Open Our Understanding — Anton Bosch

Luke chapter 24 and we're in our second last study on the gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 24 and we'll read from verse 36 through the end of the chapter. So Luke chapter 24 reading from 36 through the end of the chapter.

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'd 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 you had 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 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. Then he said to them thus it is written. And thus it was necessary for this Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.

And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold I send the promise of my father upon you. But tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.

And he led them out as far as Bethany and he lifted up his hands and he blessed them. Now it came to pass while he blessed them that he was parted from them and carried up into heaven and they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God.

Amen. So verse 36 then begins with them in the upper room. So remember that in the previous passage two of them had been on the road to Emmaus and Jesus had met with them on that road. They didn't understand who he was.

They came. He opened the scriptures to them. They arrive at the place where they were going to be. He said he was going to move on and they persuaded him to stay and they had supper or dinner. And as they broke as he broke the bread he opened their eyes.

They understood who he was. And the two then immediately go back to Jerusalem obviously late in the day already. But two of them go back to Jerusalem and they meet with the other disciples in the upper room.

We presume there's probably more than just the eleven. Remember Judas has gone. It's only the eleven probably a hundred and twenty in the upper room at that time. And obviously they're confused. They're frustrated.

They don't know what's going on. Jesus had seemed to have all the promise of being the Messiah and now he had died. Some of them had been to the tomb that morning. The angels had appeared. This is still on this on the Sunday this is the first day of the week.

Some of them the angels had appeared to some of them and told them about the resurrection and so but they still don't quite believe. So the as they talk about these things and as the two were on the road to Emmaus had now joined the folk in the upper room and began to tell them what was happening.

It says that as they said these things as they were telling them what had happened on their way to Emmaus Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them peace to you. It's a wonderful that the Lord Jesus presences himself with them in the midst of their confusion.

And you know that's the the wonderful grace of God that at the times when we are confused at the times when we don't understand what's going on he is there. He promises in the book of Hebrews that I will never leave you nor forsake you.

And so even in the in the darkest hour and and in fact it wasn't the darkest hour. I think that this is one of the points of the passage is that as far as the disciples were concerned this is the this is the pits.

This is the darkest time in in in all of their lifetime because Jesus who was the light has been snuffed out and there seems to be no hope and and yet from God's perspective there is no problem at all.

In fact there's a glorious victory because Jesus had risen from the dead. The problem is that they could not see what God was seeing. They couldn't see the reality. All they could see was their problem and their short-sighted view.

And that's of course no indictment against them because we're all exactly the same. We sometimes get so caught up in the in the details of our problems and of the the negativity and and everything that's going on around us and everything that's happening in our lives.

We look at all of these things and it just seems dark and there seems to be no hope. And yet from God's perspective there is hope. From God's perspective there's a totally different picture. And so you we need to put ourselves in there in their place as they sit there and they say well you know he's dead there's nothing going on.

Yeah there's these reports. But we don't really believe these reports. And that was the problem. They didn't really believe. And yet at the same time this was the most glorious time in the history of the church the most wonderful in all of eternity.

The day that Jesus rose from the dead. And so God even in our despair meets with us. And Jesus is there. And again they don't. They don't really recognize him. We'll come back to that in the next few verses.

But he stands in the midst of them. He stands amongst them. Notice it says he Jesus himself stood in the midst of them. So Luke doesn't go into the details. John tells us that the doors were closed because of fear of the Jews.

So they were not only in despair because Jesus had died but they were also afraid because Jesus had been killed. And they felt that maybe they were next and that the Romans or the Jews would come after them after they had killed the Lord Jesus.

And so they barred the doors and the doors were closed. And Jesus appears in spite of the of the closed doors. Jesus just appears there and and and notice it says in in Luke it doesn't say that he came through the door and or through the wall and he it just says he stood in the midst.

So the next thing they saw is there's Jesus standing in the middle. And sometimes we say well you know I want to see something beginning to happen. And yet Jesus is there and he's his word to them is peace to you.

This was the message that heralded his arrival in in chapter 2 of the gospel of Luke when we were there many years ago now three or four years now 2018 so must be four years. But in the gospel in chapter 2 the angels declared peace on earth.

And so at his birth he declares the angels declare peace here in his resurrection. Again he declares peace. Now no I want us to understand that the peace is not the absence of trouble. These guys were in for a lot of trouble.

All of them except for John would be martyred for the faith. They would be imprisoned they would be beaten. All sorts of things would happen to them. But in the midst of that Jesus brings peace. In the midst of the frustration in the midst of the confusion in the midst of everything seeming to go wrong he is able to bring peace.

And Paul speaks about that peace is that peace which transcends human understanding. The fact that a true Christian can have peace in the midst of bereavement that a true Christian can have peace in the midst of trouble and of financial hardship and of physical challenges and whatever else goes around.

We're able to have peace with God because of the Lord Jesus being amongst us or being in us. Without him there is no peace. And that's of course the problem is that the world is chasing after peace. And unfortunately some Christians are chasing after peace by chasing after entertainment are chasing after all kinds of things out there in the world hoping to somehow get peace.

But only Jesus is able to bring peace. He is the prince of peace. And when he is in the midst remember the when when he was in the boat the boat couldn't sink and even though they were in the storm Jesus is able to calm the storm.

We need to have Jesus in the boat. We need to have Jesus in the church. We need to have Jesus in our hearts and in our lives because in that he is able to bring peace. But they were terrified and frightened and supposed that they had seen a spirit the King James says a ghost.

So they now had several witnesses several people had testified that Jesus was risen. They had heard from the woman who had been to the grave and had seen the grave clothes and evidence of the resurrection.

They had heard from Peter and Peter is one of them. They're all part of this group who had gone in and seen and somehow had some understanding even though he'd not fully believed had some understanding of what was going on.

The Lord Jesus had appeared to Mary and so there were witnesses. And yet they still did not believe. They still did not accept the reality. And and and I know that sometimes there are truths in God's Word that are hard for us to come to grips with the the penny doesn't quite drop.

And I'm going to come back because I think this this is an important part of this whole passage while this passage deals with a resurrection and shows us proof and evidence that Jesus was raised from the dead.

I believe that the whole of the chapter deals with the problem of our unbelief and the problem of our not accepting the Word of God. And we'll we'll see that as we as we move along. But they were they were terrified and they were frightened.

Some commentators say that this was not in a negative sense in the sense that they wanted to run away but at the same time they you know I guess you can imagine what would would happen if we had closed the doors and locked the gates and everything and and suddenly here's somebody standing in the middle just appearing who hadn't been there before.

What what's going on. Particularly if it was someone that we know was dead and that we had maybe been to the funeral of and and yet there he is. And so they thought well this is this is a ghost this is an apparition.

Now what happens now is absolutely vital for our faith in the resurrection. Because here's the problem is that we the question is how will we be resurrected. Because remember the whole point is that that because he was raised we have confidence that we will be raised because God proves the resurrection in Jesus.

Therefore we can have faith that there is a resurrection for those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so how will we be resurrected. This is the question. And remember that Paul deals with us in 1 Corinthians 15 in great detail because there's you know how will we be will we.

And these are questions people ask. You know will we will we if we had certain impediments. If we had you know an amputated arm or we were born blind or you know how will we be in the resurrection. How old will we be in the resurrection.

And Paul says well we don't quite understand all of these things. There are certain things that we know for sure. And there are certain things that we can see in Jesus's resurrection that we can learn from.

But at the same time there are certain things that we need to be careful of. And I'm I'll touch on that in a few moments. And so he said then to them why are you troubled. And why do doubts arise in your hearts.

Now remember I've said that in these three accounts of Luke the those who went to the grave those on the road to Emmaus and now those in the upper room that there are certain similarities. There's a pattern between each of those three accounts.

The first is that they are all begin with unbelief. The next is that there is a rebuke. In the first case by the angels in the second by Jesus and here in the third again by Jesus. This is the rebuke.

Why are you troubled. And why do your doubts arise in your hearts. Now he's he's really saying don't you get it. How many times have I told you that I must be raised. That I must be crucified and I must be raised.

Have you not read the scriptures. And remember that the scriptures. And he's going to talk about the scriptures in a moment. All of the scriptures in the old testament the law the prophets and the psalms all of them speak about Jesus in his death and in his resurrection.

Have you not believed the scriptures. Why are you troubled. Why are you worried. And folk of course we're worried. I suppose the answer is because we're human. I think that the lord can ask us the same question when we are troubled about all sorts of things.

When we worry about all sorts of things why do you worry. Well the real reason is because we're human. But the reality is because we don't believe the scriptures. Had we believe. If we believe the scriptures we won't be worried about things we ought not to worry about.

Remember Jesus says why do you worry about what you're going to eat tomorrow. Don't you have enough trouble to deal with today. And yet you want to bring tomorrow's troubles into today. Don't you understand.

Jesus says that if the father cares for the sparrows of the field for the grass that today is and tomorrow is no more. And we know about that here in California when the winter comes it's green for a few weeks and then suddenly it's all gone.

And yet the father cares for the for the grass and for the flowers. Are you not worth more Jesus says than many sparrows. And so why do we worry. We worry because we don't believe. We hide behind our humanness.

We say well you know I'm just human in Africa. When you ask people well why did you mess up. Their answer is if I translate it because I am a person I'm a people. I'm human. That's why I messed up. Well I guess that's part of the part of the answer.

But it doesn't really deal with the real issues. And whenever we doubt whenever we're troubled whenever we stressed it's we can't just hide behind the fact that we're human. Oh lord well you know you know I'm just I'm just who I am.

No he says I've given you the scriptures and I've given you many other things that you can build your face upon. You need to learn to trust me. And so it's it's not a harsh rebuke but it's a mild rebuke.

Why are you troubled. And why do doubts arise in your hearts now I think this is an important statement because this gives us an idea as to really what's going on. Because there seems to be a mixture of faith and doubt in these guys.

There's Peter had seen something and he had believed something. The woman had somehow come to some kind of understanding. But at the same time there's doubt. And this is what he is saying. Why do doubts arise in your hearts.

He's not saying why are you unbelieving. But why is there a struggle. Why is there faith. And then there's no faith. Why is there doubt. And there's believing at the same time. And I think that that's where most of us find ourselves.

We don't necessarily find ourselves. And certainly hopefully being in church this morning we are not those who are total unbelievers. But there's a mixture of faith and of doubt of trusting and not trusting.

And even that we say well you know lord remember the disciples. Lord help our little face. Lord you know I just have a little bit of faith. No that's not the answer. He doesn't want us just to have a little faith.

He wants us to fully trust him in every situation in every every condition. And so why do doubts arise. Why do you allow doubt to rise in your heart. Because you know it's it's like it's like the coldness that seems to if you're in a cold place that seems to get into your feet.

And then it starts just enveloping you. And doubt is the same thing it just starts at the bottom of our heart just there somewhere and it begins to become it begins to rise and it becomes more and more and more in our thoughts you know just a niggling worry about something.

But it soon becomes bigger and bigger and bigger. And it's rising and rising. And fear is reducing sorry faith is reducing as doubt increases. No we we need not have we should not have doubt rising. We must have faith rising and doubt receding doubt going away.

Why do you doubt. Do doubts arise in in your heart. 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. So he now gives them three evidences three proofs that he is truly resurrected.

The first is he says look behold my hands and my feet that it is I myself now again when when we say we can learn certain things about Jesus concerning the resurrection. And there are other things we can't learn clearly.

Jesus in his resurrected form still has the marks in his hands and in his feet. I remember one of the other gospel writers speaks about the fact that Thomas wasn't there when Jesus first appeared on this occasion.

Thomas then joins them the next week and Jesus says come and put your hand in my side. So the the the five marks the two in his hands two in his feet on the side are still there in his resurrection. Does he did.

He still have the other wounds and remember that he was his face was pulled apart. The scripture says his face was marred more than any man. I don't believe that that was there that he's back that was the scripture says was as a plowed field.

I believe that that wasn't there. But the marks which were evidence of his the price he had paid for our salvation were still there. So in when we are resurrected and we all have scars. I have scars all over my hands from working with my hands and I have other scars.

We all have marks of this life. Will those marks still be there. No I don't believe they'll be there. Jesus's marks are different because they have to do with our salvation with our atonement. And so if you lost an arm in an accident or something like that doesn't mean that you will be that way in the resurrection.

I believe that we will be perfect in the resurrection physically. But Jesus still has those marks there. Now there are other other teachers who say well those marks Jesus does no longer no longer has those marks in his glorified body.

Well here he is glorified already and he has the marks. And remember that the prophet says that in the at the end of time Israel will look upon him whom they have pierced and they will weep as for an only son.

And so Israel will come to face at that time the remnant of Israel that's still left after the tribulation. But why does it say they will look upon him whom they have pierced. Because they will see the marks and they will recognize that they have pierced.

They've marked their messiah. And so Jesus points to the marks in his hands and in his feet. And he says look look now folks here is the one of the steps of faith is we need to look. The problem is where do we look we.

We look at the trouble. We don't look at Jesus. Remember when the disciples were in the in the storm in the boat Jesus was there. He was the answer. But they're not looking to Jesus. They're looking out at the winds and the waves.

We need to be looking in the right place. We need to be looking at the right things. The world is doing everything to destroy our faith to destroy our confidence in the scriptures to destroy our faith in the resurrection and in the lord Jesus and in his atoning work.

The world is doing whatever it can to attack our faith in creation and in the scriptures. But where are we looking. We need to be looking at the evidence not looking at what people say. People said Jesus is dead.

He's gone. Jesus says look at the evidence here I am here's proof that this is me. And so then he says the second thing is handle me or touch me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones. As you see I have now I don't want to get too deep into the theology but remember that God is a spirit that Jesus before he was incarnated before he became a man was a spirit because he was God.

A spirit does not have flesh and bones. So God is does not have a visible form. God does not have a human body. God does not have long white hair and blue eyes or whatever image we have concerning you know how he looks.

God is a spirit. But Jesus takes upon himself a human form and I believe that he will forever now have that human form. But it is not his. Here's the thing it is not a typical human body. It is not a typical human body because he was able to come through the wall or wherever he came and and it's not you know that again we're putting it in human terms.

He didn't come through the wall. He just appeared. Beam me up. Scotty remember the same thing happened to to Philip. He's he's preaching to the Ethiopian eunuch. He baptizes him and then it says the spirit caught him away and he appears in another place.

So the laws of physics no longer apply. And so we have this this difficulty because at the same time he says feel me I'm I'm real. And yet at the same time the laws of physics no longer apply. We know from Paul's teaching and from the book of Revelation that in the resurrection there is no sickness there is no dying there is no pain.

So some many most of the things that define us as human beings with a physical body don't apply in the resurrection. And yet some things do apply. And that's the difficulty. You remember Paul explains this in in the book of Corinthians first Corinthians 15.

He says well there are birds and there are animals and there are fish. And there are some similarities between a fish and and a dog. But they're not the same. They both have life they both are able to eat they both move around but they're not the same.

There's similarities between. And of course this is what evolutionists love to do is they love to look at the similarities and say well you know a dog has four legs and a bird has two legs and two wings and those wings are just front legs.

The the problem is that yeah there are similarities but there are massive differences between a dog and and a crow. And Paul says that's the problem is that we look at the resurrection and we look at human flesh and we try and understand that.

And the point he's making is just like there are similarities between between fish and creeping animals and flying animals. There are big differences between this life and the life to come. And the same is true of Jesus.

And so here he is. He flesh and bone can't pass through a wall. I mean it's just impossible. It's why we have doors to keep people out get bad people out anyway. And yet he has substance and he says come and feel.

He says flesh and bone. Not not just flesh not just an apparition but substance flesh over bone. Notice that he doesn't say blood. And so handle me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones. As you see I have.

And so the first step to face is to see to look. The second is to experience to touch. But remember that everything is based on the word of God. Remember that for those on the ratio of mayas he doesn't give them the experience first.

He gives them the word first and then he shows himself to them. Here the order is reversed. And yet you cannot have one without the other. And so we must experience the lord. We must. We can't just you see here's the thing many people look at christianity.

They study christianity they read about it. They go to church but they're just looking. No you need to get in there. You need to experience it you need to feel it. And and we're not preaching a sensory a feeling-based faith.

But unless the scripture says taste and see that the lord is good and obviously not meaning tasting in a physical sense but in a spiritual sense unless you commit yourself to the lord jesus christ and unless you come to a place of saying lord i want to handle you i want to feel you we will not come to faith now.

Verse 40 when he had said this he showed them his hands and his feet so he probably took his sandals off showed himself to them. Verse 41. But while they still did not believe for joy and marveled he said to them have you any food here.

Now here the their mood has changed and i think that it shows us how fickle they were and it's just how fickle we are. They begin with fear. They they're afraid they say this is the ghost. Now they sort of in a different place because they still don't quite believe.

But they don't believe. I i guess in the same way as somebody who wins the jackpot. Now i'm not advocating wasting your money on the jackpot but i think we've all seen the the reactions of people who suddenly come into a lot of money or into some great blessing and and they're amazed but they don't don't quite believe.

In fact yesterday um we watched a little bit of the Wimbledon tennis and a young Russian girl or Kazakhstan girl who won um you could see she she'd won she's got the trophy but the penny hasn't really dropped.

Um and and this is where they are. They they they beginning to understand they're beginning to believe but at the same time this is so big that they they still don't quite get it. So they they're still not at the place of absolute faith they're still not in the place where they will die for their testimony that Jesus is raised from the dead.

But they're getting there and so Jesus again meets them and this is again God's wonderful grace. God doesn't just say well there's a scripture study the scriptures get get your mind right. No he meets them in their need and he gives them proof and he gives them evidence.

And now he gives them the third one and he says have you any food here. So they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb and um sorry so they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb and he took it and he ate in their presence.

Now again he's proving that he is not a spirit a spirit cannot eat. Now again just let's get to the technical stuff because I know we try and figure these things out um Jesus in his resurrected body and remember that the resurrected body is eternal it never dies.

It is not subject to human physical laws the same way as how these bodies are. And so clearly he is able to eat but he I don't believe he has to eat. He can but he doesn't have to. Heaven is not going to be about hometown buffet.

It's not about those things. And yet I guess that if we wanted to because it speaks about the the the street having 12 kinds of trees and and they have the fruit which is for the healing of the nations.

Um I and of course it speaks about the fact that there's going to be that last supper or that great supper the marriage feast of the lamb. Um and so we we I think we can eat. I'm just guessing here because based on what Jesus is doing here the scripture doesn't deal with it anywhere else.

Um so so I we he can eat but he doesn't have to eat. But we know what happens if we don't eat we get hangry and we eventually die. Um but so he's proving that he's real uh that he's not a spirit and so he take he took it and he ate in their presence.

Then he said to them these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you. So he's now going to come back to the word. Remember that his words are not like my words. Um many times things happen in people's lives and I I don't often do it but I say to myself well I told you so didn't you listen when I warned you.

And of course that's what he's saying. But his words are the word of God. My words are just the words of a man. And so he's saying where were you when I told you. These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you.

He says I told you. And of course this is this is the problem is he tells us those who've been with us now for whatever it's been three or four years that we've been in the gospel of Luke we've we've seen over and over and over for the last 19 years I've been teaching the word of God here and and yet so many times we say well I you know I never heard that.

But he says this is what I told you 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 so again Jesus brings everything back to the word he's saying I told you. But what I told you was what the word says. Remember they didn't have the new testament they only had the old testament. But he says I told you what the word says.

The word says I must suffer and I must die. And yet you didn't believe. Now I haven't done a study. But if I I think that just based on memory at least on three if not four or five occasions Jesus specifically opened the scriptures from the old testament and showed them how that the messiah had to suffer and how he had to be raised.

And so Jesus says I taught you the scriptures. Why don't you get it. Why don't you get it. I'm going to come to the answer to that I think in the next verse. But I want you to notice then that he says in the third last line which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms.

Now remember when he spoke to those on the way to Emmaus it says that he showed them from all of the scriptures. And this is saying this just in a different way. The jews have three divisions in their bible.

Remember that we have two major divisions old testament new testament new testament. We divide up into gospels into acts into the epistles and then revelation. So we have those sections the three sections of the old testament.

For the jews is the law the first five books of Moses which is the first five books in our in in our version of the bible. Then they have the prophets the major prophets and the minor prophets from isaiah through malachi.

And then they have the psalms. Now the psalms is not just the psalms that is all the poet what we call the poetic books. So it's psalms and ecclesiastes and proverbs. The book of job is in there as well.

And so he's saying in all three the divisions of the old testament they speak concerning me. So you can read about Jesus's crucifixion or his atoning death in the law. You can read about it in the psalms.

You can read about it in the prophets. You can read about his resurrection in the law in the psalms and in the prophets. And so we could spend weeks going through the old testament and looking at each one of these aspects of Jesus's life.

How that all of these things spoke about the death and the resurrection of the lord Jesus. But Jesus says I've gone through this exercise with you I've gone through the law and through the prophets and through the psalms and shown you these things.

Now here's the here's the key verse 45 my last verse for this morning. And he opened their understanding that they might comprehend understand the scriptures. Remember that on the road to Emmaus he opens the scriptures and they understand but they still don't see him.

And then when they come to the meal he opens their eyes and they understand and they see. This is Jesus. Here is the other way around. But I want you to see the importance of God's part in this process.

Unless he opens our understanding we will not see we will not understand. And so we say oh well there's nothing I can do about it. We become determinists. We say well you know if God's going to help me understand that's great.

If he doesn't well then I won't. No we need to seek wisdom. We need to pray Lord help me understand. And folk here's the problem we have today is that there are very few Christians even in good churches who have any clue about the word of God.

I don't mean they don't know the verses and they don't know the words. But they don't know what they mean. They don't know how to live according to them. They don't know how to apply them in our current political environment how to apply them in our current moral environment.

And so no wonder they're led by the nose by false teachers and deceivers and and all sorts of things. Because we don't understand we know but we don't understand. There's a difference between knowing and understanding.

You can know everything about how to drive a car especially if it's a stick shift. You know how to work the clutch and the but it doesn't mean you know anything until you get behind that wheel and you begin to balance the throttle and the and the clutch.

And until you've mastered it you don't know. You don't understand. And folk I'm so deeply concerned that so many Christians all of their faith is theory it's all up here but there's no understanding. They can argue about this and that.

And remember the pharisees were really good at this. They could argue until the cows came home about every detail of the meaning of the word and even the letters whether it should be this letter or that what does this mean.

What does that mean. But they had no clue. And folk we're in the same place today again whereas the Christian church in the west has a lot of knowledge but they don't understand. And we need to say lord help me understand.