All right, let's begin this morning.
Let's begin with prayer as we continue our Sunday School series on the resurrection narratives
in the New Testament.
Let's pray.
God, we thank you for raising your son, Jesus Christ, from the dead.
We thank you for the good news that he is Lord of all.
We thank you that his work on the cross is complete and finished and accomplished on our behalf,
and so we can draw near to you with confidence.
We pray that you would bless this time as we spend time together in your word.
We pray that it would be fruitful for us.
We pray for the children as they're in their classes and youth.
We pray for the people who are upstairs in the worship service as well.
Lord, that you would make your word, plant your word in our hearts and minds,
and may it grow and bear fruit for your glory.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right, so let's start with the chart.
There are two handouts.
Everybody got one?
If you didn't get one, Ben has them.
Do you need handouts back?
We're good?
Okay, great.
So let's start with the chart.
So I feel like there's an echo.
Are you hearing an echo or is it just me?
It's good.
Should I just cut the...
Am I loud enough?
Should I just cut the mic?
I'm always the loudest one, so...
Sometimes the pastors sort of humorously compare ourselves to one another.
And I usually get...
That's how I just...
Well, anyway, at least I can get louder.
Anyway.
So we are looking...
So I thought I would compare the four Gospels and what we learn from each of them about the resurrection of Christ.
So Mark is the shortest account.
I don't know.
Maybe I should just turn this on but turn it down.
I think that's what I will...
Maybe that's what I will settle on.
How's that?
Is that better?
Okay.
All right.
We'll do that.
So Mark is the shortest account.
And we looked at that a little bit on Easter Sunday.
Although I think Peter's lesson was more just about the historical plausibility of the resurrection of Jesus in general.
If you look at Mark 16, 1 to 8, that only tells about the visit to the empty tomb.
And the end of verse 8 is the women flee, trembling in fear, saying nothing.
Now, there's a whole question about where did Mark's Gospel originally end?
Okay.
Did it end at verse 8?
Did Mark just sort of want to leave us all in suspense?
Now, of course, he's not saying that they never said anything to anyone.
Right?
The angel says, go tell his disciples and Peter.
You will see him in Galilee.
He's going before you to Galilee.
Obviously, Mark has written his Gospel because people have spread the news about his resurrection.
So, obviously, you know, the end of verse 8 is not absolutely the end of the story.
But it might have just been an ending that sort of leaves us in suspense and emphasizes the surprise and the astonishment that the women felt upon seeing the resurrection.
And that's just a theme that comes out in the way Mark tells the story.
Very sort of simple and direct.
And you see how surprised they are and how they weren't expecting it and how the resurrection sort of surprises us with it's a sort of divine surprise.
But other people think that perhaps the original ending, Mark, might have continued the story, but the original ending might be missing because when they had books back then, you didn't have a book like this.
You had a scroll and it was rolled up.
And so the end of it might be on the outside.
And so, you know, if you pass the scroll around, it gets bumped and, you know, falls in the dirt and, you know, the end of it gets wet and then it gets torn off by mistake.
Right. You could easily imagine how the original ending of Mark's gospel might have been.
There might have been a fuller ending.
So the current ending that you see in most Bibles or most Bibles, it'll have nine through 20, but then it'll have a note that say some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 16, nine through 20.
And the earliest manuscripts don't.
So these are, you know, we have copies of the New Testament from throughout from the second century to the, well, the present really, but, you know, through the Middle Ages before the printing press.
The printing press sort of standardized things.
But when you compare all the copies, the early ones don't have Mark 16, nine to 20.
So I think it's likely a summary of other narratives of resurrection appearances found in the other three gospels.
So it talks about the appearance to Mary Magdalene, which John narrates in more detail on the road to Emmaus, which, as we'll see, Luke gets into in more detail, appears to the 11 disciples at a table at dinner.
There's a great commission, which Matthew and Luke and really John in his own way records.
But and then the Ascension, which Luke narrates.
So so this is there.
Just so you know, there are only two places in the New Testament where there's a chunk of text that we're not totally sure if it was there in the original writing.
And it's here.
And it's the story of the woman caught in adultery in John chapter eight.
So so, you know, there's this this doesn't.
The question about how Mark's gospel ends, it doesn't prevent us from it doesn't.
It's not in any way preventing us from trusting that.
What am I trying to say?
It doesn't hinder us from trusting in the scriptures.
So the trustworthiness of the New Testament, you know, again, we have thousands of copies of the New Testament.
You know, they're remarkably consistent.
And, you know, this is one of the two actual, you know, paragraph, couple paragraph long sort of narratives that we're not quite sure.
Did Mark write this or most likely I think it was written later.
Anyway, if you have questions about that, you can ask questions about that.
So Matthew follows Mark's account of the empty tomb pretty closely.
Even some of the wording is is the same, though not all of it.
But he adds some more details.
So the earthquake, the guards tremble, they become like dead men.
The women depart with fear, but also with great joy.
And they run to tell his disciples.
So, you know, yes, did they go away fearful and trembling, saying nothing at first?
Yes.
But eventually and probably pretty quickly, they made it to the disciples and did tell them.
And then we have Jesus appearing to the women, to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary,
which may be the same as the incident that's recorded in fuller form in John's gospel,
the one that I preached on on Easter.
And let's see, then there's something about the guards report and then a great commission on mountain and galley.
So Matt led us through this last week in Sunday school and focused on the theme of Jesus' authority.
Jesus' authority that calms our fears and reassures us in our doubts and brings clarity to our confusion.
So that's sort of Matthew's emphasis is we see that the resurrection establishes the authority of Jesus.
Today we're going to look at Luke.
So I'll get back to Luke later.
But next we can look at John.
John is sort of the longest account of different resurrection appearances.
It records four.
Luke reports sort of the empty tomb plus two, the road to Emmaus and the disciples at dinner.
It mentions the third Jesus appearing to Simon, but doesn't describe it.
So John records four in full.
Mary Magdalene in the garden, the 11 minus Thomas, the 11 including Thomas,
and then seven disciples by the Sea of Galilee, which is also called the Sea of Tiberias,
where there's the miraculous catch of fish and Jesus cooks the bread and fish on the,
he cooks breakfast for them and he reinstates and commissions Peter.
So any questions about this chart?
We're going to look more deeply into Luke.
And I'm not going to look at Acts 1, but just Acts is also written by Luke.
And so I think we should combine Luke and Acts because they're really volume 1 and volume 2 of the same thing.
Luke begins the gospel by saying this is what Jesus did when he was on earth.
And Luke begins Acts by saying this is what Jesus continued to do by the Holy Spirit through his apostles,
through the disciples after his resurrection.
So I've put in briefly what Acts tells us about Jesus after his resurrection through the ascension,
which is the first 11 verses of Acts.
All right.
Any questions about this chart before we jump into Luke?
Jeff.
The end of Mark that's not in the original manuscript.
Are there any details in that part that contradict the other gospels?
Are there any details in any of the gospels?
I know some of them cover something.
But do any of the gospels say different things about the same events?
Yeah.
So that's a great question.
So in terms of the ending of Mark, I don't think there's anything that contradicts the other gospels,
partly because I think it's, I think it was, what I think happened with the ending of Mark is,
it's a little bit like how we have study Bibles today, right?
You have a study Bible, you have the text of the Bible, and then you've got a line,
and then you've got notes underneath that sort of explain in more detail and answer common questions.
Back then, you just had one scroll.
You didn't have this formatting that we have today for a study Bible.
And so if somebody, if a preacher wanted to make a note in the margin of his gospel manuscript
about just an explanation to the reader or something like that, you just write a note in the margin, right?
Or you might write a note at the end of the gospel of Mark just to sort of say,
okay, what happened after the empty tomb?
Well, Jesus actually appeared to people.
Well, here's some of the people he appeared to summarizing the other gospels.
So I think that's a plausible explanation for how these verses came to be associated with the gospel of Mark.
Now, what do they say?
I don't think they contradict anything.
There is, so if you look at Mark 16, verse 18, or 17, it says,
These signs will accompany those who believe.
In my name they will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues,
they will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them.
They will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover.
So picking up serpents is unique.
So it doesn't contradict the other gospels, but it's unique.
And this is the verse that a few, you know, fringe Christian groups have used
to support picking up poisonous snakes and saying,
Well, look, the Bible says you can pick up an anaconda and you won't get hurt.
I don't think that's a good use of this verse, regardless of whether Mark wrote it or not.
I think, but also, it's only here and it's nowhere else in the Bible.
And this part probably wasn't even written by Mark.
So it's a bad verse to base a sort of dangerous practice on.
In terms of generally, are there contradictions between these accounts of the appearances?
Now, they are described differently.
So in Mark, it says they saw a young man sitting on the right side of the tomb,
dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.
In Matthew, it says there was an angel.
Well, the angel rolled back the stone and sat on it.
Or Luke, let's see, Luke says there were two men who stood by them in dazzling apparel.
Anyway, so there's a difference in how these men are described.
Is there just one man who's referred to?
Are there two men who's referred to?
Are they men?
Are they angels?
Now, is that a contradiction?
I would say no.
When angels appear in the Bible, they most often look like human beings.
Sometimes they look like a sort of heavenly warrior of light.
But sometimes they just appear as a messenger, as if they were a human being talking.
So, you know, and obviously, when it just says men in dazzling apparel,
okay, a regular guy doesn't wear dazzling apparel.
Like, that's sort of unusual.
Okay?
So, anyway.
So, there are some of those things.
It's a little, there are some things that are a little bit challenging to figure out.
Is this referring to the same incident or a different incident?
So, some people have asked the question, when John refers to Mary Magdalene running to, going to the tomb while it was still dark,
is that the same thing as when Mary and a couple other women go to the tomb in Matthew and Mark and Luke?
Or, did Mary get up before everybody else, go to the tomb while it's still dark, she's all confused, and she runs away and doesn't stay there,
and goes and gets the male disciples, and then maybe goes and gets some other women, and then they all go together later on?
Or, is John just, or, no, is it the same thing?
You know, John only mentions Mary Magdalene, but there are others with her.
The reason why he only mentions her is because he's going to focus on Jesus appearing to her later in his story.
You know, it's not an error to say, you know, Jeff walked to the store yesterday.
The reality is he, you know, two of his kids went with him.
It's not an error if I don't mention the kids.
You know, it's just, you know, you emphasize certain details, not others.
Say, because Jeff had a conversation with the storekeeper, you know, and that's what I want to tell you about.
And his kids didn't, right?
So there's some questions about how do you sort of put this all together.
And so it is interesting.
Some people have made the point that if, let's see,
if the disciples were conspiring, okay,
if they were saying, all right,
what really happened is we stole Jesus' body,
but we don't want anybody to know that.
So here's the story that we're all going to tell.
So-and-so went to the tomb.
They found the tomb empty.
Jesus appeared to them.
Then Jesus appeared to us.
And then you sort of repeat it.
Okay, who, you know, like, you know, right,
you have this strategy meeting and you say, all right,
we have to tell exactly the same story.
Because if we tell slightly different details,
people will think it's, you know,
people will question us and then we won't know what to say.
And so you sort of construct this verbatim report
and just repeat it and copy it.
That's not what we see here, right?
We see, you know, different gospel writers,
including different details,
but it's very clearly referring to the same thing.
It's very clearly referring to
Jesus rising from the dead,
the tomb being empty,
and him appearing in person
in a body that is both a real physical body,
but also a resurrected body
that's not always immediately recognized
by his disciples.
So he's the same Jesus,
but he's also glorified, you know,
or resurrected, glorified, you know,
an immortal, yes, yes.
That's right.
His flesh was incorruptible.
That's right.
And that's why he ascended into heaven
and he still has his resurrection body.
He's still a human.
Do you know that Jesus is still a human being?
Yeah.
He didn't just become a human being
while he lived on earth
and then sort of leave behind
his humanity and his body on earth
and sort of fly away to heaven
and now he's just God.
No, he's still the son of God
and the son of man, right?
And that's why he still can be our mediator
because he's both our brother
in his humanity
and he's our savior and our Lord
in his divinity.
And yet he's one and the same.
Yeah.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever.
That's what the book of Hebrews says.
I end up coming again
in that resurrection body.
That's right.
And it will be even more glorious
than the disciples saw it here.
Right?
This is just sort of a,
it's almost like a sneak preview
of what's going to come
when Jesus comes again.
Amen.
That's true.
Amen.
Does that answer your question, Jeff?
Yeah, I was just thinking that,
you know, there's 12, 15 of us
in this room.
If we all saw something happen,
we wouldn't tell the same story.
Right.
Especially if it's something
that is out of the ordinary
because, you know,
we see ordinary things every day
and we sort of get programmed to it.
We can retell the story
and everybody tells us
into the same thing.
But if we see an automobile
out there,
if we see a robbery happening,
and we all see exactly
the same thing,
and then we're asked about it,
we're all going to tell
slightly different versions of it.
That's right.
Some of us are going to,
you know,
there are going to be some highlights
that everybody gets the same.
Yeah.
And, you know,
there are going to be details
that you see,
but I don't.
Right.
And you'll report it
and I won't report it.
You'll remember there were two people
and I'll remember there were three people.
Yeah.
So, you know,
the resurrection was not ordinary,
you know,
it didn't happen every day.
Right.
So when people saw it,
it really was,
it stretched their minds
because they weren't accustomed
to dealing with it.
You know,
they knew they were expecting
to know what they did,
but,
and they found something
completely unexpected.
And, you know,
while Jesus is both God
and human,
these people were all just human.
Right.
They reacted the way humans
would react.
Right.
So I think that,
you know,
my question was not
whether the stories are identical,
but whether there were any details
that directly conflicted
with other accounts
of the resurrection.
Yeah.
No, I don't.
Someone saying that
one person went versus three persons,
in my mind,
is not a contradiction.
Yeah.
I wanted to mention that
because some people will say
there are contradictions.
I would say ultimately no.
I don't think,
I don't think there are,
I don't think the differences
are not,
I don't think the differences
are unresolvable.
But I think when you ask,
well, okay,
what are the contradictions
you're saying?
I think some of them
are sort of like,
well,
you know,
did Mary go first
and then ran back
and brought,
told Peter and John
and then they ran
and then later on
she walked over
with the other women
to see it again?
Or,
did Mary go with
three or four women
right from the start?
And then they went back
and told the guys
and guys were figuring
out what to do from there.
You know,
honestly,
either way,
I think there's probably
a legitimate way
to harmonize that
either way.
I think,
I would say,
I think John
probably indicates
that somebody else
was with Mary
from the beginning.
So,
I'm not necessarily convinced
that Mary did a solo trip
and then came back
and then,
you know,
I think,
in fact,
I think he even uses
the word we.
Mary Magdalene
came to the tomb early
while it was still dark
and saw the stone
had been taken away
from the tomb.
So,
she ran and went
to Simon Peter
and the other disciple
whom Jesus loved
and said to him,
they have taken the Lord
out of the tomb
and we do not know
where they have laid him.
So,
that's interesting
that she says we.
Now,
some people say we
when it was just I
but still,
like,
I think that's an indication
like probably
she was with,
probably,
she was with the other women.
John just doesn't
mention all of their names.
So,
yes?
I thought the version
spoke about Luke 10,
19,
and he said,
you know,
to be a power
of the church
and you're in the world.
Isn't that a metaphor?
You don't literally
mean,
stick your hand in there
to see if God
will protect you.
That goes back
to Matthew 4
and he said,
don't tempt God,
you know.
If you didn't know
that there was going
to be a bomb
in that building,
you walk in
and God protects you,
you're good.
And then you say,
just go,
oh,
just because God's here,
let me go sit
on this bomb.
I'm good.
God's right here
to go and get
on my back.
Yeah,
right,
right.
Is it metaphor?
Yeah,
no,
I think that,
I mean,
who's the serpent
in the beginning
of the Bible?
The spirit of pride?
Right,
right,
or the devil himself,
right,
who tempts us
and deceives us
and so when he says,
I'll give you power
to tread on serpents
and scorpions,
I think he's basically
saying,
you have authority
over those
who would want
to deceive you
and sort of attack you
and,
well,
I mean,
the Bible says
Satan's the father
of lies,
right?
So,
and I think that's
primarily what it's
referring to.
Obviously,
our own sinful hearts
sometimes can deceive us.
We can be deceived
just by our own flesh
and our desire
for self-indulgence
and things like that,
but I think mostly
it's talking about
or the world,
in a sense of the world
in rebellion against God
that can be deceptive,
but I think it's mostly
referring to Satan.
So,
yes,
I agree.
Dr. Mabai.
Yeah,
one of the most amazing
is the reality
of the human being
of Jesus Christ.
The humanity of Jesus,
yes.
Yeah,
and,
he says,
really,
we are here.
I remember one day,
this is the reality.
20 people,
you sit down,
Paul,
the first person
says something,
sentences,
they have to repeat
the same thing.
At the end,
it's going not to be
the exact same thing.
Right,
right.
Right,
we put it in your own words.
And I think that's,
that's what we see
in the four Gospels,
is we see
the accounts
of the four writers
in their own words
with their own details.
You know,
and Luke mentions
specifically
that he has consulted
eyewitnesses
in
writing his Gospel
because Luke
wasn't there
at the Resurrection.
You know,
but in some ways
you can say,
well,
each of the Gospel writers
either wrote
from their own experience
or based on
the eyewitnesses
that they consulted.
So,
Mark's Gospel
is probably based
on Peter's preaching.
That's sort of
an early,
I think,
reliable tradition.
Mark doesn't say it
explicitly,
but I think there's
some indications
of that.
Anyway,
so let's move on
to Luke.
Is that alright?
Any other questions
before we move on
to Luke?
Let's go to Luke.
Luke 24.
So there are
three main parts
of Luke 24.
One is the account
of the empty tomb,
which is in all
four Gospels,
and then
there are two
other narratives.
One is the road
to Emmaus,
and second is
the disciples
who are
gathered together.
It seems like
this
refers to
it seems like
that all these
three incidents
happen on the same
day,
on Resurrection Sunday,
right?
First Easter Sunday.
the empty tomb,
and then verse 13,
that very day,
two of them
were going to
a village named
Emmaus,
so that happens
on that day.
It becomes
that evening
because
verse 29,
stay with us
for it is
toward evening,
and the day
is now far spent.
So then
Jesus is
recognized by them,
and then
it says,
verse 33,
they rose that
same hour
and returned
to Jerusalem.
So they run
back seven miles,
so they've just
walked seven miles
to Emmaus.
They get up
and run seven miles
back to Jerusalem.
So they've just,
you know,
that's more than
a half marathon,
okay?
Now,
they might have
been in good shape,
but still,
right?
That's a,
that's a,
it's a lot
to get up
when it's evening
time
and walk
seven miles
back then.
So it's probably
dark by the time
they get back
to the disciples,
and then it says,
they told what
happened on the road,
how it was known
to them,
verse 35,
and then verse 36,
as they were
talking about
these things,
Jesus himself
stood among them.
So,
so it seems
like this is
referring to
the same
incident that
John describes
in John 20,
19 to 23,
when Jesus
appears to his
disciples on
the evening
of Easter Sunday,
because John
also talks
about the
evening of that
day,
the first day
of the week,
Jesus came
and stood
among them.
So,
John 20,
19.
So,
that's what
we have
here,
these three
instances.
What I want
to do
is,
on this
handout,
the second
handout,
I want
to just
focus on
two main
themes
that Luke
brings out.
And you can
see each
of these
main themes
in all
three sections
of chapter
24.
So,
I think we
can know
that these
are themes
that Luke
intentionally
wants to
highlight
because they
come out
in all
three sections.
So,
the first,
actually,
let me take
the second
theme first.
So,
turn the
page over.
I want
to spend
a little
more time
on the
other
theme,
but let
me just
do this
briefly.
So,
in both,
in,
four times
in this
chapter,
we see a
pattern where
initially,
Jesus'
followers are
confused,
and later
on they
recognize
what has
happened.
So,
initial
confusion.
When the
women came
to the
empty
tomb,
it says
they were
perplexed
and frightened.
And then,
let's,
yeah,
so they were
perplexed
and frightened,
but then
the men
say to
them,
he's not
here,
but he
has risen.
Don't you
remember how
we told you
this?
They remembered
his words,
and returning
from the
tomb,
they told
these things
to the
eleven and
all the
rest.
So,
right,
initially they're
confused and
perplexed,
and they don't
know what's
going on,
and the
word of the
angel gives
clarity to
them.
And so they
go and tell
the disciples
what has
happened.
The disciples
have their
own,
the male
disciples,
verse eleven,
these words
seem to them
an idle
tale,
and they
did not
believe them.
So,
they hear
the women's
report,
they think,
that just
sounds like
something,
it sounds like
these women
are just
hallucinating,
just a
fairy tale.
But then,
verse twelve,
Peter rose and
ran to the
tomb,
stooping and
looking in,
he saw the
linen cloths
by themselves,
he went home
marveling at
what had
happened.
And,
now,
marveling in
Luke is an
interesting word
because it's not
always clear whether
it means people
believe or not,
but it does
mean that they're
sort of astonished
by something that
God is doing,
even if they
don't totally
understand it.
So,
then again,
this theme of
confusion and
recognition happens
on the road to
Emmaus,
verse fifteen and
sixteen,
while they were
talking and
discussing together,
Jesus himself
drew near and
went with them,
but their eyes
were kept from
recognizing him.
But then if you
look down at
verse thirty-one,
or thirty and
thirty-one,
he's at the
table with them,
he takes the
bread,
blessed and
broken,
and gave it to
them,
and their eyes
were opened.
And they
recognized him.
So,
notice,
their eyes were
kept from
recognizing him,
their eyes were
opened,
and they
recognized him.
And then when
he appears to
his disciples at
dinnertime that
evening,
Jesus says,
peace,
but they were
startled and
frightened.
They thought
they saw a
spirit.
In other words,
they thought
they were
seeing ghosts.
And Jesus
says,
why are you
troubled?
Why do
doubts arise
in your
hearts?
See,
it's me.
Touch me and
see.
He showed
them his
hands and
his feet.
And verse
45 later on
says,
he opened
their minds
to understand
the scriptures,
not only that
he had truly
risen,
but that it
was in
fulfillment of
the scriptures.
So,
let me just throw
out this question.
Why do you
think Luke
shows us
in all of
these instances
that the
disciples were
initially confused,
but later on
recognized Jesus?
Now,
obviously,
you could just
say,
well,
that's how it
happened,
right?
I mean,
so in some
ways,
that's a
great answer,
but,
which is
true.
You know,
again,
he wants us
to know
they weren't
dreaming about
this,
and they
didn't see
it and
think,
this is
what we've
always been
dreaming
about.
No.
No,
it wasn't
that.
So,
why do you
think Luke
brings out
this theme?
Maybe it was
his glory,
you said?
I think
glory,
his glorious
body.
He was so
glorious,
like,
I don't
know,
like that,
you know,
ah,
man,
awesome.
Yeah,
yeah.
God wanted
to emphasize
miraculous,
yeah,
right.
The resurrection
is a miracle,
right?
It is not a
natural,
it's not a
natural occurrence.
Yeah.
Any other
reasons,
why you
can think
of,
why does
Luke
highlight
this theme
for us?
I think
sometimes
we're
confused
that it
takes us
a while
to understand
things.
Yeah.
So,
we look at
this and
we're
encouraged
that the
disciples
who were
watching this
the whole
time
didn't get
it all,
that it's
okay sometimes
if we're
confused.
Yeah,
yes,
yes.
So,
that answers
my second
question.
What
implications
does this
have for
us?
Right?
That's a
good,
um,
it's a
good
implication
for us.
Dr.
Bye.
To show
that it's
not kind
of,
you know,
like,
automatically
know,
because this
was not
fabricated,
it was
fabricated,
so one
thing,
there would
be no
condition,
no...
Right,
if you're
making it
up,
you're not
confused.
Okay?
You know
the story
that you're
making,
you know
what you're
making up,
right?
Yeah,
if you make
it up,
you're not
confused and
surprised by
what you
make up.
If your
kids are
older,
you'll
retract that
statement.
They make
up their
own stories
and then
they get
confused
about
the
matter.
Well,
okay,
I can,
acknowledge
that,
yes.
Yes.
Any other
thoughts on
this theme?
Well,
there's lots
of times
when Jesus
talks about
having eyes
you don't
see and
having ears
you don't
hear.
Yeah.
And then
that,
you know,
it's the
work of the
Spirit,
it's God's
word to
let us
actually see
the truth
about him.
Yes.
So,
that just,
for me,
that just
echoes
through
when
they're
with him
but they
don't
recognize him
until he
chooses
that they
should know.
Yeah,
until he
opens their
eyes,
right.
Right.
You can be
physically
close to
Jesus
but spiritually
still blind
toward who
he is.
know about
him but
not know
him.
Yes,
you can
know about
him but
not know
him.
Right.
So,
there's
like
spiritual
seeing and
spiritual
hearing and
spiritual
understanding.
Yes.
Yeah.
You walk
in the
spirit,
you understand
the things
of the
spirit.
So,
the natural
man cannot
understand the
spirit because
their obeys are
foolish.
I was
looking at
scriptures on
discernment.
Mm-hmm.
He's discernment.
Yeah.
So,
Jesus gave
them discernment
when he
revealed.
That's cool.
Yeah.
No,
that's right.
He perceived
a lot.
He said,
someone touched
me.
What?
Everybody
touching you.
Are you
kidding me?
Oh,
she did.
Yeah.
Yes.
It does
also show us
how the
resurrection
body is
different.
Yes.
It's the same.
There's the
physicality to it.
It aids
to touch him.
Mm-hmm.
But,
he could be
not in a
room and
then be
in a
room with
a door
not
opening.
Yeah.
Right.
So,
it's different
to the
laws of
this
fallen
world.
I have
not
seen.
Also,
I think
that their
inability to
recognize him
and then to
recognize him
was dependent
on him,
not on them.
Because he
did certain
things that
triggered their
recognition.
Yeah.
It wasn't
a human
perception.
So,
you know,
we're told to
seek God.
It's true.
We should
seek God,
but we're
not going to
find God
on our
terms.
Yeah.
Because,
you know,
he has to
come with
it.
Yeah.
So,
even though
they had
been with
him all
this time,
they weren't
able to
recognize him
until he
did very
specific things
that opened
their eyes.
Yeah.
And the two
things that
he does,
so the
first thing
he does
is he
opens the
scriptures
to them.
And they
don't
immediately
get it
just from
him opening
the scriptures,
but later on
they say,
weren't our
hearts burning
when he
opened the
scriptures to
us?
Right?
God,
and just as
he did then,
God is
faithful now,
God uses
the scriptures
to make
our hearts
long for
him and
give us
sort of a
taste of
him and
a desire
for God
and helps
us to see
him through
the scriptures.
And the
other thing
he does
is he
took the
bread and
blessed and
broke it
and gave
it to
them,
which of
course would
have reminded
them of
all kinds
of things.
It could
have reminded
them of
the miracle
of the
feeding of
the 5,000
because the
words are
used there
and just
Jesus'
provision of
bread and
of a
meal for
those people.
But I
think especially
it reminded
them of
the Last
Supper,
right?
When Jesus
took the
bread and
broke it
and gave
it to
them.
And I
think there's
also a way
when we
celebrate,
you know,
both,
you know,
in some sense
when we share
meals as
believers,
but I
think especially
when we
share the
Lord's
Supper
together.
And we
remember that
Jesus blessed
and broke
and gave
the bread to
his disciples
as a
sign that
his body
would be
broken and
given for
them.
And when
we take
that,
you know,
that's a
place where
our faith
can be
renewed,
you know,
where we
can meet
Jesus when
we take the
Lord's
Supper.
And that's
why we do
it so often.
That's why we
do it every
other week
here.
is because
it's one of
the places
where Jesus
meets us
and just
sort of
fills our
hearts with
his joy
and helps
us to
know who
he is.
So I
think,
you know,
those are two
good things
that,
you know,
if you're
sort of at
a place
where you're
like,
I'm feeling
far away
from the
Lord,
I don't
feel like
I'm seeing
him clearly,
I'm doubting,
these are two
places to go,
go to the
scriptures and
come receive
the Lord's
Supper,
you know,
when God's
people gather
together.
And pray that
God would meet
you in those
ways like he
met the people
on the road
to Emmaus.
I just
wanted to say
that I don't
think I
know.
Yeah,
that's true.
That's true.
I experienced
that too,
just this one
verse I
repeat.
I see
it.
It's really
cool.
I have a
question.
Yeah.
It was about
the,
you said
the bread
and the
wine.
And it
says,
it goes
down,
it says,
he who
does it,
is something
about the
Lord's
death?
Yeah,
we do it
in remembrance
of him,
or we
remember the
Lord's
death until
he comes.
Yeah,
we proclaim
the Lord's
death until
he comes.
So when
we're,
you know,
when we
gather to
share the
Lord's
supper,
we always,
you know,
we always
preach about
Jesus who
died on the
cross for
us,
and we
always explain
before we
take it,
this is,
we do this
to remember
that Jesus
Christ died on
the cross for
our sins,
and that his
blood washes
away our sins,
and that we're
his people now.
so,
yeah,
oh yeah,
yeah,
well we
should talk,
we should
talk more
about that,
so there is a
warning about
not taking it,
don't take it
improperly,
or don't take
it unworthily,
and we can
talk more
about that
passage,
but the
context of
that passage
was some
people were
taking the
Lord's
supper,
and then
they were
basically just
really badly
mistreating the
other people in
the body of
Christ,
so they were
sort of coming
together,
and sharing
this meal
together,
and saying
we're remembering
Jesus together,
and then they
were,
you know,
what it said
what happened
was basically
some people
would eat,
would come
early,
and eat all
the food,
and leave
none for the
people who
came late
from work,
because it
usually happened
in the evening,
on work day
probably,
and so some
of the people
who,
you know,
who probably
were the
hungriest,
because they
had to work
the longest
hours,
would come,
and they,
you know,
some people
would just
be indulging
themselves,
and just
completely
disregarding
their brothers
and sisters
in Christ,
so that's
actually the
context where
Paul says
don't eat
the Lord's
supper in
an unworthy
way,
because the
Lord's
supper means
we're united
with one
another as
the body
of Christ,
and so we
should treat
each other
right,
and so
basically what
he says is
repent,
you know,
so if there's
something going
on in our
lives,
you know,
if there's a
relationship with
another Christian
that's not
reconciled,
or somebody
else we
haven't forgiven
them,
we need to
repent of
that,
release that,
you know,
release them
into the
Lord's hands,
or go and
apologize if we
need to apologize,
or,
you know,
whatever the
issue is,
it says we
should repent,
and then we
can come back
to be able to
receive the
Lord's
supper in a
good way,
but we can
talk more
about that,
that's a
great question,
yeah,
no,
that's good,
I'm glad you
raised that
question,
all right,
let's go back
to the first
theme,
because I
want to spend
a little more
time on this,
I think this
is really Luke's
main theme,
is that Jesus'
resurrection is a
fulfillment of
the scriptures,
so,
does somebody
want to read
these verses,
can somebody
read,
I just printed
them on the
handout,
so you can
read them from
there,
or from the
Bible,
but,
can somebody
read 24,
5 to 8,
and then
somebody else,
the next one,
somebody else,
the next one,
and then
somebody else,
the next one,
page 1,
24,
5 to 8,
as they were
frightened and
bowed their
faces to the
ground,
the man said
to them,
why do you
seek the
living among
their dead,
he is not
a lamb,
I just
know,
I
think she
said
you