of God, that he always keeps his promises. And so stones kept on being set up.

Stones kept on being dedicated. Stones kept on being put into its place and everybody would be told, don't move that stone. This stone is special. This stone is saying something and let's always remember what this stone says.

Until one day, another stone was set in place by the Jews and it was the last such stone to be placed. It was supervised and it was sealed and it was secured by the Jewish religious leaders. For them it removed every doubt that this Jesus of Nazareth could not possibly be the Christ, the son of the living God.

Even his followers looked at that stone and they were certain that it was all over. They gather in the gloomy dawn to honor his corpse. They hide in the upper room. They mourn, they whisper, they bar the doors, they bow their heads, the stone is in place.

Permanent reminder that no one should say such things and defy such powers as Jesus did. Except that the stone did not remain. The stone was removed. It was taken out of the way to show that the tomb was empty.

To show that Christ is risen, he is risen indeed. And then what do the women and the 11 and the other disciples do when they realize that the stone.

Has been moved out of the way.

And that the tomb is empty, they are troubled and they doubt. But that's the opposite of how they are to respond. Christ comes with his word to dispel all doubt with his light. On this very first day of the new creation, Jesus by his words made light.

Why Christians Should Not Be Troubled

This is important for us to consider. I think this is a vital moment for us as Christians. Have you listened to us lately? Have you listened to us lately? My, are we troubled. My, are we troubled. We're troubled by a great many things.

We are struggling with a lot of doubt. There are doubts that we wrestle with internally. There are doubts that come upon us externally. There are doubts that we don't know how to express and yet I want you to remember from our passage this morning that the worst day has already been overcome.

The absolute worst day was the day all day that Jesus was in the tomb. Folks, we're past the worst day. We're past the worst day. Why are we troubled? Why are we troubled? Well, because of bad news and more bad news and more bad news and suspicion that it's going to be more bad news tomorrow and the next year.

Quietly confident that things are going to go from bad to worse until things that we can't possibly imagine will come about and be the worst of the worst of the worst. We are confident that Jesus is going to be to lose control of the situation.

His church will fall apart. In fact, is it not already falling apart? Are there not so many people who claim to be Christians and yet we know that there's probably only 1 of them.

Who are real.

All of this spread of the missions and the gospel and the Bible being printed in people's own dialects and that's just a bunch of show. That's not really good news. Really? We know that this is just going to get worse and worse and worse until everything falls apart and the church fails and it's just a massacre and a mess.

Have you listened to us lately? We sure have a bleak picture. The worst day is behind us because of the best day having already been accomplished,. Jesus has risen from the dead. Why are we troubled? Why are we troubled?

Christ’s Presence, Peace, and the Believer’s Hope in Him

Jesus comes and he shows himself to his disciples. He proves indeed that he has risen first relationally verses 36 to 38. Now, as they said these things to Simon and Cleopas were telling the 11 and the women there in the upper room about all the amazing things that happened to them on the road to Emmaus, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them.

Do you see this?

It is himself.

It is not Jesus in some esoteric form. It is not Jesus as a ghost. It's not Jesus apart from himself, Jesus in the abstract, Jesus in the ephemeral. It is Jesus himself. And he is standing in the midst of them and he knew them.

He knew every single one of them and he knew how to comfort them and he proved his identity to them in exactly the way that he loved them and he addressed them. He shepherds them through their trouble.

He says, peace to you, peace to you. They were terrified and frightened. The flock that thought that they had no shepherds, suddenly their shepherd is in their midst and they begin to scatter and be scared.

And he says, peace to you, so that by the hearing of his voice, they would follow him and know his peace. They supposed that they had seen a spirit. They begin to sound off their alarms. Their minds are blaring the alarms and they begin to run for some kind of bunker of realistic expectation.

It can't possibly be that he's alive. It must be that we are hallucinating. It must be that it's a spirit. Jesus himself nonetheless is with them. And so he said to them, why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts?

Jesus himself is with them. Why then should doubts take up arms and man the battlements of their hearts? Jesus himself is in the midst of us by his spirit. He said, I will not leave you orphans. Why are we troubled?

The stone has been moved away. The tomb is empty. Jesus is alive. He is ascended. He has sent forth his spirit that we would not be orphans. Why are we troubled? Why do doubts arise in our hearts? Do we not have Christ communing with us by his spirit?

Why are we troubled? Christ is risen. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He is risen indeed. This internal doubt, this fear that it's not going to work out and it's not going to be enough and I'm not going to make it.

And it's not going to be what God promised it would be. Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your heart? Christ is risen and he is present with us. Why do we fear? Why do we doubt? Ephesians chapter two, verse 12.

Paul speaks to the Gentile Christians and he says that, you know, before you were saved, before you were born again, before you come to know Christ, at that time you were without Christ. No, at that time.

Before you were born again. Before you became a Christian. Before you come to know Christ. This is eternal life that they may know God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Before you were without Christ.

Not so now. You were without Christ before, you are with Christ now. You have him now. At that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise.

All those promises, all those covenants that God made. He said before when you were without Christ, you had no connection to any of the covenants. You had no claim on any of them, but now in Christ you have claim to all of them.

You were strangers before, not so now. Before, he says you had no hope and you are without God in the world. If you have no hope and you are without God in this world, then you ought to be troubled. And you ought to doubt.

And you ought to be terrified. Not so the believer. Christ is risen. The stone has been taken away. The tomb is empty. Now we have hope and we have God in this world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near, brought near by the blood of Christ, by his righteousness.

We are brought near to God. Verse 14 says, for he himself is our peace. Jesus himself shows up and says peace. Jesus himself is our peace. Let us believe it. Let us not doubt. Jesus gives proof relationally and physically.

The Bodily Resurrection and the Joy of Fellowship with the Risen Christ

Verses 39 through 43 of our passage, Luke 24. Jesus tries to convince them, tries to encourage them, tries to build up their most holy faith. Verse 39, he says, behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.

Handle me and see. Our spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. When he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet, but while they still did not believe for joy and marveled, he said to them, have you any food here?

So they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb, and he took it and ate it in their presence. He affirms the reality of his resurrection to his beloved disciples. He says, it is I myself. That's all of me.

I'm totally risen.

I'm totally here.

I'm not a spirit. I'm physically here. 100 man, 100 God, God incarnate. He's there risen. He shows his hands and his feet. They see him, they touch him. They still cannot get their heads around the wonder.

He takes up some fish and honeycomb, eats in their presence and says, look, look, I'm real. Why is it so hard for them to believe when he's right there in front of them? It's foolishness to the Greeks and it's a stumbling block to the Jews that Jesus Christ was crucified, killed on a tree, having his hands and feet nailed to the cross and died for the sins of his people to justify them before God, to satisfy the wrath of God and bring them all the way to God as his own children, that he would be raised to life the third day to ever live as their intercessor, as their mediator, that the dust of earth should reign in heaven, that a man should be God and reign.

They couldn't get their heads around it. And he says, no, this is me. I myself, I'm right here with you. This is the truth. Everything he had been preaching to them and telling to them is on the line right here, right in front of them.

It is reprehensible to so many people today that Christ should be physically raised from the dead. The cults hate it. The philosophers hate it. The prideful hate it. And God glories in it. And Christians rejoice in it.

1 John 1, verses one through four. The apostle John says that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, what we have looked upon in our hands, have handled concerning the word of life.

That life was manifested. And our eyes have seen and bear witness and declared to you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us. That which we have seen and heard, we declare to you that your fellowship may be with us.

And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. John says, I'm writing of the risen Lord Jesus Christ to you so that your joy would be full, absolutely full.

No space in your life, no avenue in your mind, no room in your heart where the joy does not penetrate,.

Fill,.

Abide, a thoroughgoing joy that permeates every tear we shed. Why are you troubled? Jesus has been bodily gloriously raised. Why do doubts arise in our hearts? Jesus is risen. He is risen indeed. He is the resurrection and the life.

What does this mean? Mom, your husband will rise again. Your father will rise again. Randy and Cindy, your son will rise again. My mother will rise again. All of our dearly beloved in Christ seeds planted to be harvested on that last day.

And we know this because Christ is the first fruits of the new creation. He is the first fruits of the resurrection. Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life. He holds the keys to death and the grave.

He reigns at the right hand of the father until all of his enemies are placed as a footstool for his feet. And the last enemy thereof is death. And that is when death is mocked and Hades is mocked. Oh, death, where is your sting?

Oh, Hades, where is your victory? The hymn says, every doubt is laid to rest in the tomb of Christ, the empty tomb of Christ where the stone has been rolled away. Thirdly, he gives them scriptural proof in verse 44.

He said to them, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me.

So they stand there amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene. And wonder how in the world he could be alive and how he could love them and make sense of it all. He does make sense of it all, notice, through his words.

Through his words, through the holy word of God. He had told them that this would happen. He had told them that this would happen. And he said, in fact, it wasn't just me, it was all of the holy scriptures.

Said that all of this would come to pass. And that was the testimony of the whole Old Testament. Remembrance stone after remembrance stone laid out, anointed and preserved, paving the way forward to Christ.

Every single one of those stones in their place, crying out, crying out that the last stone set in place could never remain. The stone which covered the tomb, taken away. Taken away in accordance with the promises.

It had to go, it couldn't stay. It couldn't possibly be there. All these things had to be fulfilled. The removal of the stone should not bring trouble, should not cause doubt, but actually the opposite.

To remove every doubt, to calm every troubled heart. Why are we troubled? Why are we doubting? We look here in the scriptures and we see that at the moment where God's Word was most at stake, when all of His promises hung in the balance, Christ was raised up from the dead and the answer is most glorious.

The Scriptures, the New Creation, and the Removal of Doubt

What are people saying? What are people saying? What do you hear time and again around you? What are people saying? Psalm 4, verse 6, there are many who say, who will show us any good? There's no hope.

Nobody can help. Nobody can set things right. Nobody has the wisdom or the strength of character to set these things right. Beloved, Christ is risen. He's at the right hand of the Father.

He's the King.

He's the captain of our salvation. Let us not be troubled. Let us not doubt. There are many who say, who will show us any good? Let us tell them who will. Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us.

The psalmist says, you have put gladness in my heart, more than in the season that their grain and wine increased. Donald Trump ain't the strong man that's gonna save us. You realize that, right? Well, the finances were better when he was president.

We want him back. It is God who grants us gladness. It is God who gives us joy. It is Christ who reigns and who reigns with all wisdom and all power. That's where our hope is because he is risen from the dead.

All the proofs are there all throughout the Scriptures. Indeed, a far more compelling case than many other so-called facts that typical cynics would hold to and stake their eternities upon. Praise God that from the first day of the new creation till now, the Creator speaks light and makes us new creations, new creatures.

Verses 44 through 45, we should reflect upon the power of the resurrection in this particular way and how he explains the Scriptures to us. Then he said to them, and these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me.

And he opened to their understandings that they might comprehend the Scriptures. You know, it's one thing to be told that the person in work of Christ, including his death and resurrection, his ascension and his return, and everything about Jesus, his person in work, that these things are written prophetically and in picture and in principle into the law and to the prophets and the Psalms, the entire Old Testament.

It's one thing to be told that, and it's another thing to actually see it and understand it being written there. What is Jesus saying? He's clearly saying there's a proper way to interpret the Scriptures.

And it was not, and the proper way to interpret the Scriptures is the one he is talking about, and it was this way of interpreting was not being taught by the rabbis. The disciples didn't grow up learning this way of reading the Scriptures.

The synagogues and the scribes did not teach the Scriptures this way. People that Jesus is speaking to, these women who were troubled, these 11 who were troubled, these disciples from the road to Emmaus who had been troubled, they did not grow up reading the Bible thinking about the revelation of Jesus Christ.

They had not yet seen or known His life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and all of His promises and teaching and His clarifications of what the Word of God really meant. And even though the disciples were far more close to the culture and to the events and to the language being used at that time, I tell you, the least of the disciples were by far more qualified than the best of our biblical scholars to provide a historical grammatical sense of the Old Testament, but notice, without the grace of God in Christ, without the revealing light of Christ, the Scriptures are ever dark.

Complaint, why are there so many interpretations of the Scriptures? Because of so much trouble and doubt. Because of so much misunderstanding. But who is it who knows what the Scriptures mean? Jesus Christ does.

And who is it that He did He teach? Those who follow Him. By His Spirit, He promised to give His Spirit so that by the light of Jesus Christ in the work of the Holy Spirit, as we read the Scriptures, we see Christ.

Without a clear understanding of the Scriptures, doubting hearts and troubled minds prevail, but it is the light of Jesus Christ that changes everything. That His shining light upon the Scriptures is that of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

We can't make sense of the Scriptures if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, but that He did rise from the dead puts everything into perspective. So that last stone couldn't stay. It had to be taken away to show that the tomb was empty.

In the light of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, the doubts are taken away. The stone was taken away, so the doubts are taken away. In the risen Christ, the veil is taken away. In the risen Christ, despair is taken away.

In the risen Christ, our shame is taken away. In the risen Christ, our guilt is taken away. In the risen Christ, our condemnation is taken away. In the risen Christ, our fear of death is taken away. In the risen Christ, our doubt is taken away.

Why are we troubled? Why are we troubled? He is risen. Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning, and we give you the praise, we give you the glory, for you have declared to us, your Son, by your Spirit, that we would believe, that we would know peace, that we would not be troubled, that doubts would not remain, that we would abide in you, holding fast, holding fast to your Son, Jesus Christ.

Thank you for this day. This is the day that you have made. We rejoice, and we are glad in it.

Amen.