Jesus Meets Disciples on Road to Emmaus

The Resurrection Calendar and Jehovah’s Witness Memorial Supper

All right, well, we're going to step out of our church history series for the morning, just as Pastor Fry is going to be stepping out of the Second Timothy study as well for some strange odd reason. Now, that doesn't always happen.

I think back when I first came here, there was somewhat of a, almost a commitment to make sure that we didn't notice any type of religious holidays whatsoever, you know, just to make sure, like, nope, not us, nope, we're going to be different.

But, if you'll turn to Luke chapter 24, I wanted to work through a text, make note of some things that might be relevant on, well, I'm sure everyone knows why the date of the commemoration of the resurrection of the Lord, specifically on an annual basis, not just in regards to the Lord's Day, the weekly celebration of the resurrection, but why that annual observation observance changes due to the fact that it is based upon the Jewish Passover, and that changes each year, and hence, bounces around between March and April, depending on the calendar, the Jewish calendar at that particular point in time.

And in fact, I didn't do anything about it this year, didn't really give it much thought, but this past Thursday would have been the Jehovah's Witness memorial supper that they have each year, where literally, probably this year, at least 16 million people worldwide gathered, I'll see what the numbers are, but maybe even, might be getting close to 18, it's hard to say, gathered worldwide to not observe the supper.

I suppose I should explain that, the sad thing about Jehovah's Witnesses is they don't believe they're in the New Covenant, they are only associated with those who are in the New Covenant, which are the anointed class, and so, in all these places where these millions and millions of people would gather, the elements would be passed through the congregation, and no one will touch them.

It's just passed down the road, and passed down the next road, and passed down the next road. The only people who will partake are those who claim to be what's called the anointed class, and there's only, the last numbers I saw were 8 ,000, that's probably really high.

The Witnesses are really confused right now. They used to teach you had to have been at least 10 years old in 1914 to be part of the anointed class. That group's a little bit on the crusty side about now, and so they're changing all that theology to try to hide all the false prophecies and stuff like that that gave rise to their entire movement.

So, but still, that's how you count the anointed class is how many people partake of the Memorial Supper, and that means that 99 .99999 of everyone just simply passes it by, and it's just sad to think about it.

I mean, you know, they've got the wrong God, they've got the wrong Jesus, they don't have a true resurrection either, they don't believe Jesus rose physically from the dead. But just to see those people, you know, we see them all the time, especially, you know, come July, we're talking about the summer, you know, come July, you see them traipsing around in the early morning light in your neighborhood in their suits and ties and their little kids and their dresses and black shoes and stuff, and, you know, just sweating enormously and trying to prove their worthiness to Jehovah to live forever in a paradise on earth, but they're never going to be in the presence of God.

It's a sad thing. Anyway, that has to do with the dating of the Memorial Supper and the dating of the resurrection Sunday. And so it moves around, and I wanted to look at, beginning of verse 13, some comments from Luke chapter 24, which would, I think, help us in consideration of the resurrection of Christ and some of the ramifications thereof.

The Road to Emmaus and the Hidden Identity of Jesus

Beginning in verse 13, Behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place.

While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself approached and began traveling with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. I think it's very important in light of all the silliness that you will hear in various sources concerning the nature of the resurrection, well, you know, Jesus really didn't rise bodily from the dead.

This is why the disciples didn't recognize him, as he could look different ways, and blah, blah, blah. It's specifically stated in verse 16, their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. Later on in the narrative, once Jesus blesses the bread, it says that their eyes were opened.

So there was a supernatural activity going on that hid from the disciples the identity of Jesus. It wasn't like some type of mask or something he was wearing or something like that. They were not expecting Jesus, and for them to be ministered to in the way they're going to be ministered to, not only to them, but for all the rest of us, this is what God does.

Their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. Now there's all sorts of things we can talk about as to God's ability to do that, but that's not our point this morning. And he said to them, what are these words that you're exchanging with one another as you are walking?

So obviously, it was one of those situations where you have two people in deep conversation. I realize for young people today, you may have never seen this, because pretty much the deepest conversation that you see anymore is something like this.

Hey, did you see that tweet? Yeah, okay, all right, good. That's about as deep as it gets anymore, because everyone is so focused on their phone. But in the olden days, there was actually called the art of conversation.

In fact, young guys, I just might want to mention to you that us older guys, we actually used the art of conversation to get to know females. It was really an amazing thing. Very effective, in fact. They seem to respond positively to that particular thing.

And so, if you look back at some of the older movies, the black and white ones, you will see what this must have looked like, this deep conversation about serious things that actually goes on for more than 45 or 50 seconds before you move on to the next topic.

Again, this is very difficult for a modern man to even begin to understand. But they are so deeply invested in this that they hardly even seem to recognize this traveler coming up to walk with them. And so, when he breaks their concentration upon this subject, they stood still looking sad.

One of them named Cleopas answered and said to him, are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days? So, I mean, there's clearly sarcasm in Cleopas's words.

He's surprised, assuming in light of the fact that the Passover had just taken place and therefore there's lots of travelers. The population of Jerusalem would balloon huge, massive numbers during this time period.

And so, the surrounding countryside would be filled with travelers, and Jesus evidently is dressed as one of these travelers, and so the assumption is made that that's where Jesus has been. And how could he therefore not know what had taken place over this particular holiday, this particular weekend?

And Jesus said to them, what things? And they said to him, the things about Jesus of Nazarene, who is a prophet, mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to the sentence of death and crucified him.

The Rejected Messiah, the Crucifixion, and the Hope of Israel

Now please note, there is much discussion, there has been much discussion over the years, and especially since World War II, there continues to be discussion that in essence shows embarrassment at what both Matthew and Luke say, Matthew in recording the words of the Jews, his blood be upon us and upon our children.

Remember the Passion of the Christ movie? Remember when that came out? And remember that when it was first screened, there was just massive upset and wailing and gnashing of teeth, so much so that before it was released for public, they went in and they changed the soundtrack, the recording, when Jesus is brought out to the crowds, because they had initially had the Jews saying his blood be upon us and upon our children.

They changed the English translation that was provided. Actually, I think what they did is they just took it out. If you understand some Hebrew and Aramaic, they still said it in Hebrew and Aramaic, but they just didn't translate it into English, because there was, you need to understand that since the Holocaust in World War II, the Holocaust had huge impact upon New Testament theology and New Testament scholarship.

And there is a serious embarrassment on the part of many of the more liberal-leaning denominations at what the Scriptures say because of how the Scriptures were abused and misused by others. So everybody knows that the Nazis quoted from John chapter 8, and right here it says how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to the sentence of death and crucified him.

Well, they didn't crucify him, the Romans did, you see. And so there's this huge argument about who really crucified Jesus, and part of it is due to the unquestionable reality that the warnings of Romans 11, especially about not boasting against the branches that were broken off, have been ignored in church history, were ignored early on, that some men that we would otherwise in all respects go, wow, great insights here, great insights there, people like John Chrysostom and others, said some pretty off-base things in light of the schism that took place between the synagogue and the church, and that then became the reason for imbalanced views of the Jews and the persecution of Jews and everything else.

There's no way to look at the Scriptures honestly and say that there's a basis for behaving in that way, if you're looking at the Scriptures as a whole. But isolating texts is, you know, it works real well today in our society because the vast majority of people commenting on the Bible in media and things like that have actually never read the Bible, and therefore they can, they just figure it's just this big mishmash of things, you can pull stuff out and do what you want.

But the specific statement is that their chief priests and rulers crucified him. There is a clear indication of, and of course that becomes obvious in Acts chapter 2, when Peter starts preaching, what's the result of the Jews, amongst the Jews?

They don't say, oh, that wasn't us. Their response is, men and brethren, what shall we do? They recognize their role as a people in the very crucifixion of the Messiah, and that's seen as fulfillment of Scripture.

The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. But since World War II, you're not allowed to say that, at least not, and be considered to be politically correct and not get yourself fired.

So anyway, that's something to keep in mind, and we continue on. But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. We were hoping, verse 21. It's interesting, there's actually, I just happened to glance down at this, and those of you who are visiting, please forgive.

I'm working on a PhD in textual criticism right now, so that's where my mind is. I spent hours yesterday really getting to the point where I think I've got a hold on CBGM now. But anyway, I looked down at the Greek text, and some scribes down through the history of the church really struggled with that, were hoping.

Because one of the variances we are hoping, and we had hoped, is the earliest reading, but that one's sort of all by itself in manuscript P75, which is one of the earliest papyri manuscripts that contains Luke.

Portions of Luke, anyways. But obviously that caused some of the scribes some discomfort, because you're basically saying, well, we were hoping. But yeah, the resurrection has taken place, but they don't know that yet.

And it's going to be real easy, it's real easy for us to sit back and go, yeah, well, I would have known. I would have picked up on what James was saying. Right, right. You keep thinking that, that's okay.

So we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. Once again, just real, real, real fast. Remember, any portion of a day is a day, so don't get all tangled up in the Friday, Saturday, Sunday, that's not enough.

They did not tell time or refer to time or use temporal adverbs the way that we do. Don't get all freaked out, that is exactly what a Jewish person would have said in light of the chronology of the events.

But also, some women among us amazed us when they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.

Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said, but him they did not see. Now, one of the toughest challenges that faces the interpreter of the New Testament is to try to put together a really airtight chronology of the resurrection appearances and what takes place at that period of time.

We are given very little information, it's very hard to do, and that means it becomes one of the primary means of attacking the resurrection is to demand that you have that kind of information, that you put together a very explicit exact chronology of events in regards to the resurrection.

So that is a difficult challenge and maybe sometime we'll, well we did when we went through the Synoptic Gospels, address some of those issues. And so you can go back and listen to those if you wish. And so this is the source of their deep conversation and their sadness.

There's a little bit of light dawning, the women have reported in regards to the beginning of the promises being fulfilled and the resurrection, so on and so forth, but they haven't come to really understand.

And so there is sadness and the predominant feeling is he's dead, that's pretty much going to impact how they are thinking. And he said to them, now this is not how things are done today, this is not what people would expect, oh foolish ones, oh non-understanding ones, and slow of heart to believe, wow, okay, whoops.

Maybe that's where Pastor Frey gets his bedside manner, I'm not sure. If you've ever, I remember after I had double hernia surgery, the first thing he did was call me up on the phone and try to get me to laugh, so maybe that's where it comes from, I don't know.

But most people in our society today would be, well you know, I know how that might be your reality now, but no, oh foolish men and slow of heart to believe in what? In all the prophets have spoken. I just, I want you to grasp, it just seems to me that when you read Luke 24, that Luke's primary message that he wishes to communicate is that what took place in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ was exactly not only what God had intended to accomplish, but what the scriptures which were available to everyone there in Israel had told them was going to take place.

Now we struggle with that primarily because, let's be honest, we're not real good in handling the Old Testament scriptures and most of us, if we were really challenged, would have a very, very hard time substantiating what Jesus himself says here.

And it's primarily because we live in a canonically challenged age where the Old Testament scriptures are viewed, really we may say that they're just as inspired as the New Testament, we don't treat them that way.

And I don't even want to speculate as to what percentage of people attending an evangelical church this morning have been Christians for more than a decade and there's entire sections of the Old Testament they've never even read, let alone studied to any depth whatsoever, so as to know any background or anything like that at all.

And so we struggle a little bit with this. But here is the one who's just given himself for the life of the world and one of the very first things that he engages in in a supernatural methodology. Their eyes were kept from, if they knew who it was, you know, if he was wearing his what would I do bracelet and they automatically, you know, went, oh, that's who it is, then you couldn't have had this conversation.

You couldn't have had this discussion. And so they are being supernaturally kept from hearing and why? What's being communicated? What's being communicated? The first thing is, the scriptures said this was going to happen.

And when it says slow of heart to believe, the object of what they're slow and hard to believe is expressed right there in all that the prophets have spoken. There was a slowness, a hesitation to believe in the prophetic nature of the actions that had just taken place and the reason for it in their life is not the same as the reason for it today.

The Messiah Must Suffer and Enter His Glory

What's the slowest one here? There's a surprise. Actually, it wasn't running. It's just the fan that's running. So the AC is not on and that only controls up here, not back there. That one controls the one back there.

So anyway, this is Phoenix, folks. Anyway, pretty soon the stuff outside is going to be melting. So just you'll be very happy then. So this is the, today, the reason for questioning this is in reference to the secular mindset that does not believe that there is a supernatural nature to scripture in the first place.

They didn't have that problem. They had a traditional problem. The traditions of the Jews did not have the Messiah suffering first and rising again before fulfilling his role as bringing all the nations to Jerusalem and so on and so forth.

So they had a traditional issue. We have a worldview issue. Both involve a slowness of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not, verse 26, was it not necessary for the Messiah, I think is a good way to translate that, to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?

Now, even the very nature of the question itself is a teaching nature. It has a nature of teaching to it. And that is the Messiah, it was, given the way that it's phrased, the expected answer is, well, yes, it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and to enter into his glory, which makes it really, when you think about it, is a one sentence correction of the problem that a Jewish person would have at this point, because the Messiah was supposed to enter into his glory in bringing the people of Israel out of their bondage and establishing his kingdom over all the earth and so on and so forth.

And so the idea of a dying and rising Messiah did not fit into the majority tradition of the intertestamental period. I've mentioned before that period between Malachi and Matthew, as we might call it, but that 400 years of prophetic silence resulted in a number of perspectives and things that developed concerning the Messiah.

And some did, in fact, come to a view that basically included the idea of some type of redemptive activity on God's part. But the nature of that was very difficult for people to really grasp hold of. And the vast majority had this still very strong emphasis upon a conquering Messiah.

And of course, at this period of time with Roman occupation of Palestine, a lot of military overtones to all of that kind of stuff. So was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?

So clearly, the very path to glory in Jesus's self-correction is found through suffering. And that becomes obviously a theme that Paul very much expands upon and really says, basically, if we're going to follow in his footsteps, it's the same thing with us.

You look at Romans 8, and it is through suffering that glory is brought about, and that's the same thing in our lives as well. So there's an amazing correction found there. Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures.

We would love to have a recording of this. It's such a shame that someone didn't have an mp3 recorder in their rope, but the same thing is going to happen with the disciples here in just a few verses.

And I think the closest we get to a glimpse of this is in the sermons and acts, because what are they going to be preaching from? There's no New Testament to preach on. The New Testament, not a word of the New Testament has been written at this point.

So the scriptures of the early church are the Old Testament, so when you go to the sermons and acts, you're going to get a really good idea what texts Jesus opened to them after his resurrection. But you also get, and this is frequently missed, for example, when you read Peter's epistles, which again, today, the vast majority of liberals say, ah, Peter had nothing to do with that.

When you look at his use of language, you will see over and over again, he'll be taking bits and pieces from Isaiah and Jeremiah, and sometimes you don't even see it because it's just a couple of words.

But when you step back and really examine it carefully, I think you're getting somewhat of a shadowy view of what the conversations were like on the road to Emmaus and then in the upper room and then in Galilee and all the places of the post-resurrection appearances.

But notice it's not just portions of the scriptures, it is in all the scriptures. So this is a rather expansive claim. And they approached the village where they were going, and he acted as though he were going farther, but they urged him, saying, stay with us for it's getting toward evening and the day is now nearly over.

So he went in to stay with them. When he had reclined at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed it and breaking it, he began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight.

The Physical Resurrection Body and the Breaking of the Bread

Now, again, this is the type of text that is utilized by those who would want to say there was no physical resurrection because physical bodies don't just simply vanish from sight. Well, we also have John's testimony that Jesus could enter locked rooms, and yet he eats, he's eating with these people, he's going to ask for a piece of fish, he eats before them.

How do you put all that together? Well, given that none of us have died and risen from the dead, even the people who write books for life why didn't actually do that, we sort of struggled, sorry, we just struggled just a little bit to start entering into understanding what the resurrection body is like.

I remember years ago sort of having a thought that I haven't had any reason to go wasn't a good thought, but we don't know the nature of the resurrected body's relationship to time, and when you ask yourself the question, what is the only thing keeping me from being on the other side of that wall, it is the time that it takes me to get there.

So if time is not as constricting an issue or experienced in the same way, you could have a perfectly physical body that continues to have that connection to the body that was buried but yet now is incorruptible, and from our perspective it would seem to have some differences, not just the incorruptibility but be able to enter into a locked room or be reclining and then not there anymore.

It's just a matter of time which makes that to be the case, but it's not Luke's intention to tell us anything like that. They simply want to emphasize the reality of Jesus' physical body and yet the supernatural nature of that physical body.

You're going to derail me, aren't you? Don't know? No one knows. We're just given the one name. There's all sorts of theories about who the other disciple was, but we're not given that information, so we have no way of knowing.

We know that they're in the inner circle because they can go back to Jerusalem, and even though the disciples are in hiding, they know right where to go, and they were already privy to the information from the women.

And so they are very much in the inner circle, but we are not given that information. And so they said to one another, we're not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking to us on the road, while he was explaining the scriptures to us.

And again, when you think about it, here Luke has been leading up to this all the way through his book, and you've now had the crucifixion, and you've got the resurrection, and there's just all sorts of stuff that we would want to hear about and, you know, the nature of the resurrected body and all the rest of the stuff.

And what is the emphasis? Over and over again, it's the centrality of the scriptures. And it reminds me, really it does, well, and I'm sure this is probably where he got it, but there's this quote from Augustine.

I don't have it in front of me, but I'll paraphrase it. There's this quote from Augustine, and he was, I think, probably commenting right around here, and he said, knowing that he himself in his physical body was not going to remain with the disciples, he gave them that sure foundation of his truth and the knowledge of God and directed them to the scriptures, which would abide with them and with all the generations of Christians.

And that really is, you know, our hearts are burning within us. When he was doing what? While he was explaining the scriptures to us. The centrality of the scriptures in the resurrection narrative, very, very important to note.

They got up that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven, so they know right where to go, and those who are with them, so others saying, the Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.

So now the appearance to Peter has taken place. And so they began to relate their experiences on the road and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. While they were telling these things, he himself stood in their midst and said to them.

So this is, for the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, they get to see Jesus twice, one shot. That's pretty cool. And they didn't see him running along the road in front of them. So another issue of not being limited along those ways.

He himself stood in their midst and said to them, peace be to you, but they were startled and frightened and thought they were seeing a spirit. Well, I'm not sure that the two disciples on the road to Emmaus would have been having that perspective, but the ones who had not yet seen Jesus would have.

And he said to them, why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your heart? See my hands and my feet that is I myself, touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.

Now, the pneuma is the term, sometimes phantasma is used for ghost. This is spirit and Jesus' response is saying a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see with your physical eyes that I have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

So you have the continued connection between the physical body that was crucified and the resurrection body that is incorruptible. And there remains that connection between the two. Whether we can extrapolate anything from that in regards to everyone else's resurrection body in the sense of anything else, I think we need to be extremely careful.

There is a vitally important reason as to why those wounds would be necessary to continue to be visible. I certainly don't think that you can follow that along and say, and that means if you lost a leg in life that you're going to not have a leg in resurrection.

I don't think that follows at all. There is a specific soteriological salvific meaning to the wounds that Jesus bears and I think that's about as far as you can safely take that. I think sometimes we just have way too much interest in speculating down the road into stuff that we're already told, eyes not seen, ears not heard, but we still write books about it.

So anyway, while they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, he said to them, have you anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of a broiled fish. He took it and ate it before them.

Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms Fulfilled in Christ

Now he said to them, these are my words. I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. I think it's amazing that Jesus even makes reference to the threefold division of the text, one that we continue to observe today, the law of the prophets and the writings, here specifically law of Moses, prophets, the Psalter.

And all things which are written about me in the entirety of those Hebrew scriptures must be fulfilled, even more explicitly stated than what was stated before, even more fully stated so we can hear and understand.

And again, some of the first things that he says, some of the first teaching is to lay the foundation for what we are told is the rest of the teaching that takes place during that time. And then you have verse 45, then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these sayings. 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 the power from on high. So the very form of what we would call the great commission in Matthew.

Luke is squishing all this stuff together, Matthew expands it out a little bit, John does something different. But the essence of communicating what Jesus' final words to the church are regarding the nature of remission are couched within the statement and the idea that the whole purpose of the coming of the Messiah had been laid out in Moses, in the prophets, in the Psalms, and it was that Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, that the repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem, all the nations.

This is a universal proclamation and that this is grounded in an acceptance of everything that God has given in the scriptures that had been in the possession of the Jewish people for centuries. These are the same books that they had laid up in the temple 200 years beforehand and made the hands dirty.

In other words, they ended up unclean because they themselves were holy. And so there were only certain books that were laid up in the temple, the same books that we have in our Old Testament today. The apocryphal books were not laid up, all those books written in that time period that people like to dredge up and try to turn into scripture today, they were never put in the temple.

What was put in the temple is the same thing that we have in our Bibles today. And yes, yeah, Roger Beckwith's book, The Old Testament and the New Testament Church is neither quick nor easy. So no, because you're talking about the sources that give you the information about intertestamental Judaism, which is derived from examining rather obscure sources.

So Roger Beckwith's Old Testament and the New Testament Church is what I would direct someone to for a rather full discussion of the books that were laid up and their relevance to the canonicity of the Old Testament books.

So those are the books that the G .S. refers us to and says they prophesied. And so when you see Peter quoting about David and his flesh would not see corruption and then making that application to Jesus, because David's flesh did see corruption, and when you encounter all this stuff, we can have great assurance that this was coming from Jesus's own teaching as to the significance of his actions in his substitutionary death and in his resurrection.

And so, yes.

The Spirit’s Role in Understanding Scripture and the Closing Prayer

Okay, the difference between the blindness between here you have the disciples and they can't see it, and then on the other side you have the Pharisees who have memorized all of the scriptures and they can't see it.

So it's kind of hard for us looking back to say, wow, how could they not see it? But here we are standing 2 ,000 years of church history. Can you contrast those two?

Well, the difference, you know, when you look at those who recognize the Messiah like Anna in the temple, Simeon, it's pretty clear those were supernatural revelations that were given to them in verse 45.

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. There is a supernatural activity that takes place here. The necessary activity and role of the Spirit of God is laid out by the apostles as necessary.

There's a veil that lies over the mind of those who read the scriptures to this very day, Paul says, and that veil is spiritual as well as traditional. The tradition is used in the blinding spiritually, you might say.

But there's no question that there is an absolute necessity of the Spirit of God to open the heart and mind to be able to understand even the clarity of what is found in reading Isaiah 53. There are people that read Isaiah 53 and I don't see it.

I don't see it. And then others that read it and, wow, we're already late, need to wrap up. Sorry about that. Let's close the time to a prayer. Father, we do thank you for the great message of the empty tomb.

But we thank you that our Lord and Savior did not just simply rise and then leave us to wonder about the significance. You have given us the scriptures. We possess that which the apostles had and even more in the New Testament.

And so may we be a people who have a deep and strong faith in what has been revealed. May we understand. May we be amongst those who proclaim and live in light of that empty tomb. We pray in Christ's name.

Amen.