Luke 24 beginning in verse 36 and going through verse 43. These are God's words 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 I Why are you troubled? And why do doubts rise 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 broiled fish and some honeycomb and he took and ate in their presence. So far, the reading of God's inspired and inerrant word. We rejoice to know that he adds his blessing to the preaching of it. Please be seated. A couple of weeks ago, immediately upon the resurrection of Jesus from the dead in Luke chapter 24, we considered the passage, especially in light of 1 Corinthians 15, the opening section there, where the apostle, Reminded them that it was as a first importance that Jesus Christ Had risen had died for their sins according to the scriptures and risen from the dead according to the scriptures And he does so as an introduction in first Corinthians 15 to a chapter in which he's going to spend an extended amount of time as an extended amount of scripture on the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and how it is important that we believe in the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ because we too will have a bodily resurrection like his. We who believe in him will be resurrected unto glory. And Jesus's death and resurrection gives us not only hope in this life, but especially hope for the life to come, for eternal life, for everlasting life. And he connects the hope that we have forever directly to being sure that Jesus has physically risen from the dead. The historical facts of who Jesus is and what he has done and who he is now and what he is like now are essential to the Christian faith and they were essential. to the faith of these apostles who were having a discussion, no doubt, about the reality and the nature of the Lord Jesus's resurrection and the Lord Jesus's body. They were very excited. You remember when we left off in verse 35, The two men who had just come, Cleopas and Friend, who'd just come back from Emmaus, were telling their experience of Jesus on the road and at the supper table. And those who had been in Jerusalem had, just before that, been telling them of how Jesus had not only appeared to the women that morning, whose whose account they had not believed because it seemed like idle tales to them, but now he had also appeared to Peter. So the evidence was mounting and they were having a discussion. But what Jesus was like, the fact of his resurrection and the reality of his physical body, the ongoing reality of his complete human nature, our Redeemer and as our mediator the one in whom we are saved and the one Whom we are being made like to whom we are being conformed that is that is Something that they would have been Discussing to some extent and the Lord Jesus now appears to them both to assure them and to inform them because they need to grow in faith. And this question of their belief and their continuing to be troubled to some extent brings up the fact that they have a duty to believe, that we have a duty to believe. And so that's the first thing that we'll see in this passage, our duty to believe, the duty of faith. And then as Jesus challenges them on their continuing unbelief or their need to be growing in certainty about him, he provides them with various proofs, various evidences to encourage them. And so that we have called the data of faith. He gives them many things to show them that it is in fact he and that he is still theirs, their mediator, their redeemer, that his body is real and so forth. Those things that he presents to them as the data of faith. And he presents to us as the data of faith. If your trust is in the Lord Jesus Christ and you delight in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you enjoy finding things out about him, the data of faith. So we'll consider that in a second place. And then the degrees of faith. They are still struggling with unbelief, but it's a different kind of struggle by the time we get to verse 41 and we see him responding to their ongoing difficulty. They're believing but needing help with their unbelief in verses 41 through 43. And so we see that there are degrees of faith that even we who have walked with him a long time still need to grow. And he grows us especially by confirming to us and growing us in our understanding of facts about him, and then also especially in our fellowship with him. So that's what, by God's help, we hope to see in the next little while. from this passage. First, then the duty of faith. Now, as they said these things, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, peace to you. peace to you. Now, this is a piece that he has won for them in three, at least three different ways, a piece that we need from him in at least three different ways. And perhaps the first way that they needed this piece was to settle, to settle any questions or discussion or conversation about what really had happened, and where Jesus was, and what had happened to him, and what the ongoing significance of that would be, and what they needed to be doing now, which the Lord's sparing us to one another another week. We'll especially be seeing that question answered, what they need to be doing now. In the conclusion of the Gospel of Luke, But they, we know even going back to last week's passage, had a tendency to discuss and converse vigorously. The language about Cleopas and his friend and how they were discussing on the road implied quite a vigorous or lively discussion not unlike some of you like to have hopefully by God's help and to God's praise in the things of God especially having a lively discussion and so they're having this lively discussion and you got some talking on one side and perhaps some talking on the other side and as they said these things verse 36 Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, peace to you. This is this is what we hope for, that the Lord himself from his word will settle things for us. Jesus appears and he settles things for us. We are not afraid, of course, when we have theological disagreements with one another, as good men can and good men have. to keep coming to the word of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible, so that each of us being sharpened and growing, he gives us peace, as it were, with one another. That is probably the smallest way in which they needed to have this peace, but he does interrupt and bring to a conclusion, as it were, or at least a temporary conclusion, their discussion. The second thing they need is peace with him himself as their mediator. You need nothing more than you need peace with Jesus Christ. Because there's only one who can be your advocate before the father. There's only one who can make your case, who can make your defense before the judgment of God. This is one of the things we rejoice over in that last third or so of Romans chapter eight. When we say, who will bring a charge against God's elect? Well, it's God who justifies. God is the one who has declared us righteous in Christ. Well, how about who will condemn us? Well, Jesus won't condemn us. Jesus is the one to whom condemning the wicked is given. He has all authority in heaven and on earth, even in his role as the mediator, as the God-man. He is the one who is the judge and all judgment has been given to him. But who is he for us? He is the one, Romans 8 says, who has died and risen again and who is interceding for us. He's advocating for us. He's making our case. Well, we need to know that Jesus is on our side. And of course, Jesus is on our side. You say we have we've been hearing preached for weeks now that he offered himself as a sacrifice for sin and took upon himself the punishment that sinners who believe in him deserved. Well, yes, we do know that, but you and I sin against him. And in our weakness and our unbelief, we do have those trembling thoughts, don't we? That this might turn Jesus against us. There's a difference, right? We hate to displease him. We hate to grieve him because we love him. But we also do have those unbelieving sort of thoughts. that come usually more in the shape of feelings like Jesus is going to be against me now until we get this fixed. Well, no, in his displeasure, he is for you. Even in his discipline, he is for you. And though he be grieved, though he show you his displeasure, he does it for you. But if you feel like that, in your Christian life, with all that you know from your completed Bible, having understanding some of the Old Testament and the New Testament and the Holy Spirit's work in your life thus far. How much more these disciples? Remember, most of these men, the last time they saw Jesus, what were they doing? Turning to turn tail and run. because he was in trouble and likely to be killed and they didn't want any part of that. Haven't you had that experience the last time you saw someone you had sinned against them? And you may even know in as far as facts are concerned in your mind that they are for you, but you have that that trembling timidity the first time you come to see them again, or the first time you run into them again, How are they going to be like towards you and the Lord Jesus immediately says? Peace to you peace to you 11 men who were either I Suppose Peter has already seen him first That day but to the other ten peace to you ten who the last time we saw one another and You were betraying me, as it were, not betraying him positively in the way that Peter did, but abandoning me in the hour of my trial. Jesus is for those who for whom he died, those who trust in him. And you have peace with your mediator. They needed that peace, ultimately, not just with Christ as their mediator, but with God who has made peace for them in their mediator. And that is something that we need to have so that we will never be afraid of anything. They thought that they were seeing or hearing a disembodied soul, a disembodied spirit. Earlier, you remember when Jesus had walked on the water and they saw him, they thought they were seeing an apparition, something that only appeared. to be real, and they were terrified of it for that reason. The Holy Spirit uses a different word here. He uses the ordinary word for spirit, which is interchangeable when it comes to men, with the word for soul. But this, to them, seems to be something terrifying and frightening, and actually continues to be terrifying and frightening to them. But if you know that you have peace with God in the Lord Jesus Christ, that his sacrifice has atoned for your sin, and that in his resurrection, God has declared that you are justified. If we were to look at Romans four towards the end of the chapter, and it talks about how Jesus was offered up on account of our transgressions, he died on account of our transgressions, and he was raised again from the dead. And it uses a preposition that for some reason some of our English translations have translated for, raised again from the dead for, our justification. But that preposition with that particular case of object always means, always means, on account of. He was raised on account of our justification. Part of what the resurrection of Jesus testifies to us is that we have been made right with God. And if you know that from the death and resurrection of Christ, that your sins are atoned for and you are right with God, then nothing that happens, nothing that happens ought to make you afraid. Whatever the government does, whatever your neighbor does, whatever your husband or wife or parents or children do. Whatever comes in terms of plague, whatever comes in terms of famine or inflation, it comes in the providence of the God with whom you have peace in Jesus Christ. He is the one who works all things according to the counsel of his will. And even if a disembodied soul were to appear in front of you, It wasn't a disembodied soul, but even if it were, the Lord Jesus says peace to you who believe in him and who are atoned for by him and who are right with God in him. Therefore, since we have peace with God in the Lord Jesus Christ, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. The love of God is poured out in our hearts, spread into every corner of our hearts. To use the word picture there in Romans chapter five, we rejoice in God himself. We are just since we are justified in Christ, we have peace with God and we are able to rejoice in the face of anything that happens, even trouble, even the hard things. in life. So there is this duty of faith. Peace to you, he says, and immediately they disobey. But they were terrified and frightened and supposed they had seen a spirit. And he said to them, why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? If you having just now remembered the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ and the providence of God and the knowledge that he who upholds all things by the word of his power and works all things according to the counsel of your will and you have by the help of the Spirit, laid hold of him by faith, and enjoyed the peace of God, and knowing that all things are for your good. And then you come, perhaps even before the sermon is done for most of us, or perhaps you are one who's doing really well and it'll be a few minutes longer, and you find suddenly you're anxious and afraid about something again. You are in bad company. I wouldn't say good company, but we are uh, in good company, uh, as those, uh, to whom the Lord has ministered to whom the Lord continues ministering, uh, they're terrified and frightened. Uh, and yet the Lord comes, uh, and he, um, he corrects us again. Uh, he says to us, why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? We should ask the same thing to ourselves. The Holy Spirit has trained us to do that. He's put in our mouths in the psalm, hasn't he? Oh, my soul, why are you cast down? And why are you so discouraged? Hope now in God, for I will yet praise him. He is my help and my God. And so as the scriptures by the Spirit of Christ have taught us to address ourselves, the Lord Jesus addresses his disciples here and he says, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Don't you see that you have a duty to believe in this God who is your hope and who is your help and who has guaranteed you that the purpose for which he has made and saved you is that you will enjoy him forever. You will yet praise him as the psalmist says. even as Job in one of his famous confessions of his faith says, that he will from his flesh, even if he is slain, even if his body and eyeball rot, yet there will be resurrection. Why? because he will from his flesh see God. He has been created. He has been redeemed in order to praise God, soul and body, to enjoy God, soul and body forever. And those who have this hope, one of the things we do is along with the Lord Jesus Christ, we remind ourselves of the duty of faith. Why are you cast out? Why are you discouraged? Hope now in God, or as the Lord Jesus puts it here, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Well, we see part of the answer to why, because it's in our hearts. Our hearts that are still a mixed bag. We have a new nature. If we are believers, we have a new nature from the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's still that old man who's clinging. There is that fleshliness from our former nature. And that's where the doubts come from. They're arising not from the data. They arise from our hearts and how we respond to that data. We tell ourselves, oh, my faith is weak and my doubts are arising because of what I just heard on the talk show today or what I just saw in the feed or read on the favorite site that I visited. No. You doubt and are discouraged and are anxious because you still have fleshliness in your hearts. The doubts are arising from your hearts. That which you have read is evidence that the world is still just like your Lord told you it would be. And your Lord who told you it would be is the one who has given himself for you to atone for your sin so that you being right with God in him might know That all of those things are for you. All of those things are being used by him to perfect the love with which he has made you to love you. To bring you into the full enjoyment of the calling with which he has called you. That since he predestined you not merely to come to faith, but to be conformed to the image of his son. You know that whatever he is doing between when you have come to faith and the last day is producing in you that glory so that predestined, called, justified, and those he has justified, he is also glorified. There is that duty. What faith? But the Lord Jesus doesn't leave them to sort themselves out when he says, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? He calls them then in their duty to believe. He calls you in your duty to believe, to consider some of the data that he presents for your belief. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is as well attested to us as the existence of George Washington. It is one of the most well-attested historical events that there has been. In fact, at the time that 1 Corinthians 15 was being written, almost all of the 500 that he had appeared to at once At some point, perhaps there are 500 here on this first. night of his resurrection, first evening of his resurrection, or perhaps it's referring to another moment, but when the apostle is writing that to the Corinthian church, what does he say? He says, a few of them have fallen asleep, but almost all of the ones who had seen what we are seeing, as it were, with the apostles in our passage this morning, were still alive. You could go and you could get a firsthand account. We are in a season in the history of our nation in which we are relearning the value of first-hand accounts. You don't know what to believe, but you do know that some people whom you know are fairly reliable and you can go and you can get a first-hand account from them. The Lord Jesus is presenting to us by his word which is recorded and attested historical data and he had presented to them and he presents to them in the next portion of our text empirical data. It says behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Jesus's body is his. Jesus's body is his, and Jesus's, he could have said perhaps, behold my face, or perhaps his face appears differently, but he picks his hands and his feet. those particular parts of him that bear the marks of their redemption. This is who he came to be. This is what he had come to do. This is who he still is. The one who bore our sins on the cross, on the tree who atoned for us. In fact, the fact that Jesus has given himself to be sacrificed for his people is the distinguishing character, the distinguishing mark. of the Lord Jesus Christ in his appearance. In Revelation chapter 5, the lamb in glory is a lamb who appears as the slain. Jesus's body is his very own and Jesus's body is for them. Jesus's body is for them. Not only does he show that it is him himself, first part of verse 39, but he offers them, encourages them, commands them to touch him. Handle me and see, he says. He desires to put away their unbelief, their idea that this is a disembodied spirit by not just looking and seeing that there are marks in his hands and marks in his feet, but touching him. feeling that there is flesh there and squeezing to feel the solidity of the bones. Some of you young men have enjoyed, and perhaps your father has enjoyed more, when your dad comes and he puts his hands on your shoulders or your arms That one day, at one point in time, we're like 99% bone and a little bit of muscle. And now we come and you have grown and hopefully not just in stature, but in wisdom and in favor with God and appreciating all that God has done. We put our hands on your shoulders and we put our hands on your arms and we feel that There is enough muscle there. You can just almost barely get to that solid bone in the center. Jesus is commanding them to have physical experience of the substance of his resurrected body. And it is not unlike and We'll get to that in a little bit. What he commands us to do by faith. When you eat the bread and you drink the cup, they don't change into Jesus. But the resurrected Jesus in glory has given you physical things. to touch, to feel, to smell, to taste, that are the evidence that he was here. That this started on a night that he was betrayed, a historical event that happened. And that the next day he physically went to the cross. And that three days later he physically rose from the dead. And that after 40 days, he physically ascended into glory. And that the Holy Spirit whom he has poured out on us, just as physically, or just as truly as the water has been physically poured out upon you in baptism, has been poured out upon you by not just God, but the God-man who pours out his spirit from the throne of glory. where he has taken his seat and he presses home to us by baptism and he presses home to us by the supper. The real even physical reality of the one who has marks in his hands and marks in his feet and yet he exists now in a glorified humanity in that resurrected body that when you come on the last day and you are resurrected Your body will be very different than it is now, than the corpse that will be put into the ground when you die. But it will be made like His is now. He gives us data. Now He gave them the visual data of the hands and feet and the tactile data of flesh and bone. But He gives you the data of His word. And he gives you the data of his sacrament. He gives you the data of his church. There's no explanation for the persistence of the church of Jesus Christ than the genuine resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The idea that there was some conspiracy in which the disciples got together to agree to say that Jesus had risen from the dead and that they were so committed to it that they died in order to to uphold the appearance of a lie is the furthest thing from the truth. Here they are in the presence of the actually resurrected Jesus and they can't agree to attest that he has genuinely risen from the dead. He is the one who's having to grow them in their faith that this is what has actually happened. He has this glorious body. things that he can do. He can appear in the midst of them. In John's account of this, John is the only other one who gives us this evening appearance of Christ. And he tells us that Jesus passed through the doors, although they were locked. He has a glorious body. He presents himself and the reality of his resurrection to us. This is one of the things week by week that your Lord is pressing home to you and to me in his word that he who became a man for our sakes and died as a man for our sakes has risen again as a man for our sakes and that he is still is a resurrected and glorious man and he will come in that self same body. So our duty. of faith, the data of faith, and yet degrees of faith. When he had said this, verse 40, he shed them his hands and his feet. But while they still did not believe, and yet this is a different kind of unbelief now, they still did not believe for joy. They still did not believe for joy and marveled. Oh, how small our faith is. They're coming to realize what had happened. So there is faith, but there's still unbelief mixed with faith. And that doesn't surprise us. When we see while they still did not believe, it doesn't mean that there's no faith at all. And we know that immediately because it is for joy and for marveling. They're rejoicing over this reality of Christ and his resurrection as they come to realize it. And they're marveling at the reality of his resurrection as they come to realize it. But such is the persistence of unbelief in our hearts that we often respond to things that are too good to be true and too great to be true. Or respond to things as if they are too good to be true and too great to be true. So the very goodness of the fact that God himself would become a man for us and that he has accomplished our redemption and that our resurrection unto everlasting blessedness in the last day is as sure as the fact that he has bodily risen from the dead on his resurrection day. The very goodness of that is something that to us, who in our doubting things that are so good seem to us to be too good to be true. And that's because we project unto God what we know about men, right? A man I guess they don't make sales calls to the door that much anymore. The salesman among us can tell you about making, well, I guess we had some door-to-door sales in the small town where we lived, but most of the time now it's that phone call or that email that if your phone or email program are smart enough, sends straight to spam. Right? The Nigerian prince does not actually need your help storing $73 million for assistance with which he's willing to give you 4%. When man tells us things like that, we say, way too good to actually be true. But it is not man. It is not man who presents to you everlasting blessedness in the Lord Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection. It is God. And so the spirit comes and he presents to us 10 men who are struggling even as they realize that it is true, struggling to embrace the reality of Christ's resurrection because it seems too good to be true. While they still did not believe for joy, And they marveled. Someone comes and he tells you something that he has done. This is the way that my father ended up with his second retirement. He had retired from one company because Germans took it over and That was the end of any hope of doing anything on this side of the pond, at least in that particular context. He went to another company and he was over the technical stuff, the engineering stuff, and he gets a business periodical. one morning right before a board meeting and they had made promises about what they were going to do by what year or whatever, but nobody had asked him about it. And he comes to the board meeting and he said, which one of us promised that we would break the laws of physics within six years? It was something that was too great to be true. That's just not possible. He decided that that wasn't worth toiling the rest of his earthly life for and he took another retirement. But it is not man who has promised something that is so great that there would be God who had become man and had died so that the church is bought with the blood of God and risen again. And that that means that we are going to rise again and have the very pleasures of God himself forever and ever. That we would enjoy God fully. Does that seem too great a thing? Only if the one who is accomplishing it is man. If it's God who's promising it, it can't be too good to be true. And if it's God who's accomplishing it, it cannot be too great to be true. And yet we as we start out with small faith, and He grows us in faith. Faith is by degree, it's something we grow in, it's something He measures out to us, as it were. The Lord Jesus responds now. They've done the seeing the hands, the feet, they've done the handling Him. They're still having trouble, and so He gives them more to take them from one degree of faith to another. He says, have you any food here? So they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb. I'm afraid it was a fairly early on in my study of the passage that I wrote the devotional on this text and I suggested that the honeycomb was dessert. Most commentators seem to think that it was some kind of sauce that the honeycomb would be set on top of the fish while it was being broiled. But this isn't here for a recipe. It's here to show not only the fact of Jesus's physical body, but the fellowship that we may have with him. He eats broiled fish and honeycomb in their presence. There's something here similar to, uh, Later, when he's making breakfast on the shore, remember, and the apostles who have been led by Peter to go fishing, even though Jesus is risen from the dead. But they see they see him on the shore and they come and he's got the bread and the fish. It's one of those just like old times. sorts of feeling. How often had they had broiled fish and honeycomb? This appears to have been an ordinary meal. That's just what they had there with them that night. And as an ordinary meal, it's probably one they've had with Jesus a number of times. Something that you have probably, many of you, experienced just this week, just like old times. Some of you have a traditional Thanksgiving meal. We had a less traditional Thanksgiving meal for us this year because we had turkey and stuffing and bean casserole. You say that's traditional. Well, in our tradition, it's pizza and Sam Adams. But this year we didn't have pizza and Sam Adams. And I think my kids are looking forward to when we have pizza again next year. And when we do, it'll be just like old times and all the fellowship that we've had at that table with that pizza. over the years that comes back and floods and informs it. The Lord Jesus here encourages, responds to their small faith that he is growing, not just by showing him, showing them that he is still able to chew and swallow and digest fish and honeycomb, but that he still will have fellowship with them in these things. He didn't suddenly outgrow that desire for their fellowship and that affection towards them for which he had been so criticized. He eats and drinks with sinners. Well, now that he has died for their sins, and now that he has risen from the dead, and now that his body is glorious and powerful, he still eats and drinks with sinners. He took some of the same food that they had had for supper that night and that they had probably had countless times with him in the past. And he ate, he took and he ate in their presence. It's an interesting phrase, took and ate. In the garden it was, The means by which we fell. She gave some to her husband and he took and he ate. But by the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, he has turned the words take and eat into words of life and joy and faith. And even here in our passage, not our taking and eating, but his having taken and eaten and the knowledge that Someday, in the new heavens and the new earth, you will have actual physical table fellowship at some point with the Lord Jesus Christ and that he brings you to a table on earth to anticipate his coming, to show forth as you take and eat, eating the bread and drinking the cup, to show forth your Lord's death until he comes. in anticipation of the day when you won't need a sacramental meal and a sacramental table, because he will have grown you from that little faith to that full and perfected faith. And the none of the joy or the marveling will be gone, but you will have full belief in that joy and in that marveling. And from here to there, he gives us the facts of his resurrection and fellowship with him who has been resurrected. He gives you fellowship with himself in his word. He gives you fellowship with himself in prayer. He gives you fellowship with himself in the sacrament. He gives you himself. in those things. And so let us ask ourselves, as we find ourselves in a one degree of faith and looking forward to having the continuum completed and coming to the end. We know the duty of faith, we know that data that strengthens our faith that we should believe about him as we believe in him. Let us ask ourselves the question. Why, oh my soul, are you troubled? And why does doubt arise in your heart? Have you not heard, oh my soul, Luke 24, 36 through 43? God, the Holy Spirit, grants to us from the life of Christ himself the ability to believe and to grow in faith, for our life is in the risen Christ. And he grows us in our faith in him by our meditating upon these facts about him and are having fellowship with him in his word and at his table. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we believe, help our unbelief. We thank you for your word by which you help that unbelief and your sacrament by which you help that unbelief. And we pray for the ongoing ministry of your spirit to grow us in faith in you, that we would be sure of that over which we rejoice and that for which we worship you. God alone receiving worship and you, oh Lord Jesus, who are fully man receiving our worship because you are our God who have become man. So stir up our faith by your spirit, we pray. We know that this is how it comes, but we cannot give it to ourselves by means of the word. Give it to us, our God and Savior, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.