If you have your Bibles, please, would you turn with me to Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. When I was in college, I worked for two years as a guard in an art gallery. I had a lot of time to study a fine collection of medieval paintings. And one of the most common arrangements that you would find in medieval art is a three paneled painting known as a triptych. That is three paintings, three panels that are connected together and it follows a progression and it tells a story in a way that one single painting cannot. In Luke chapter 24, this is essentially what we have concerning the resurrection of our Lord. We have like three panels, three stories In the first 12 verses, we have the empty tomb and the women who came to the grave and then flee because his body is missing. And then in the center panel, we have the two on the road to Emmaus. This is the longest and perhaps the most beloved of the resurrection appearances recorded in Scripture. And then the third resurrection account in Luke's gospel is of our Lord's appearance to the disciples. the upper room this is found in verses 36 through 49 although we're just going to be looking at this first paragraph verses 36 through 43 This is the first time that our risen Lord came to the assembled disciples Remember by this time Judas is dead Thomas for some unknown reason is not present in And Jesus comes to his disciples. Now, we know that there were more than just 10 disciples there. The two on the road to Emmaus were there, as well as other believers, according to Luke 24, verse 33. In a very real sense, this is the risen Lord appearing to a believing assembly, a gathering of Christians, for the very first time. It was a surprise to discover this week, as I was looking through my notes, that in all the Easter Sundays that I've been here at Calvary, I have never preached from this passage. So, I was excited to do so. Now before we get into this text, I wanna provide some brief analysis and background information. Luke was a doctor, he was a sophisticated and structured writer, and so you should never think that anything in his book is found in a haphazard fashion. He always had a reason for what he was doing. And in these three panels, these three stories of the resurrection, Every one of them has four themes that are developed in those stories, and they're all in the same order. They're like threads that are woven into the fabric. This is not an artificial arrangement, but this is what occurred and what the Spirit of God led him to record. The first thing we find in all of these accounts is confusion. The people who see the risen Lord are confused, they're startled, they're shocked. We see this in verse four, in verses 21 through 24, and again in verse 37 in this chapter. And the second theme that we see is rebuke or correction. In every case, the Lord gently corrects his followers, that they should not be shocked or surprised, but they should be anticipating. the Lord would rise from the dead. The third element that we find in all of these stories is biblical instruction. The Lord turns them back to the scriptures and says, you should have known this because the scriptures reveal this. And then the fourth thread is a call to witness. He calls on them to go and tell others that indeed the Lord has risen indeed. Now this paragraph that we're considering this morning seems to have an apologetic purpose. That is, the writer of this account, Luke, and of the same account as John also records, they are correcting and attacking an early Christian heresy. This heresy is known as docetetism, some people pronounce it docetism. It's the idea that Jesus only appeared to have a body, but he didn't really have a body when he was on earth. And they took this position because there was a philosophical belief that matter or flesh was inherently evil and spirit, however, could be pure and good. So to say that Jesus had a body would be to say that he was weak and he was sinful, so they didn't wanna go that route. And so if you read carefully, like the Gospel of John and the First Epistle of John and other books, and including this paragraph here, you'll see that the gospel writers writing decades after these events are showing to their readers that Jesus truly did have a body before and after his resurrection. Now the disciples originally, it seemed, thought he was like a phantom or an apparition or a ghost, because in verse 37, it says they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And we see the Lord in this paragraph laboring to convince them that he really is himself. He says in verse 39, it is, It is I myself, we would put it like this, it's really me. This raises a question that no one has an answer to. And that is why didn't they recognize Jesus? How was he so transformed with his glorified body that they didn't instantly recognize that face, that person they lived with for over three years? And to answer that question, I would say, like everyone else, I simply don't know. We're not given enough information. But for some reason, they did not initially recognize him. And we see this in the other resurrection accounts as well. But Jesus here in this paragraph does convince them by the end that he is their risen Lord in flesh and bones. And we see he does two things to convince them of this. He shows them his scars, he invites them to touch him if they would like, and then he takes a piece of broiled fish and he eats it for all to see, showing them that indeed he is not an apparition, but in fact they're in physical form. So they saw the glorious Lord with a body. But there is another lesson that comes from this passage, and this is where I want our focus to be this morning. This passage reveals to us how the Lord deals with less than perfect followers who at times struggle with doubts and unbelief and confusion about what the Lord is doing. We see here that the disciples, all of them, were filled with doubts and fears. We often call the Apostle Thomas Doubting Thomas. But in fact, all the disciples were skeptics until the Lord revealed himself to them. We have in the record of this Easter appearance a beautiful example of how our Lord interacts with his followers as they struggle to believe. And so I'm gonna preach to you this morning on this Easter Sunday on how Christ strengthens the faith of doubting disciples. And I have three points I want you to consider with me. The first one is this, Christ comes to his doubting disciples graciously. Look with me please at verse 36. And as they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace to you. Now many writers think that the disciples have gone back to the upper room where they had celebrated the Passover just three days ago. We have no way of knowing for certain, but that's certainly possible. Now to be clear, let me tell you the order of events quickly that have occurred on this Resurrection Sunday. At dawn, at first light, Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene. That's the first resurrection appearance. Shortly after that, he appears to the other women who came to the tomb. The third appearance was privately to Peter. We have no idea what transpired there, what the Lord said to him. But remember, it's Peter that denied his Lord. And so the Lord comes and deals with Peter in a way of recovering him and comforting him because of his great failure. And then fourth appearance this day takes place in the afternoon as Jesus reveals himself to the two on the road to Emmaus. That's what we find right before this paragraph in Luke 24. They're walking along, he comes, he joins them in their conversation, and then he reveals to them all about himself from the scriptures. And then when they come to their place where they live, as he breaks the bread, they all of a sudden realize it is the Lord. And then those two followers of Christ are filled with joy and gladness. Jesus disappears from their midst. They run all the way back to Jerusalem, to where they know the disciples are assembled, and they tell them of the risen Lord. Right after they arrive there and give their report That's when we have this fifth resurrection appearance and the last one on Easter Sunday Now John records the same event in John chapter 20 and he writes that the doors were locked. I These disciples were still afraid that they might be arrested. The man they had followed for over three years has been crucified. He was, you might say, public enemy number one. And so they were worried that the authorities might be coming for them, so their doors are locked. And with those locked doors, suddenly Jesus appears in their midst. Now that raises a whole host of questions, right? How did he do that? How did he, as it were, come through the wall? Or how did he materialize right before them? Because he has a body, he has solid body, but somehow he's been able to come into a locked room without them knowing that he has come in. And the text seemed to indicate that he didn't just walk in, it's just there was this blank space and suddenly, now Jesus is there, instantly. And many of these questions have to go unanswered because we simply do not have enough information. But just imagine that you were there. You're having this discussion. All these disciples are there. Other followers of Christ are there. And suddenly, Jesus, in an instant, is right there in your midst. They were startled, confused, shocked. And what does Jesus say to them? He says, peace be unto you. The way you greet a person often expresses your demeanor and your attitude towards that person. You see, the Lord had not given up on these followers. He still desires God's richest blessing on them. Now this was the typical greeting in their Jewish culture. We know this word today. It's the word shalom. That's what he says to them. This term expresses wholeness, complete well-being, prosperity of body, soul, and spirits. But the Lord is doing more than just saying hello. He is giving them what they lack most at this moment, and that was peace. Because it's the presence of the Lord that brings peace to his people. Their hearts were filled with conflicting emotions. They had a desire to believe certainly that he was alive, and yet they knew that the Lord had died just three days earlier. And so there was these conflicting emotions. I suspect that this word peace may have taken their minds back to that stormy night on the Sea of Galilee when the Lord said, peace be still, and the raging sea became as glass, perfectly still in an instant. Or perhaps they thought about what he said in the upper room just three days earlier when he said, peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Peace was our Lord's dying legacy to his disciples. And now he reaffirms that gift on this night. You see, Jesus could have left them in their doubts and fears, but he graciously comes to them. And yet they have failed him greatly. Remember how they all deserted him in the garden, how they fled into the night when the authorities came to arrest him. And then one of them betrayed him, Judas, and Peter denied that he even knew the Lord. And yet, he still loves them. He pities them as a father pities his children, because he knows their frame, he remembers that they are butt dust. In Isaiah chapter 42, we read of the coming Messiah, that he would deal gently with broken people. It says, a bruised reed he will not break, and a burning wick he will not quench. The Lord could have taken the approach that many people do naturally, and that is, this individual has wronged me, so if they wanna make things right, they're gonna have to come to me, and eat some crow, and admit that they were wrong, and then things can be resolved, but I am never going to go to them. But Jesus comes to these troubled disciples. and he graciously helps them. One of the most effective lies of Satan is that God is done with you. That because you have failed him, because you have messed up and walked away and sinned in a variety of ways, that God has had his fill of you and he's done with you. But that is a lie from the father of lies. Our Savior deals graciously with weak and fallen disciples. God does not abandon his people. Instead, he strengthens them graciously. But there's another way that our Lord strengthens our faith. Notice, secondly, that Christ corrects his doubting disciples lovingly. In verse 36, we read of their response to him. He uses two terms. They were startled, that is, they were shocked or confused, and then they were frightened. And the Greek word here is a form of the word phobia. We get our English word from this. These followers of Christ were shocked and scared, but notice how Jesus deals with them. He deals with them gently, but he does correct them. He asked them two questions in verse 38. He said to them, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? The word troubled that he used, this Greek word, is used also in Matthew 14 and Mark 6 to describe the disciples' response once when they were out on a boat in the Sea of Galilee. There was a storm, and in the darkness of the night, they see a man walking on the water, and it is Jesus come to rescue them. And it says they are troubled, saying, it is the Spirit, and they cry out for fear. And Jesus said to them, be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid. It's the presence of the Lord that brings peace to his people. And the second question he asked them is, why do doubts arise in your hearts? So what were they doubting? Well, according to the other gospel writers, they were doubting the testimony of the other eyewitnesses. Their conversation around that table was about the appearances of Jesus to the other followers. And I suspect it was a very animated conversation where people were speaking loudly and emotionally and they were gesturing wildly. Because this was a very, very important matter. And at least some of the disciples doubted the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies. We read that when the women who came to the tomb saw the risen Lord and they returned, that the disciples received their eyewitness testimony as idle tales. They said, you know how women are. They're hysterical. We're not going to put any weight in this supposed appearance of our risen Lord. But the evidence started stacking up. They now have heard at this point eyewitness reports from Mary Magdalene and from Peter and from John and from two on the road to Emmaus just moments before. And they had much circumstantial evidence. The stone somehow was rolled away from the entrance of the tomb. The tomb was empty. The grave clothes were folded neatly. There were the frightened guards and the angelic messengers that people saw. You see, their problem, their unbelief was not due to a lack of evidence. No, the problem was that they were struggling to believe in the promises of God. And this is true of us as well. Almost all of our spiritual problems and many of our emotional problems are due to our unbelief. We don't really believe what God has promised us or what he has said in his word. And so our hearts are filled so often with fears and doubts and bitterness and anxiety. And so often they stem because we don't believe the Lord's. And what we desperately need is to trust him more and to fill our minds with his truth. The Lord strengthens his people by revealing himself to them and by correcting them. And would you notice with me, thirdly, Christ provides evidence for his doubting disciples patiently. This is the most amazing truth that I see in this passage. What I mean is the way the risen Lord condescends to their weakness. He says in verse 39, look at my hands and feet. John 20, 20 tells us that he pointed out the wounds in his side as well. He calls on them to look at his scars. He invites them to physically touch his body. I suspect that they were ashamed to do so when he asked them to touch him. And he also appeals to their reason. He says, a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. He's showing them that it's illogical to still assume that he is just a ghost or an apparition of some sort. Because by definition, a spirit can have no body. Apparently they were too stunned and afraid to really examine his scars. And so in verse 40, we read that he exhibits them for all to see. It says, and when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And then we read an unusual expression in verse 41. It says, they still disbelieved for joy. What does that mean? We would put it this way. They still thought it was all too good to be true. They wanted to believe in a sense that this was true, but it just seemed too good to be true that the risen Lord had come back from the dead. That doesn't happen to people. And despite his demonstration, they were still struggling to believe. So the Lord patiently continues to persuade them. He says to them, have you anything here to eat? In verse 42, it says, and they gave him a piece of broiled fish. Remember, they were in the middle of a meal when the Lord appears. And like good Galilean fishermen, they are eating fish. So they give Jesus some fish and he ate it in front of them all. Don't you hate it when people watch you eat? Well, everyone in that room was watching Jesus eat. I don't think any of them were casually eating their food as well. They were all shocked and stunned and all of them were watching him as he picked up this piece of fish and he put it in his mouth and he chewed it and then eventually he swallowed it. This was a demonstration that indeed he had a body. And now finally to their everlasting joy, they begin to see that this truly is the Lord, the man that they had followed for over three years. Do you see the patience of the Lord? He didn't really need to show them anything. They had the prophecies of the Old Testament. They had his own verbal promises that he would rise again. If you take the four gospels, I did this once years ago, and you look at all of the predictions of the resurrection and you throw out the duplicates, you'll find that on at least 10 occasions, Jesus promised that he would conquer death and he would rise from the dead. So they should have been looking for this. They should have been anticipating this. Now they have the testimony of eyewitnesses, of many eyewitnesses. They had a mountain of evidence, and yet the Lord gave them more. He comes to them. He shows them his scars, and he eats some food in front of them to confirm their faith. This is the way our Lord is. He deals with weak and faltering followers graciously, lovingly, and patiently. Perhaps you're here this morning, and if you were to be honest, you would have to say that you've drifted away from the Lord. Maybe there was a time in your life when Easter was a time of great joy in your heart. as you gather to worship, as you remember that you serve a risen Savior. Maybe in the past you've truly enjoyed reading the Word and praying to God and being a witness for Him, but difficulties and distractions and obstacles and problems and temptations have come into your life and you have drifted away. I want you to know that the Lord is seeking to draw you back to himself graciously, lovingly, and patiently. Life is often filled with unexpected twists and turns and disappointments, and so often people's faith will falter and they will be in this middle ground where they still will say that they believe in God, that they're trusting in him for their salvation, but there's not this walking with the Lord, there's not this joy in their hearts anymore because they have faith, but they also have unbelief. Like the father who said, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. What should you do if that is your situation? The answer is you must seek the Lord in his word. I have not taken the time to go to this next paragraph, very tempted to. But Jesus says in verse 44, 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. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. What you desperately need, if you're like that person I described, is you need to immerse your mind, your soul and spirit in God's truth and remind yourself of these promises that he has given to his people. Seek God in his word. Now I wanna conclude with three brief further applications. My first one is this, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is essential to the Christian faith. Why did Jesus find it necessary to appear to his followers many times after his resurrection? Because it was essential that they believe that Jesus rose from the dead just as he had said. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, and his remains are somewhere here on planet Earth decaying, then all of Christianity is a hoax. This is exactly what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. But why is the resurrection of Jesus Christ such a big deal? Let me give you two reasons. There are many Number one if Jesus didn't rise from the dead Then he is not who he claimed to be the Son of God why do I say that because the Messiah was predicted in the Old Testament to rise from the dead and Jesus himself predicted on many occasions that he would rise from the dead so if he remained in that tomb it would be proof that he is not who he claimed to be the Son of God, but in fact a false prophet and but Jesus didn't remain in that tomb. He rose again because he is the Son of God. And secondly, when God the Father raised Jesus from the dead, it was confirmation that his sacrifice for our sins had been accepted, that his sacrifice was received. that His death, His substitutionary death that appeased the wrath of God, that it was accepted. And therefore, all who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ are forgiven. And we must never face that wrath. We will never face the condemnation of God because Jesus absorbed it all and received it all on the cross. And so we can praise the Lord that Christ rose again. This is why for Christians, Resurrection Sunday is cause for great joy and celebration. It's not some vague event that happened a long ago. It has direct relevance for every single one of us. And so this should be a day of great joy and celebration. Secondly, Christianity is not opposed to facts, evidence, or logic. This is a common misperception. God does not ask us to turn our brains off when we follow him. In fact, he asks that we think. In scripture, we see here in this passage, the Lord presenting evidence to people who want to believe. We see him employing logic. We see this with the apostles often, who reason from the scriptures, who say, if this is true and this isn't true, then this must be true. Christianity is not opposed to true science. People sometimes wanna make this false dichotomy. I've had this said to me many times, well, you're a man of faith, I'm a man of science. No, that's a false dichotomy. Christianity deals in the realm of reality. I've had people come to me several times and say things like, do you ever worry that a discovery will someday be made that disproves the Bible? And I say to them, of all the things I worry about, that's not one of them. that never keeps me up at night, that never disturbs me in the least, because there's nothing that can be produced that would disprove the Scriptures, because the Scriptures are true. And this is important for us to understand. The reason people reject Christ is not because they're so smart, but because they love their sin. And they know that to follow Christ and to believe in Him and trust in Him means that they must part with their beloved sin, and they do not want to do that. Some of the most intelligent and brilliant people who have ever walked on this earth were followers of Jesus Christ. People are not too smart to be saved. They are too filled with unbelief, and they turn away from the truth. Finally Only those who trust in the death and resurrection of Christ will be saved a couple of months ago I was witnessing to a lady had a long extensive conversation with her and I was sharing about the fact of the gospel of Jesus dying on the cross and him rising from the dead the third day and she stopped me right there and she said do you really believe that Jesus came back from the dead and I said absolutely I do and In fact, there's abundant evidence that Jesus rose from the dead. To me, one of the greatest proofs of the resurrection is the transformation of these disciples. One of the most common explanations for the resurrection is that the disciples conspired after he was dead to invent this story and say that he actually appeared to them and he rose from the dead. Sounds like a plausible explanation perhaps to you. Let me just say that Jesus appeared to a lot more than just the disciples. One time he appeared to over 500 witnesses. And when the Gospels were written, many of those people were still alive who could confirm or deny about how things happened. But think about it. If the disciples conspired to put together, get their story straight, and say that Jesus actually died, but he rose from the dead, why would these men be willing to die for something they knew was a lie? There have been many people in false religions who have died for what they believed to be true, but they believed it was true. If the disciples conspired to create this story, this narrative we find in scripture, then they died for something that they knew was false. They were tortured. They went to the ends of the known world, taking the gospel, bearing opposition and resistance, being arrested and tortured and finally put to death. And all of them died except for John who was tortured horribly, by the way. This is contrary to human nature. No, they died. They were transformed from fearful, doubting men in a moment of time this evening to men who would hazard their lives for the gospel's sake because they had seen the risen Savior and they knew it was true. So let me ask you this morning, on this Resurrection Sunday, do you really believe Do you really believe that almost 2,000 years ago, Jesus who was dead, whose heart had stopped and no longer breathing, that He came back from the dead and that He rose victoriously? Do you really believe that? You must believe this if you are to be saved. Because it's an inherent part of the gospel. You can't remove that plank of propositional truth without collapsing the gospel. Romans chapter 10 and verse 9 says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, as you believe that he is the Son of God, Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. You will be saved But this is more than intellectual sin I was talking to someone in the first service and they mentioned they'd saw a recent poll that said that 70% of Americans Believe that Jesus rose from the dead That doesn't mean that 70% of Americans are truly born-again believers and To believe in the death and resurrection of Christ means that this is your only hope of salvation. It means that it's not just some historical fact that you nod your head and you say, I suppose that happened. But it means it's what you're depending on. And it means that you live your life in light of these historic events, the death of Christ for your sins, the resurrection of Christ demonstrating that your sins indeed have been forgiven. And it means that it will be evidenced that you've been changed from the inside out. Is that true of you this morning? Has there been a time in your life when you passed from death unto life? When you didn't believe, to now you do believe. When you were an unbeliever, to now you are a believer. You were in the dark, and now you're in the light. You were dead, and now you are alive. This is what the Bible teaches. And unless you repent, and believe these gospel truths, you will perish eternally. But if you believe them, you will live forever with the risen Lord. And you will have new life in Christ because our very salvation is pictured in the resurrection. Just as Christ went from death to life and He rose to live a new life, so we who were dead in trespasses and sin are graciously brought to life and therefore we walk in newness of life. May God help you to grasp and believe these truths and may He show you you're standing before Him. Won't you trust Him today? Let's close in prayer. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the reality of the resurrection and how it changes everything and how it changes the entire direction of our lives. I pray that you would help us to live as those who serve a risen Savior, that he is indeed the Lord of our lives. I pray if there's any here today who are lost in their sins, I pray that you would help them to trust in you even now. And for your children, Father, who have drifted away, who've been living in darkness and confusion, I pray, Lord, that today you would help them to come back to the light and to walk with you in newness of life. For it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.