Description / Transcription
Our text for this evening’s sermon is really a wonderful passage. A pastor once told me that part of the hard part about sermon preparation is what gets left on the cutting room floor and this is one of those passages where there’s so much that can be left on the cutting room floor. We’ll trust the Lord to bless us with what we have in front of us.
Our passage is Luke 24. As Tom mentioned even in his prayer, we are continuing on in our series on the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus and we’re going to jump right into the Bible tonight, so have it ready. If you don’t have it already, have it in front of you. It’ll be good to follow along. If you didn’t bring one with you or don’t have one, you can always find a Bible in the pew in front of you.
I am going to throw a little curveball here because normally this is the part of the sermon where I would tell you to go ahead and open your Bibles to our passage for this evening. Perhaps presuming that I was going to do that, you’ve already done so. So if you have, it’s okay, we’re not going far away from there, but that’s actually not the place I want us to start. I want to start tonight looking at another passage.
So actually turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 4. So that’s not much further along from Luke, if you happen to already be there. Acts, of course, is the second book that Luke wrote and it follows, it picks up where his Gospel leaves off. In fact, if you were to look at the first chapters of both you’d find they’re addressed to the same person, Theophilus. Acts begins this way, chapter 1. In the first book, that’s Luke’s Gospel he’s referencing, in the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when He was taken up.
So Acts 1 actually picks up where Luke 24 leaves off. But of course, Acts 1 is not where I asked you to torn.
So on to Acts 4. Because I want to start tonight with a question. I want to start tonight with a question. This – How does Acts 4 happen? How does Acts chapter 4 happen?
In chapter 3 Peter and John, the apostles, have been proclaiming the Gospel. They’re in Jerusalem after the healing of a lame man. Then chapter 4 begins this way – As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day.
It goes on to say that many had already believed what they were preaching, a great number. Luke continues on to record the interrogation of Peter and John by the high priestly family, verse 7 there. By what power, or by what name did you do this? Peter answers, “It’s by the power and the name of Jesus,” whom those Jewish leaders had crucified that this man is now well. Then he says, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Then verse 13.
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John,” the boldness of Peter and John, “and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”
Well, I know that’s a lot of Scripture, I realize, and we haven’t even actually gotten to our text tonight, so I’m keeping account for that. But I started here because again I want to ask this question as we begin – how does this happen? How does Acts chapter 4 happen?
Of course, there are many other instances like this one in the book of Acts. So it’s not just how does this one instance happen, but this is a great example for us and I want to ask how did it come about. It’s even more provocative question when you consider where our passage this evening tonight begins. On that first Easter evening with a timid and confused and even crushed groups of disciples that included this same Peter and John hiding in a closed room somewhere in that same Jerusalem, what takes place to transform that scene into this?
Well, again, our passage tonight will give us the answer. In a word, the resurrected Jesus shows up.
We want to look at it at its whole, we’re going to read it altogether, so let’s read. If you haven’t already, flip back now to Luke 24. We’ll read the passage together, beginning in verse 36 through 49. Remember, this is the Word of God. Luke 24, verse 36.
“As they were talking about these things, Jesus Himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate before them.”
“Then He said to them, “These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.””
Well, you can see just in the English text in front of us, our translation you’ve got there two paragraphs, that’s how the passage breaks down. That’s how we’ll handle it tonight in our sermon as well, two basic points and then mentally I don’t have very catchy, clever titles for them, it’s just this – the apostles’ assurance, the disciples’ assurance and the disciples’ commission.
So, following along with our title there, Assured to be Sent. We’ll see the disciples’ assurance an then their commission, looking first at their assurance.
Look at verse 36. “While they were talking about these things, Jesus Himself stood among them.” We’re picking up here where Bruce and Nathan left off of the last couple of weeks, but it’s probably helpful to remind ourselves a little bit of the context here.
First of all, who’s the “they” here? Well, we know from the previous section, this included those disciples which had come back from Emmaus. Jesus had met them on the road to Emmaus. He appeared to them then He vanished. Verse 33 says they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem where they found the 11 and those who were with them gathered together.
If they made that return trip to Jerusalem that same evening, which it certainly seems that they did, then that would make this time the end of the same first Sunday Easter resurrection night. So that’s actually the when.
And as they entered Jerusalem, it seems they head to a room where apparently they knew the apostles and these other disciples would be gathered.
One more note. It’s most likely that this scene is the same one described by John in his Gospel in chapter 20. It’s interesting that John adds there in his account that the doors of the room were locked, he says, for fear of the Jews in Jerusalem.
That’s a bit of the context. But something was happening here. There was a buzz in the room. They were talking about these things. What things? Well, that Jesus was apparently alive and that He was starting to appear to His disciples. In fact, when the men from Emmaus arrived to tell their story about how they interacted with the risen Christ, they find the room already buzzing with Peter’s tell, that he had been encountered by the risen Christ.
So you have the witness of the women at the tomb, you’ve got Peter’s story, now you’ve got these men from Emmaus coming. You can imagine the mood in the room is starting to turn and yet perhaps there is still some lingering doubts. No doubt so many questions. You wonder how was that conversation going. They just all talking over each other in amazement or in wonder, perhaps some confusion. Maybe even some fear still.
Well, whatever it was, suddenly Jesus is just there. He’s just there. And Luke says they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. Maybe that seems a little strange at first since the room was already talking about these appearances. That’s what they were talking about, but perhaps we can understand. After all, we’re not too unlike these disciples.
Three quick thoughts on their initial reaction.
First of all, everything is happening so fast at this point. They are trying to assimilate all of these details into their reality as they understand it. It’s probably hard to keep up. It’s probably hard for us. We’ve heard this story, many of us, many times now. To reinsert ourselves and be able to experience it as they were in real time. It’s all happening so very fast. How do you keep up?
Second, they were again in a closed room. Remember, no one saw Jesus enter. As John tells us, the door is locked. But even if this were a different appearance, the sense of the passage is that His appearance was sudden and immediate. He was just there.
And here’s something you need to know about the first century, kind of ancient near-Eastern world. This is one of those things they teach you in seminary. I don’t think you’ll find it in your study Bibles. But back then, people didn’t just walk through walls. They were still, that didn’t happen. It was weird. It was unusual. They didn’t really have a category for it then. So Jesus was suddenly just there.
Third, and certainly most importantly, they knew that Jesus had truly died. The disciples’ reactions actually remind us just how real that was, how final, how clear it was to them that Jesus had in fact died. How hard it was to integrate that reality into what they are now hearing about and even experiencing. People who are dead just don’t come back.
I don’t know if you watched it. We just finished a couple of weeks the NCAA basketball tournament. I will admit I did not watch as much after the first round because some of our teams did worse than others. But you know, or you can imagine if you don’t follow basketball, what it’s like at the end of a game when your team is down. You find yourself down. Maybe it’s 4 minutes to go and you’re down by 8 points. It’s not where you’d hope to be. But there’s still hope, there’s still time. Maybe you’re down by 12 with 2 minutes to go. Again, not where you’d hope to be, not ideal. But if you love your team, you’re still holding onto hope when the coach calls a time out. There’s a chance. All right, it’s 1 minute and you’re down by 14. Realistically, you know it’s not happening. Yet if you love this, you can’t help but just hope maybe there’s a way.
Well, then the final buzzer sounds and the game is over. The players line up and they’re starting to shake each other’s hands. The coaches, you know, they transition to interviewing some players after the game. TV switches to post-game commentary and you know the game is over. It’s really done. There is no chance of a comeback now.
It was over for these disciples. It was really over. Until suddenly it wasn’t. And Jesus wants to assure them in the midst of their fears, even in the face of their own failures, that it was definitely not over.
Two key assurances that these disciples needed and Jesus is now providing for them. First of all, His peace. He says, “Peace to you.” Not to just try to disarm the shock, there’s something more here. Peace can be proclaimed because peace has been accomplished. It’s been provided for. What was needed for true and ultimate peace has been done. Peace with God. Peace with Himself. Peace with Jesus.
It’s the same seed that actually begins to make possible peace with others. Peace with ourselves, peace with the creation at large, peace with our future. But imagine how it was received in that room that night, “Peace to you, brothers.”
Nathan did a great job last Sunday evening taking us through, helping us to really see/feel what it would have been like to be Peter, the apostle but the denier, interacting with the risen Lord Jesus, and the restoration that Jesus provided for him. But Peter, Peter was not the only one who failed Jesus in the crucial moment. He was just the most vocal. Here was a room of fellow failures. How sweet would those words have been, “Peace, brothers. It’s all right now.”
We’ll see that these disciples are going to be sent out as messengers of forgiveness, but before they were messengers, they were first recipients. That’s how it always is. God’s messengers of grace are always, first of all, and always are, needy themselves for God’s grace. So He says to us, just as to them, “Peace, brothers. Peace, sisters. It’s all right now. I’ve taken care of it.”
Jesus gives us the assurance of peace, and He gives us the assurance of His presence. Look at verse 39. He says, “See My hands and see My feet that it is I Myself,” the word there emphasizes this reality. It’s really Me. And He offers His physical body as proof. “Look, see My hands, see My feet.” Certainly appearing in the middle of a room without the benefit of a door was something different. This is a resurrected Christ.
We see one of the continuities of His resurrection body here, the scars of the crucifixion. Forever Christ will bear these marks. We’ll always see on His body the glory of His love for us. These truly are wounds of honor in which the horror of the cross has become the glory of Christ. But He offers it. He offers His hands, He offers His feet to His frightened and doubting disciples. Go ahead, He says, touch Me.
It’s not a vision. It’s not a ghost or delusion. It’s not a different Jesus, either. It’s not a replacement Jesus. There’s continuity of His person here. We’ll come back to that. But do you wonder what this moment would have been like for these friends of Jesus?
Listen to William Hendriksen explain what they might have experienced or thought about in that moment. The Lord is risen indeed. Here everything changes. We can all be happy once more, a living hope, living real, a desire plus expectation plus conviction that our lives here are not in vain. A hope not based upon legend or fancy but upon the immovable rock of Christ’s resurrection from the grave. He lives, hence life is worth living. Hence all things work together for good for them that love God. Hence we, too, shall live. Hence the curse is going to be removed from the universe and we expect a new heaven and a new earth. All the darkness is dispelled. Hope lives again.
It’s a marvel almost too good to be true.
Look at verse 41.
“And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling.”
I love this line in this passage. This is not hardened, rebellious disbelief. It’s not the dark cloud of unbelieving doubt here. This just sounds like a first century way of saying this is just too good to be true. This just seems too good to be true, even when you know that it is. And of course, it would have been, except that it wasn’t. And they were marveling and they were touching Him. I just wonder, how did this go at this point. Is there a line? Are they crowding in around Jesus? Is there someone rubbing their eyes for disbelief? It’s just too good to be true.
And then I wonder if Jesus was smiling when He said it. “Here. Do you have something to eat? I’ll show you. Give it to Me.” They gave him some fish and He ate it. Notice what Luke says, he makes the point of saying, “He ate in front of them.” Because this was a meal not really for Jesus. It was for them.
Friends, look at Jesus. Look how far He goes. He wants them to be sure. He wants to assure them that death is overcome. That it’s really finished. That peace has been secured. That the resurrection is real. That they are themselves staring with physical eyes, touching with physical hands, the physical first fruits of a resurrection that will include themselves in the resurrected Christ.
Just how deep was their confusion? Just how deep were their doubts? How deep was their sense of failure? How committed was their Savior to their comfort? To their assurance? To their understanding?
It points to one more thing we need to note about this comment there in verse 39 – It is I Myself. Because it’s more than the feet and the hands of Christ that’s on display here this evening, it’s also His heart. Not just “it’s really Me,” but also “It’s still Me.” Different, yes. He’s resurrected. But the same, notice the consistency of the character and the person of the risen Christ, that He comes, He comes to them, He comes to find His weak and His worried disciples. He comes for His friends. He comes to comfort them. He comes to assure them because He comes because He wants to be with them, to bring them good news. He wants to lift up their downcast faces. He wants to settle their doubting hearts because the risen Christ is still the Good Shepherd.
What good news, what good news for these disciples. Don’t fear, it is still Me, and it is great news for us here tonight, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Have you ever left Him? Have you ever hidden in fear? Have you been plagued with doubts? Have you been ashamed? Have you failed Him? We are not too unlike those disciples. But here is the good news, that Jesus is always just like Himself, yesterday, today, and forever. It’s an incredible assurance that He gives to them and to us.
Of course, as we continue to read on, we see that this assurance is not meant just for their benefit, that this sweet moment will soon become a sending moment.
In fact, Dale Ralph Davis asked, “Why is this assurance so important? Why did Jesus do this?” Answer: Because if these same disciples are to proclaim Him, even die for Him, they must be locked down sure that the crucified Jesus is the same as the risen Jesus.
So it’s clearly an assurance meant to settle His disciples, but it’s also an assurance meant for sending them.
Which is our second point, and more briefly, they are sending, they are commissioned.
Look at me with verses 44 through 49. First as we look at this I need to point out it’s not actually certain that this is the same night. Very possibly it could be, it would seem like quite the late night Bible study if it were at this point, but that’s not beyond Jesus. It’s certainly possible.
It’s also possible that Luke is here at this point just sort of doing away with some time markers and just condensing a number of interactions between these disciples from the first resurrection night until His ascension. Can’t be sure, but either way the point is the same, that these assured disciples will also be sent disciples. They aren’t to stay there afraid. More than that, they aren’t to stay there period. At least not for long.
Look at verses 46 through 48. He says to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
Here’s what’s so interesting is that verse 46 now has happened, at this point in the story historically verse 46 has happened. Verse 47 has not yet. And what’s incredible is to think that these few cowering disciples, huddled in that room with Jesus in that moment, are literally standing between verse 46 and verse 47. How would verse 47 happen? Who would do it?
Verse 48. You will, Jesus says. You are the witnesses.
We’ll come back to that, but notice first the nature of that mission. Notice it’s a necessary mission. It’s not something that might or could happen. It’s not suggested by Jesus as a good idea to think about. Jesus said, verse 47, “Repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed.” Actually, one word in the Greek, and it’s in the infinitive form, which admittedly is not all that interesting unless you’re a seminary student or maybe you just really love infinitives, which would be interesting in and of itself.
But it gets a little more interesting when you think about what Darrell Bock has pointed out, that the verse before that “should suffer and rise” are also in the infinitive. Now you’re like, ah, Dave, why didn’t you just say so? Three infinitives, now that’s fascinating.
But what can we gain from that observation? Well, that the global proclamation of the forgiveness of sins is no less a must or a should or an it shall be than the suffering and the rising of Christ to achieve that forgiveness. All three were foretold because all three were foreplanned. Because all three are equally essential to God’s purposes.
You see, there can be no proclaiming of forgiveness that has not first been provided for. That’s the suffering and the rising of Christ, and yet just as much there can be no provision of forgiveness without its proclamation, because the Christ who suffered must receive the reward of His suffering.
Friends, if you’re a believer and here tonight, you are part yourself of that reward. But do you see then that the cross, the resurrection, the forgiveness of sins, and the gathering in of the forgiven, it’s ultimately centered on Christ? It’s for Him and His glory so that the proclaiming of forgiveness is no less essential to the plan of God than its procuring. The proclaiming of forgiveness is no less essential to the plan of God than its procuring. And God will see to its accomplishment no less than He did to the crucifixion and the resurrection. It’s a necessary mission.
At the heart of that mission is a message. So notice the nature of the message.
First, it’s a message of forgiveness. It’s a message about sin. It’s a message about repentance. It’s a historical message. It’s news. It’s not philosophy. It’s publicizing what it was that Jesus did and what that means. It’s the message of the cross which paves the way for repentance that leads to the forgiveness of sins in Christ’s name. That because all have sinned and because there is no other atonement, no other satisfactory sacrifice to take away sins, to deal with sins, as we just read in Acts 4 there is no other name under heaven given to men among which we might be saved other than the name of Jesus.
So do you need that tonight? Forgiveness. Because the offer is still good. Pathway is repentance, it’s turning from sin, it’s turning towards Christ and faith, but the promise is true forgiveness and freedom. And because of what Christ has done, it can be had tonight. Which is the message, and it’s good news.
Of course, as Jesus makes clear, the Scriptures have been pointing towards this all along.
Verse 46 – these things were written about. They were written about. In what? In the Scriptures that they had available, which is now our Old Testament, but what Jesus calls by the summary in verse 44 the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.
Then verse 45 says that He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. Talk about minds being blown. To be able to suddenly begin to see the whole testimony of Scripture was pointing forward to what Christ would do, what Christ would accomplish, and God’s global plan, global plan of forgiveness and salvation to be offered to the nations.
I just want to think of one example of how this worked itself out. Go back to the scene that we opened with in Acts. Peter says there in Acts 4:11, “To those Jewish leaders, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man is standing before you well.” And then he continues, listen to this: “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone and there is salvation in no one else.”
Now when Peter says that about the cornerstone, he’s actually quoting from Psalm 118:22. The Psalms, the Old Testament, and in it he is seeing and proclaiming Jesus. How did Peter come to see that? These are the words that I spoke to you, Jesus said, while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled, and then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
The mission was, of course, to be a global one. It’s to all nations. But it was to begin in Jerusalem, where they read and studied and memorized these very same Scriptures.
So listen to this observation by __: I believe the Lord held this second study not only so they would understand the Scriptures as head knowledge but also so they would be prepared for their mission. He tells them that they must preach repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations, but starting right there in Jerusalem.
It seems that Jesus was teaching the disciples to see Him in the Old Testament, at least in part, so that they could share Him with others from the Old Testament. He’s the same kind of teacher today.
It points us to the last thing, the mission, the message, the messengers. Notice the nature of the messengers. Because if you think about this, it’s not only the same Jesus, it’s also the same disciples, the same little huddled group. You are witnesses. God could have done it in any number of ways. He could have borne witness in any number of ways. He could have taken out an advance on the internet or AI or robots. He could have kept it old school, put it in the hands of angels. But He didn’t do that. He put the message and the mission in the hands of this handful of witnesses.
You think about the necessity and the scope of this mission and here’s what’s incredible. Who’s going to do it? You are, Jesus says. They were the witnesses of Jesus so they must be the witnesses about Jesus. That is, they must testify because they witnessed.
Of course, if that’s where the passage ended tonight, then surely it all would have failed. These disciples, they were just too frail. They were just too weak. If that’s where it ended, this story would have a different ending entirely. We wouldn’t be here tonight, you wouldn’t be here. One way or another, you’d be somewhere else. This church wouldn’t exist. Who knows that this continent would look like. History itself, who knows how it would have gone, because news of the event on which history turned, the dying and the rising of Christ most certainly would not have turned the world upside down had it not been for verse 49.
Look at verse 49. Here’s another way you could translate it: And behold, I am not sending you alone. I’m sending you with My spirit.
That’s the reference here. The promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, to empower, to embolden, to equip. Praise God for verse 49. That’s why we’re here.
But we started this evening asking a question: How did Acts 4 happen?
Luke 24 tells us because God does what He says He is going to do. One more time to Acts chapter 4, verse 8: Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them.
So in short, the answer to how does Acts 4 happen is God. We need to be reminded tonight that the success of this mission, even every single triumph of its messengers, ultimately magnifies Him because it’s all His doing. Here’s the thing this evening – He is not done. There was certainly uniqueness to the apostles’ mission, to their sending, there was a uniqueness to their role as eyewitnesses. It’s part of their qualification as apostles. Their ministry was a foundational one, but the mission wasn’t done with their passing, and it still isn’t.
Repentance for the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus must be proclaimed to all nations.
It’s interesting to think that Luke’s actually ending his Gospel where he began. If we flip back to Luke 1 we’d see Luke telling Theophilus where he got all this from. He says, to open his Gospel, “I’ve undertaken to write a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word have delivered them to us.”
That’s what happened. The eyewitnesses did it. They delivered them to the next witnesses who delivered them to the next witnesses and now we are witnesses. Not eyewitnesses, but next witnesses. Next witnesses with the same mission with the same message about the some crucified and risen Christ and the same empowering Spirit.
So as we close, let me just make one more interesting observation, that couldn’t help but have occur as I was thinking about being with you all here tonight. Because here we are, gathered in a room together on another Sunday evening, many, many years after this one. Most of us here at least disciples of Jesus, many of us no doubt painfully aware of our frailties and our failures. But is it not at least a little interesting to think that here we are, not altogether unlike them, yet week after week gathering to be assured and to be reassured as God holds up the risen Christ in front of us in the preaching and the singing and the praying and the worship, the peace and the presence and the power of our risen Lord, and with a whole week of opportunities for us to be sent into.
Let’s pray. Father, thank You for Your Word tonight. Pray that You would minister to our hearts and strengthen us, equip us, that You would be magnified. Thank You that You are the God of this mission, You are the God of forgiveness, You are the God of hope, You are the God of the resurrection. Help us again to be encouraged, empowered, emboldened as we see the risen Christ held up in front of us. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
