Encountering the Risen Savior: A Message of Hope

We have prayed, and we are praying bold prayers that at times seem too big. At times, the prayers that we pray seem a bit risky and even a bit impossible. And yet here we are. Today we are not just celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. We are standing in the aftermath of answered prayers and miracles that have and are being told and undone. [00:40:58]

The trauma of Friday is still very much real. The trauma, the weight, the sadness, the grief, the questions, the wondering—all of the things that were tied into the excitement that began a week before at Palm Sunday when everybody was coming into Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. The fevered pitch that was beginning to swell within that 2.7 million people that gathered upon that region at that time. [00:42:41]

The belief that they were hearing that the Messiah was there and the Messiah had a name, and his name was Jesus. And everybody was excited, except that as the week went on, the confusion of is he really or is he not? The battle between do we support this mission, do we support the work of Jesus, or do we think that he is some other false prophet? [00:43:41]

The disciples are shaken. Their dreams feel crushed. The one that they had followed, their teacher, their Lord, their rabbi, their Messiah has been crucified. Confusion, grief, fear grip not just the disciples but the entire region of people that had gathered. And yet a rumor begins to stir on Sunday morning. Jesus's body is not in the tomb. Some have said that he has risen, but that seems a bit far-fetched even for Jesus. [00:44:51]

The women went to the tomb first thing in the morning, and they went to do the final burial preparations for Jesus's body. Only when they get there, the stone had been rolled away, and Jesus's body wasn't in the tomb. But there stood an angel that said, he is not here, he is risen. This is good news. The women don't know what to take of it, what to make of this news. [00:45:15]

They begin to share it with the disciples, and immediately Peter and John can't help themselves, so they take off running because they got to see it for themselves. They go to investigate, and sure enough, the tomb is empty. We find the disciples gathered together in the upper room where they had just spent the days before huddled together, praying, and the Lord shared the Passover meal with them. [00:46:15]

They're trying to figure out all of the chaos of this week, all that this years of ministry had culminated in, the dreams that they had placed and the hopes that they had in Jesus that were now dashed because he was dead. But now all of these stories, people that we know, people that we trust are saying his body's not there. Some of the stories are saying that he's actually alive. [00:46:45]

The disciples are trying to figure out what's real. What's really going on? Meanwhile, while all that is happening, Passover is completed. And everybody, the 2.7 million people that have converged on Jerusalem to celebrate Passover and have experienced all of this chaos and all of the excitement and all the things that happened in this week are beginning to trek and travel back home. [00:48:46]

We know that that's about a seven-mile trek back home. And as they're walking back home, it's what you do, right? When you're on a car ride, when you're traveling somewhere, you talk, right? You share about what's going on. You share about what's happened. And that's what these guys are doing. They're just talking about all the things that happened. They were talking about what they thought, what they had anticipated coming into that week, and how it actually worked out. [00:49:11]

And now they're dealing with their grief and their sadness and the confusion of all that is going on. And while they're talking and having this conversation, Jesus just kind of shows up. He has a habit of doing that when he's resurrected, right? You read the stories of Jesus after he raises from the dead, and he just kind of appears all the time, right? He appears with the guys, and he just starts having a conversation with them. [00:49:56]

And during that meal, Jesus takes the bread, and he breaks it. It's him. And then just like that, he was gone. There he goes. He pops in, and he pops out. I don't know. We'll have to deal with that when we go to see him in heaven one day. But he's gone. And now I imagine these two guys looking at each other, kind of rubbing their eyes and wondering, like, did you see that? [00:50:33]

How did we, for this whole time, not recognize that it was Jesus himself walking with us and talking with us? Grief and confusion had blinded them. But it was him. We just saw him. We knew that we had spent time with him. And so the scripture tells us that almost immediately, it says within the hour, they packed up and they headed right back to Jerusalem. [00:51:07]

Everything changes in this moment when they come and they start to share with the disciples what they saw and what they heard. Luke's Gospel, chapter 24, picking up at verse 35. If you have your Bibles, the men from Emmaus are now with the disciples and they're sharing with them that Jesus has appeared to them as they were walking along the road and how they had recognized him when he was breaking bread. [00:52:39]

And just then they were telling it, as they were telling it, Jesus himself suddenly standing there among them, peace be with you, he said. But the whole group was startled and frightened, thinking that they were seeing a ghost. Why are you frightened, he asked. Why are your hearts filled with doubt? Look at my hands, look at my feet. See, you can see that it is really me. [00:53:56]

Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost because ghosts don't have bodies as you see that I do. As he spoke, he showed them his hands and his feet. Still they stood there in disbelief, filled with joy and wonder. And they asked him, and he asked them, do you have anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he ate it as they watched. [00:54:03]

Then he said, when I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and he said, yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. [00:54:31]

It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem. There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent. You are witnesses of all these things. And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven. [00:54:55]

The presence of Jesus, first and foremost, brings proof that the resurrection, in fact, is real. Notice the first thing that Jesus says. Notice the first thing that Jesus does when he appears in this room of disciples. He uses those profound words, peace be with you. Peace be with you. Now, if you read on in the very next verse, you take notice that they're still frightened and afraid. [00:55:36]

I almost imagine as Jesus came in, he knew what his friends were dealing with. He knew what they were going through and what they were wrestling with. And so he knew he had to offer that peace. And so, of course, peace be with you. My peace be with you. But I almost wonder if they didn't even hear the words that Jesus spoke. But you know what they did hear? They heard his voice. [00:55:56]

They heard the same voice that they had been walking with for the last three years in ministry with him. They heard the same voice that some of them knew from his younger years before we even have it recorded in the scripture. They heard the voice that spoke and taught to the masses and the crowds. They heard the voice that confronted the religious leaders. [00:56:31]

They heard the voice that over and over and again was there to comfort and to reassure them and to walk with them in the journey over these last few years. And it was a comforting voice. But it wasn't enough. The magnitude and the weight of this moment wasn't enough. And so he goes a little bit further and he says, touch my hands and my feet. [00:56:38]

The very ones that you saw nailed to the cross, touch them and see that I am real. See that I am not a ghost. I am alive and well. Yes, you saw my body laid in the tomb. But let me show you today full clearly. I am he. And I am alive. A blessing and a privilege that you get. That generations after will have to trust you. [00:57:10]

When Jesus rose from the dead, he rose with a message that was for you and for me and for us to share. And that message is really simple, that there is forgiveness of sins for all who would repent. For all who would choose to embrace the message of what Christ has done for you and for me. Jesus was the fulfillment of the law. [01:00:55]

No longer was the sacrificial system that was put in place by the law of Moses having to be completed. Because now the sacrifice, once and for all, was complete in what Christ has done on the cross. There was authority in what Christ has done. There was something that we could trust in what Christ has done. And now there is full forgiveness for sins. [01:01:22]