Morning Message Text: Luke 24: 36b-48
Jesus Appears to the Disciples
36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.
38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?
39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.
41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”
42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish,
43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.
46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,
47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
48 You are witnesses of these things.
Morning Message:
Every now and then I will hear some well-intentioned people say, “Even if the Resurrection is not true, Christianity is still the best way to live.” With all due respect – No it is not! Paul says clearly in 1 Corinthians 15: 12-19 that if the resurrection is bogus, he did not want anything to do with Christianity. Because:
1. Our faith is silly and worthless.
2. Preachers are liars.
3. Christians are pitiful fools.
4. The dead are forever dead.
5. There is no hope for the future.
Think about this for a moment. Sometimes we try so hard to appease non-Christians that we tear away the very fiber of our Christian faith. We Christians are resurrection people. If you take away the resurrection there is nothing left.
The resurrection is the hinge of history. It is either the most wicked hoax foisted upon humanity or the most remarkable event in the history of the world. It is either true or false. It is myth or miracle. Jesus is either liar, lunatic, or Lord. We can’t have our faith and make the world happy too.
One thing is for sure, the disciples saw Jesus’ death as a catastrophic failure and intolerable defeat. The only thing left for them to do was join a dead messiah support group or look for a new Messiah. All hopes were dashed. No one though
Sunday morning, “It’s the third day, maybe something great will happen.” No one was camped out at the tomb on Sunday morning counting down 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. Before the resurrection no one had reason to believe and to hope, but we have no excuse.
Do you like history? Military history? I must confess that the one subject in school that got my attention was history. If you don’t care for history I hope you will bear with me while I make my point. On June 18, 1815, at Waterloo, the armies of England and France engaged in a battle that would shape history. It was Napoleon verses Wellington. Napoleon had never lost a battle. England’s future hung in the balance; slavery and death, or freedom and life. Thousands of people back home in London awaited news from the battlefield. Communication came through signal flags and light signals that went hilltop to hilltop. The epic results finally came in one letter at a time. Then suddenly a dense fog rolled in and nothing more could be seen. The results were put up on a giant billboard in London. The letters read: WELLINGTON DEFEATED. The people in London mourned, grieved, and felt hopeless. They stared at the billboard in disbelief. A gust of wind began to sweep the fog away. The signals were flashed again. The words posted on the billboard with the complete message – WELLINGTON DEFEATED THE ENEMY. Church bells rang. Mourning turned to dancing and weeping turned to laughter. It would be life and freedom.
Two thousand years ago, on a skull shaped hill, Jesus was crucified. They ripped his back to pieces, crammed a crown of thorns on his head, put spikes into his hands and feet and plunged a spear into his side. Hell put up a billboard that read JESUS DEFEATED. All hell laughed and heaven wept. Friday turned into
Saturday and Saturday turned into Sunday. The fog lifted and out of the gore of the bloody cross came the glory of the resurrection. The billboard read not JESUS
DEFEATED but JESUS DEFEATED THE ENEMY.
Our scripture today from the gospel of Luke shows us what a game changer resurrection was. Jesus leaves no doubt in the minds of his disciples that he is not merely present with them, but he is fully alive. He is not a resurrected spirit but a resurrected Savior in the flesh. His hands and feet show the scars of his crucifixion, but his new and glorious body, the fact that he ate, he was resurrected just as he said and his victory over death and sin was a game changer for them and for all of mankind. Nothing else can explain the disciple’s overnight transformation from cowering scaredy-cats to unstoppable proclaimers of the gospel. We read this text like it is just a small part of the bigger story, but it is so much more. It is the game changer moment that turned the disciples into true witnesses for Jesus. They understood from that moment on that victory was theirs and that no matter what the world did to them, resurrection was theirs.
Peter Marshall said, “Because Jesus is risen from the dead, He is able to resurrect anything that’s dead, a spiritually dead person, a dead marriage, anything!” C.S. Lewis said, “The world is a great sculpture shop and all of us are the statues. But the rumor is going around that some of us are coming to life.” The gospel of Jesus should bring us to life. We have the ultimate victory of resurrection guaranteed to us, so stop living like you are defeated. You need to read the entire message. JESUS DEFEATED THE ENEMY. Let me leave you with this from God’s word, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be firm, immovable, always excelling in the works of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1Corinthians 15: 56-58)
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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