36 As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!”37 But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 38 And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?39 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.”40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish,143 and he took it and ate before them.
44 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.”45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,47 and that repentance for2 the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.48 You are witnesses of these things.49 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.”
The Ascension
50 And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.
Footnotes
[1]24:42Some manuscripts add and some honeycomb [2]24:47Some manuscripts and
36 As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!”37 But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 38 And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?39 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.”40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish,143 and he took it and ate before them.
44 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.”45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,47 and that repentance for2 the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.48 You are witnesses of these things.49 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.”
The Ascension
50 And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.
Footnotes
[1]24:42Some manuscripts add and some honeycomb [2]24:47Some manuscripts and
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
If you would, open in your Bibles to Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. We're actually going to spend the next couple of weeks looking at this text, And, we're we're doing this for a couple of reasons. One, it's important enough to do so. It's it's a weighty text, and, I think it's a very important one for the church, and in particular for this church.
Joel Brooks:
Number 2 is, this past week, I appreciate your prayers. I I had shoulder surgery, broken foot. And so I've been on a whole lot of pain meds, and and this sermon came during a time when I was on a whole lot of medication. And it made perfect sense at the time. I'm hoping it will continue to do so.
Joel Brooks:
If not, take some pain medication. It'll probably all get very clear. But but having next week to preach on the same topic, I can fill in some of the gaps that just might possibly be there tonight. I want to begin reading in verse 36. As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace to you.
Joel Brooks:
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.
Joel Brooks:
For 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.
Joel Brooks:
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 3rd day, rise from the dead. And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You're witnesses of these things. Behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you.
Joel Brooks:
But stay in the city until you're clothed with power from on high. Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:
God, I pray that you would give me clarity as I present your word. Even more than that, I pray that you would open up our minds to understand your word. Give us hearts to hear. Give us a will that is ready to respond. God, we admit that we are slow of heart, that we are often foolish.
Joel Brooks:
And so in order to And So we ask that He would come and He would do so, for the glory of Jesus. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, lord, let your words, your true words remain. May they change us. I pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
Amen. We're looking at the 3rd and the last of the resurrection accounts according to Luke. We've already talked about, I'm certain there were many resurrection accounts out there. Jesus had been alive walking around for 40 days. I'm sure he appeared to many people.
Joel Brooks:
There were many stories from which Luke could have drawn from, but he chose these 3 for very particular purposes. Actually, if you go to some cathedrals in, in Europe, you're gonna find stained glass windows that have these three stories together, realizing that the importance of these three, each teaching us something unique about the resurrection. This story here begins with the disciples all gathered together in a room. The 2 disciples that were on the road to Emmaus, they had reported back to others that they had just seen Jesus alive, and now they're all in a room. They're discussing this.
Joel Brooks:
And as they're doing this, just lo and behold, all of a sudden, Jesus is there in their midst. The gospel of John, when recording this, story says that the doors were even locked. The doors were locked, yet Jesus somehow walked through the doors and He stood there in their midst. He wasn't hovering in their midst. He was standing there right before them.
Joel Brooks:
And so the, the disciples probably had the same reaction that you, you or me would have. They were frightened. They were, they were scared. They thought this has to be, this has to be a ghost. That's a logical conclusion.
Joel Brooks:
I've never seen a a real person walk through a wall. Physical real people do not walk through walls. And yet Jesus apparently walked through the wall and now he's standing there. And so their first law is this has to be a ghost. Then Jesus says, look at my hands and my feet.
Joel Brooks:
Obviously he's showing them his scars. I'm real. This is a real body here. A spirit does not have flesh and bones. Verse 40 says that they still disbelieve for joy.
Joel Brooks:
Now this doesn't mean that they really didn't believe Jesus was there. This would be similar to our expression, I just can't believe this is true. I just can't believe it. Maybe you bump into a long lost friend somewhere, and you bump into each other like, I I can't believe it's you. But you know it's them, it's just it's just almost too good to be true.
Joel Brooks:
And they have a very similar reaction here. And then Jesus makes a very unusual request. He asked if they have anything to eat. So they give him some fish, and Jesus eats the fish before them. I don't know about you, but when when I'm reading this, I just think, you know, why in the world is that in here?
Joel Brooks:
And why would anybody make this up? This this obviously is not made up. If if you're going to make up a story about the resurrected Jesus, I would make up, you know, a story about Jesus kind of glowing, Jesus, having great displays of power, maybe jumping over mountains, raising people from the dead. All these things I I would not want to record, you know, Jesus is raised from the dead. You know what?
Joel Brooks:
He ate fish. It's just it's not one of the things that ought to put there, but it's obvious it's there because somebody saw that. They're recording it. It happened. He came.
Joel Brooks:
He was here. He asked for some fish. We gave him fish. He ate the fish. But why?
Joel Brooks:
I I mean, it happened, but why did Luke include that here in the story? As one of his three accounts of the resurrected Jesus. I think he does this because this story, perhaps more than any other story in the new Testament tells us the nature of the resurrection, What the resurrection was like for Jesus, what it will be like for us. Paul says in 1st Corinthians that Jesus is the first fruits. Other places, he's called the first born, meaning that when we look at the resurrected Jesus, he is the first fruit or the first born, but we are gonna come behind.
Joel Brooks:
We are the fruits that come in his wake, if you will. We'll be raised just like Jesus was raised. So we will have a body just like Jesus. So when we look at Jesus here, we see our glorious future. That's what we see.
Joel Brooks:
That's why Luke includes this in our in this story. He wants to show us, to give us a little snapshot of what what our futures are gonna look like. We don't believe, as Christians, that we are going to die. That when we die, life or I should say, that when we die, life is over for us. We don't believe that.
Joel Brooks:
That all we have in this life is just this life. Christians, and I've tried to instill this in my kids, it's like we have a very unique view of death. We can laugh at it. We can laugh at death. We can say with Paul, oh, death, where is your victory?
Joel Brooks:
Where where is your stained death? That's mocking death. Christians can mock death because we know it's not the end. And Christians over the ages, in the face of death, especially in the early centuries when they were being martyred, they mocked it. They went to their graves with joy because they knew it was not the end.
Joel Brooks:
We believe that we live after death, but we also believe that we don't just have a spiritual existence. And this is where when when studying the resurrection, you're gonna have to create a new category in your brain. So I hope you're you're ready to rewire your brain, because you've got to fit a new category in your brain here. Because many religions, many philosophies believe in life after death, or or maybe your your spirit lives on after you or or whatever life force you have lives on after you. Many religions or philosophies believe that, but Christianity believes something completely different than that.
Joel Brooks:
We don't believe that our spirits just kinda go out and are forever floating around in space. We believe that the spiritual and the physical will once again reunite, and that we will be given physical bodies for eternity. This is absolutely unique to Christianity here. We'll be resurrected with new bodies. We're not just going to be spirits.
Joel Brooks:
We're not just going to be bodies. The best way to think of this is like spiritual bodies. Okay. You have to fit a new category in your brain. We're going to be spiritual bodies, which will be completely physical, meaning we're gonna have hands, we're gonna have feet.
Joel Brooks:
We're gonna be so normal looking in a sense that, you know, Jesus and his resurrected body could walk by 2 of his own disciples on a road for awhile. And they don't want to think there's anything odd about him. He's not glowing. There's no aura. There's nothing that He's, He's just one of them.
Joel Brooks:
They didn't recognize until their eyes were opened. Their minds were opened. He was so ordinary looking. So our body will be like that, yet, which is the coolest saying to my my kids, we can walk through walls. So it'd be different.
Joel Brooks:
Be very familiar, but very different. We're not gonna just be spirits either, and we're not just gonna have spiritual bodies because, you know what, if we want, we can sit down, and we can eat fish. Jesus eats fish not because he needed to. He didn't need it for sustenance. Jesus wanted to.
Joel Brooks:
It's like, I want some fish. And he does this on more than one occasion. Another resurrection story. He goes and he eats fish. He likes fish.
Joel Brooks:
He's a spiritual body. He doesn't need the fish, but he wants to partake in the fish. And so you get this new category for what the resurrection is going to look like. It's not just material. It's not just spiritual.
Joel Brooks:
It's this spiritual physical body that awaits us. And so Luke, he he wants to point this out to show what our glorious future is going to look like, to give us a little snapshot of this. I like what Paul says when he starts contemplating these things. He says, no, I has seen nor ear heard nor the heart of man imagined, but God has prepared for those who love him. And I cannot imagine what such an existence will be like.
Joel Brooks:
Now let me just say that this belief in the physical resurrection is one of the reasons that I am here in Birmingham, Alabama, preaching in a very hot, unairconditioned gym, instead of being someplace else. And don't get me wrong, I love what I'm doing. I love being a part of the magic city. I, I, I love that. I love going everywhere and seeing Vulcan.
Joel Brooks:
And this might come as a complete shock to some of you. There's actually other things, dreams, if you will, that I'd also like to do besides just living here in the magic city. There's other places I'd like to live at least for a while. I'd love to live for a while in Colorado, maybe in Montana. I would love to, you know, I've spent about a year of my life in Ireland.
Joel Brooks:
I'd love to spend about 20 years of my life in Ireland. I'd love to live in New Zealand for a while. There there's things other things I'd like to do. I'd like to go to Alaska and build log cabins. Have any of you ever just wanted to do that?
Joel Brooks:
I mean, this is just this dream. You'd like to do that for a while. I'd like to be a carpenter. There's different things that have these dreams, things I'd like to do. And maybe it's just me.
Joel Brooks:
I, I don't think it's just me. I bet, you know, despite how much you'll love living here in Birmingham, Alabama and working at the job you're doing, I bet there is a part of you that sometimes dreams about other things. But for me, because of the reality of the resurrection, in my future resurrection, I can live here, I can preach here with no regrets whatsoever. Because I know that this is not the end of my physical life. I don't have to cram it all in.
Joel Brooks:
I'm not gonna look back at my life when I'm 60, and think, man, I never got to climb this mountain, or I never got to go on this safari, or I never got to really pursue a music career, or something like that. I'm not going to go back and with regrets in my life. As if, when my life came to an end, it's the end of my physical existence. I will not have those regrets. I believe that my best life is yet to come.
Joel Brooks:
And I bet in this room, there's probably a number of you that are beginning to look at your life, and you're starting to have regrets. You're starting to wonder, gosh, is this it? I mean, is this it? I mean, all all my hopes and dreams and all this, and this is this is just kinda it. I wanted to do so much more.
Joel Brooks:
And I would probably say that Lauren and I have had that conversation with with you more than any other conversation in the last 2 years. I I mean, I just I I want to do so much. I thought I'd be doing so much more. Is this really what my life is starting to unfold and to look like? And there's regrets there.
Joel Brooks:
I, I say, if that is you, ask God to cement in you, to drill it in you, to to to press it, to carve it in your heart, the reality of a physical resurrection. That when you die, it is not the end. You're not some disembodied spirit floating off, but it will be a real physical existence. More glorious than you can imagine. We have a glorious future and you can live life with no regrets now.
Joel Brooks:
We also have a glorious present. Before Jesus ascended, which we'll look at more next week, but before he ascended, he gave his people. He gave his church a mission. He gave them a purpose for those who thought they didn't have a purpose. He gave them a purpose.
Joel Brooks:
We find this in verse 46 through 49. Says, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the 3rd day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you. But stay in the city until you're clothed with power from on high.
Joel Brooks:
So Jesus gave us this mission that we are to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name, that we are to be witnesses of these things, we're to share His gospel. Our message, our purpose now is to share this news of the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus, and the forgiveness that can be found in that, the new life that can be found in that, we are to spread that. That is our mission and our purpose. And we're to take this mission to the nations, to the nations. So notice it says, beginning from Jerusalem.
Joel Brooks:
Beginning. That means you start in Jerusalem, but then you're gonna go to all the nations, and then that means you you start in your home, you start in your workplace, then you you go to the city, then you go to the the state, you go to your nation, then you go to the world. The problem is, some of us in this room have never actually started our mission. We've never started in Jerusalem. We've been a Christian for 20 years and we've never started.
Joel Brooks:
We're wondering, you know, what's our purpose in life? Here's your purpose. This is your glorious present. And some of you are thinking, well, if I can't go to the ends of the earth right now, you know, I'm just gonna wait till I I start. Beginning in Jerusalem.
Joel Brooks:
You begin here. You begin in Woodlawn. You begin at the, the hospitality house, serving the homeless on Tuesday nights. You you begin by sharing with your coworkers or your neighbors. Then Jesus says, before beginning this mission, though, you have to ask to be clothed with power from on high.
Joel Brooks:
Verse 49 again. And behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you. But stay in the city until you're clothed with power from on high. I am certain that this command from Jesus was hard to follow. I mean, just think, there's these disciples, they've been eating and talking with the resurrected Jesus for 40 days.
Joel Brooks:
They're getting a upfront and close personal view of their future when they're looking at this resurrected Jesus. Jesus gives them this mission of everything they're supposed to do. We we find out, you know, later that he then ascends into heaven and as he's ascending, he says, all authority on heaven, on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go. But wait first.
Joel Brooks:
Wait first. I mean, these disciples had to be bursting with joy. And Jesus says, but wait. Nobody likes to wait. Some of you are pregnant now.
Joel Brooks:
When it's maybe 9 months, and your baby has not come, and your doctor says, let's just wait, I promise you, you'll say, we're not waiting. Is there something you can do? Two times with Natalie, we got all of our stuff, went to the hospital for an induced, to be induced, and they sent Lauren away. Two times with Natalie. For 2 weeks, we had to wait.
Joel Brooks:
This 2 weeks were excruciating. What waiting is not fun. And you can bet that waiting was the last thing that these disciples wanted to do, especially concerning everything that happened. They just wanted to go. They just wanted to share, not to wait.
Joel Brooks:
An analogy I would use would be this would be like a a general, you know, getting his troops all together, rallying them up, and and telling them, this is the plan. This is what we're gonna do. Are you ready? And they're like, yes. And say, alright.
Joel Brooks:
Now, actually, we're gonna have to wait for a while. You know, this is gonna be a few weeks away, but y'all just keep hold that thought. You know, or or a coach getting his team to all huddle up. It's You know, we're gonna destroy him, we're gonna kill him. Break.
Joel Brooks:
Hey, the game is next week. Okay? But just keep that. Alright? Keep that energy.
Joel Brooks:
Bring it back with you next week. I mean, these guys are ready to play. But Jesus says, wait. He wait tells them to wait because they needed to wait to be clothed with power from on high. They needed to wait for the spirit because without the spirit, they would certainly fail in this task.
Joel Brooks:
This mission cannot fail. Cannot fail. It is too important to fail. And he knew they would fail because they had a glorious track record of failure. When He was with them, Jesus would be right next to them and a storm would come up and they would freak out in the boat saying, we're all gonna die.
Joel Brooks:
He's with them. They fail. They couldn't cast out some demons when Jesus is right there with them. Jesus tells them, hey, I want you to go and feed this 5,000 people. They can't do it.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus is right next to them. So what hope are they gonna have when Jesus leaves them? And he says, now go do this mission. They have no hope. They failed with him next to them.
Joel Brooks:
They need the power of the spirit or they will fail. So he says, wait. And please hear me, I think more than anything, for the church to be successful, and the mission God has given her, we need to be clothed with power from on high. There there is no greater need. I mean, I look at a number of the churches around here in Birmingham, and they are full of good sermons.
Joel Brooks:
They are full of money. They are full of volunteers. Yet, you don't see the lost being saved. I mean, I see churches with great doctrine. I would sign off on that doctrine, yet they're powerless.
Joel Brooks:
We cannot do the task with our own strength. I mean, if Jesus can walk down the road with 2 of His disciples and they not recognize Him, what makes us think with our best efforts, we could go to somebody and get them to recognize Jesus? We can't do it. The spirit of God has to open up people's hearts. Forever to be the church, if Redeemer Community Church is ever to be the church that God has called us to be, we need to be clothed with power from on high.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus tells his disciples to wait until they receive this power. Now, I don't know if you struggle with waiting, like I struggle with waiting. But I struggle with waiting. Confession. It's been actually really hard for me this week because I've I've had to do just basically sitting.
Joel Brooks:
I I watch maybe like 2 movies a year. It seems like I've watched 6 or 7 this week because I've been just, you know, glued on the couch. I've just been sitting there. It drives me crazy. I got to be doing something, and we carry that over into our Christian walk.
Joel Brooks:
We think waiting is an absolute waste of time. I've got to be doing something. And there's such an arrogance to that. The arrogance saying that, it all falls on me. I can accomplish this, God.
Joel Brooks:
Whether you're with me or not, I can do this. And I fight this every single week when I try to prepare a sermon. I sit there and I read, and then I I wait and I pray. And it is hard for me to not think at times when nothing is happening. I'm wasting my time.
Joel Brooks:
I'm wasting my time. Pull off the commentary. Just just pull it off. Go ahead. Start looking up things online.
Joel Brooks:
We gotta get to work. Sunday's coming. I gotta I gotta go to this. I don't have time to to wait. It's hard.
Joel Brooks:
But I have seen what just a single spirit breathe word coming from my mouth can do. Versus a 100 hours of preparation in trying to communicate God's truth. And I have seen the difference, and I would much rather have a single God breathed word come out. Penetrating those hearts, opening. We need to wait for the Lord.
Joel Brooks:
To quote the great saint Bono of U2. I love this quote. He was asked by a journalist one time what he had learned over the years, in trying to raise funds for third world countries. And, his response was this. He said that he learned that he could accomplish more by having a 15 minute tea with a senator than he could with years years of spinning his wheels doing benefit concerts.
Joel Brooks:
Man, if we could learn that lesson. As I feel so many times I'm spinning my wheels. I'm doing, I'm doing, I'm doing, when all I need is a 15 minutes of tea with my savior. I need to wait on him. That's where power comes.
Joel Brooks:
It doesn't come from all our Christian activity. When I, when I read this story, my first thought I'm a very kind of symmetrical person. I think it wouldn't have been great if, you know, as the Spirit of God's coming or as the as Christ is ascending up, the spirit of God comes down. I mean, that's just very symmetrical. It would have worked very nicely that way instead, you know, the son of God, he comes up 10 days.
Joel Brooks:
Wait, wait, wait. And then the spirit of God comes down. Why? I mean, doesn't it make sense to you? You know, God, Jesus comes up, spirit comes down.
Joel Brooks:
What what's this 10 days for? Anybody who has had to wait for something dear knows what waiting produces. It produces a hunger. It produces a desperateness. It deepens the cry of your heart.
Joel Brooks:
You're aware of your futility to accomplish anything. It empties you of yourself. Makes you expect it. And and and that's what God wanted to create in them. A desperateness in their heart as they waited and as they prayed and as they cried out.
Joel Brooks:
And I'm sure when these 120 got together and they're praying, they don't even know what they're praying for. They're just praying. And this, as, day after day would go on, there's this new desperateness. There's this cry in their hearts. You know, it's now been 3 days since Jesus left.
Joel Brooks:
God, we need your presence. It's now been 7 days since Jesus left. Jesus, we need your presence. We can't go without without your presence. We can't go without experiencing you, and this desperateness increases.
Joel Brooks:
So the Spirit of God comes down. And let me tell you, when, when Peter rushes out of that room, filled with the spirit of God, he is not thinking that he's living life with any regrets. He's not saying, man, I wish I was a fisherman. I wish I could go back to that life. I wish I could do all these other things.
Joel Brooks:
He's been given this clarity of purpose. You can't wait to spread this message and to see God bringing fruit because he has been clothed with power from on high. That's my prayer for us. I pray that whatever season that God has you in, That first of all, that the resurrection of Christ and your glorious resurrection will be so cemented in your heart. You can live life with no regrets, with great joy at what awaits you.
Joel Brooks:
But then also, God will give you such conviction of purpose now. And that you wouldn't wait on that. You wouldn't wait to wait for the power of God to come into your life so that you could begin in your Jerusalem and you could go to the end of the world. Pray with me. God, in my life, I've had seasons of fruitless waiting.
Joel Brooks:
Because I've just been waiting, I haven't been waiting for you. I think there's people in this room that are just waiting. God, may they wait for you. May that be the longing of their heart. I pray for this church that you would clothe her with power from on high, that we would be the church that you desire us to be, that we would see the lost come to know you.