COMPELLING EVIDENCE
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on May 4, 2022 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: May 4, 2022 from Luke 24:36-43
Theme: The proofs of Jesus’ resurrection compelled the apostles to fulfill His commission.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
This portion of Luke’s Gospel—Luke 24—is a real joy to study. In fact, it’s actually about the experience of joy.
It tells us the story of how our Lord’s appearances to His disciples after His resurrection caused them to rejoice. It tells us the story of how they didn’t expect the resurrection, but were completely surprised by it—even though the Lord told them that it would happen, and that they should have known. It tells us of how—just as He promised—they had sorrow, but their sorrow was turned to joy (John 16:22).
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In the first portion of this chapter, we were told about how the women came to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus—only to find that the tomb was empty, and that He wasn’t there. They were sad and bewildered. A couple of the disciples then came to find the grave clothes lying as if they had held the body of Jesus; but the body of Jesus was gone. They were sad and bewildered too. Then, we’re told of how the two disciples were walking along the road to Emmaus; and that the resurrected Lord Jesus came along and walked with them. They were sad and bewildered too—until He revealed His identity to them after He had opened the scriptures to them and showed them that the resurrection must happen. Then, after He vanished from their sight, they were filled with joy … and ran to tell the others.
And do you remember where we left off? It would have been around 9 pm in the evening on what we would call Sunday (the beginning of Monday to the Jewish people)—the very day on which Jesus rose. We’re told;
So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread (Luke 24:33-35).
No one was expecting to see Jesus alive. And yet, He truly was alive. And it’s then that we read the amazing and joyful story that we find in our passage today—in verses 36-43;
Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, “Peace to you.” But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence (vv. 36-43).
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Now; to really appreciate the significance of today’s passage, we need to read on to what Jesus immediately then went on to tell them.
Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high” (vv. 44-48).
The experience of beholding the resurrected Lord Jesus as they did—and having become completely convinced that He truly was alive—compelled them to proclaim Him. They couldn’t do this in their own power, of course. They needed to wait until Pentecost—when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them and empowered them. But even after the Holy Spirit had come, it was the evidence that they saw that drove them to be His witnesses. After Pentecost, the apostle Peter stood before the leaders of the Jewish people and bravely told them;
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him” (Acts 5:30-32).
So; the sudden appearance of the resurrected Lord Jesus to these disciples—and the encounter they had with the clear evidence that He had truly been bodily raised—and the joy they experienced as a result—was ‘compelling evidence’. ‘Compelling’ in the sense that it greatly motivated them to proclaim Him and His message of the gospel to the world.
And it’s worth asking—does that joy still compel you and me today?
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Let’s look at this passage in closer detail. The disciples weren’t gathered in this room together because they were expecting the Lord Jesus to appear to them. Not at all! In John 20:19, we’re told that they were gathered together “when the doors were shut”; and that they “were assembled, for fear of the Jews”. But this leads us, first, to consider …
1. HIS SURPRISING GREETING TO THEM (v. 36).
They had been talking with the disciples who had walked with the Lord on the road to Emmaus; and the disciples had been telling them that He had appeared to Peter. And Luke tells us in verses 36, “Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you.’”
Why would He have said this to them? Obviously, it was a ‘customary’ kind of greeting. But in this case, it may have been much more than just that alone. He may have said these words to them—in part—to quiet their hearts. After all, they were hiding from fear of the Jewish authorities. And what’s more, they were emotionally distressed from all that had happened over the past few days. They had even been suffering great sorrow earlier that day; and as the day rolled on, they became bewildered and confused at the news from the women. For Jesus to suddenly appear to them, while they were still in this condition, would have been a very startling and unexpected and—at first, anyway—terrifying experience. No wonder He wished them peace.
And yet, this wonderful greeting was made all the more wonderful by the fact that He was the one—alive and in their midst—who was proclaiming it. His chosen place—after His resurrection—was in the midst of those that He loved and redeemed to Himself. And He came bringing the good news of peace.
This good news of peace, by the way, is a part of our ‘Great Commission’ proclamation to the world too. As the apostle Paul put it in Ephesians 2:14-18, we who formerly were far away from the God of the Jewish people have now been brought near;
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father (Ephesians 2:14-18).
How could the apostles not be compelled to pass our Lord’s greeting on to others? Do we share in their joy over the resurrected Lord? Are we convinced? Then we’ll be compelled to pass it on too.
But they needed more evidence. And so, next we read about …
2. HIS OFFER TO LET THEM HANDLE HIM (vv. 37-40).
Luke tells us, in verse 37, “But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit.” And can we blame them for this? They had only just a short while before seen Him crucified, and wrapped in cloths, and sealed up in a tomb. How could they help but not believe their eyes? How could they help but have doubted what they saw?
But Jesus gave them more than just what their eyes saw. He allowed them to handle Him. He told them in verses 38-39; “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” In verse 40, we’re told, “When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.” And what would they have seen? They’d have seen the nail prints in His hands and feet.
The great old preacher Harry Ironside told this story:
Recently I was preaching in an eastern city, and I went down to visit a mission with the brother in charge. He told me, as we stood by the pulpit, of a remarkable experience he had there a short time before. He said he was standing in the pulpit, and as he looked down the aisle the door opened, and a strange-looking figure entered, clothed in a long white robe. Coming to where my friend stood, the stranger looked up at him and said, “I have come to take possession. I am the Lord Jesus Christ.” My friend looked at him for a moment; at first he thought perhaps the man was a maniac, and he had better leave him, but instead he asked, “You say you are the Lord Jesus Christ?” “Yes,” was the reply, “and I have come back as I promised I would.” “Let me see your hands,” said the mission man. The visitor held out his hands. “Oh, no; you are not my Saviour; my Saviour has the prints of the nails in each hand.” The man looked hard at him and turned and left. Jesus bears the marks of identification in His wounded hands and feet (H.A. Ironside, Addresses on The Gospel of Luke [New Jersey: Loizeaux Brothers, 1947], p. 717).
It was the sight of the nail prints in Jesus’ hands that let them know that it was truly Him—bodily resurrected and alive. As He prophetically proclaimed in Isaiah 49:16, “See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands …” And it was the experience of handling the Lord in this way that gave the disciples joy; and that compelled them to proclaim Him joyfully to the world. The apostle John put it this way:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full (1 John 1:1-4).
Now; before all of this, they were hiding in fear. And then after seeing Him, they were terrified and frightened. But then they were joyful and marveling—but still not believing. And so, Jesus offered one more piece of empirical evidence to them. We find this in—of all things …
3. HIS REQUEST TO EAT BEFORE THEM (vv. 41-43).
Luke tells us in verse 41, “But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” That’s a good piece of evidence. After all, a phantom or a ghost couldn’t eat food. “So”, as verses 42-43 go on to tell us, “they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish” (and some ancient manuscripts add, “and some honeycomb”). “And He took it and ate in their presence.” In other words, they handed Him food, and He ate it, and the food they handed Him was gone. We’re not told this, but I have often wondered if He handed them the fish bones to keep as a part of the evidence. And if He chewed the honeycomb, He may have even handed them the wax when He was through—like a chewed-up wad of gum—as another piece of evidence.
There could have been no mistake about it. Jesus was standing before them alive. And it was then that He told them that they were to go forth and be His witnesses to the world. His appearance to them truly was “compelling” evidence.
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Now; you and I may feel that we couldn’t be compelled like they were. They actually saw Him. We didn’t. But the apostle John tells us about another appearance that the Lord Jesus made. John 20:24-29 says;
Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:24-29).
The fact that we haven’t seen or physically handled the risen Lord, as they did, isn’t really any hindrance to us. There is sufficient evidence presented to us, by those who did see Him alive and who did handle Him, for us to believe and have their joy.
May their joy—with the enabling power of the same Holy Spirit in us who empowered them—also compel us to proclaim to the world that He is alive!
AE
