Well, good morning. It's great to see you all here this morning, whether you're here in person or online or in another room in the building. It's just wonderful to get a fellowship together again like this. As you heard from Jeff, today marks a milestone. We are finishing the Book of Luke, and next week we'll have a missionary speaker, and then after that, as Jeff said, the series on Kingdom Living. So we've got a lot to look forward to. As we look at the last chapter of Luke, as he brings his book to a close, he packs a lot into that last few verses. He talks about the resurrection of Jesus, the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He talks about Jesus' gift of the Holy Spirit. He talks about Jesus' ascension. And finally, in the parallel passage in Acts chapter 1, he talks about Christ's return. So our title today is a very simple one. It's Christ's Resurrection, Gift, Ascension, and Return. So to go back a few years, in 1980, construction workers in Jerusalem digging the foundation of a new building found 10 limestone ossuaries. Those are basically bone boxes containing human bones as they dug the foundation of this new building. It was big news, especially since one of the ossuries had the inscription on it, Jesus, son of Joseph. The discovery was thoroughly investigated by the leading Israeli archaeologist, Professor Amos Kloner of Bar-Elam University, and he concluded that the ossuries held the remains of a wealthy Jerusalem family of the first century AD. The name Jesus is, of course, Joshua, and Joshua is a really common name among the first century, and Joseph was also the second most common name after Simon. So Jesus, son of Joseph, would have been, there were dozens of those apparently scattered around Jerusalem, dozens of these ossuaries with that inscription. This did not stop, however, the Discovery Channel, airing what Wikipedia calls a, quote, pseudo-scientific docudrama, unquote, in March 2007, with the title, The Lost Tomb of Jesus. This docudrama presented a theory that one of these ossuaries contained the actual bones of Jesus. It was sadly typical of this type of presentation that they dug up a New Testament scholar, his name is James Tabor of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, who said, oh, well, Jesus' resurrection was really just a spiritual resurrection, and so these bones easily could have been the bones of Jesus. However, the document itself promoted a outrage response, if that's right. I think that's the right, an outrage response from Professor Kloner and other archaeologists said, this is absolute nonsense. It's impossible, he said, I refute all their claims and efforts to awaken a renewed interest in the finding. With all due respect, they are not archaeologists. They were in fact salespeople for the Discovery Channel basically. So today we take another look at the resurrection, and in particular we take a look at the facet of the resurrection that's implicit in everything that goes on, but it is the fact that it was an actual bodily resurrection. It was not a spiritual resurrection only, it was spiritual, Christ rose in spirit of course, but also a bodily resurrection. And then we go on to look at Jesus' other teachings in this passage. We look at his ascension and his return. We're reading from God's word in Luke 24, verses 33 through 35. And we also include two verses from Jim's passage last week, and a couple of verses also from the Acts of the Apostles to round out the whole story. So let's move ahead in Luke 24, beginning at verse 33. They, and the they, by the way, is Cleopas' companion. If you heard Jim summon last week, these are the two on the road to Emmaus, Jesus met them, he revealed himself to them, and they scurried back to Jerusalem as fast as they could to give the news to the other disciples. So they got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven and those with them assembled together and saying, It is true, the Lord has risen, as appeared to Simon. Then the two told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you. They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, why are you troubled and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is myself. Touch me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. When he'd said this, he showed them his hands and feet, and while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, do you have anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence. He said to them, this is what I told you while I was still with you, everything that must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, This is what is written, that Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high. When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then from Acts chapter 1, they were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men, dressed in white, stood beside them. Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand there looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. Back in Luke 24, then they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they stayed continually at the temple, praising God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word, your truth that is abundantly true. And we thank you, Father, that we can study these words together and understand once again the power of the resurrection, its importance, its truth. and the return of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Lord, all of these great truths in this passage. Father, we pray that you would open our lips, open our ears to hear your truth. Lord, open my lips to speak your truth. And we pray, Father, your Son, Jesus Christ, we honor and glorify today through our speaking and our hearing and our obeying. And we pray in his name. Amen. So as we look at this passage, we see that Dr. Luke has packed a lot of instruction in these last few verses. He continues with the theme that Jim shared from the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the theme of doubt, and how Jesus shared the truth with the disciples from the Old Testament. But then he goes on to tell of Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit, and of his ascension, and in the Acts verses he speaks of Christ's return. A bunch of material here. You got a couple hours to spare? Good. Let's begin with just reminding ourselves of the importance of the resurrection. The importance of the resurrection. The truth of the resurrection of Jesus is absolutely crucial, of course, to our faith. Without Jesus' resurrection, we would have no assurance he was anything more than an amazing teacher who was killed unjustly, proposed in the Jewish hierarchy. Without the resurrection, the disciples would not have been able to go out and proclaim, as Peter did on the day of Pentecost, God has raised this Jesus to life. And we're all witnesses of the fact. And as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless, and so is your faith. In short, without the resurrection, there would be no Christians and no Christian church. Since the discouraged disciples, if Jesus had not been raised, they would have given up, gone back to fishing or tax collecting, or in the case of Simon the Zealot, to zealoting. In other words, the very existence of the Christian church itself is strong evidence of the truth of the resurrection. Really important to understand that. But then we need to go on to look at the fact of the resurrection as taught us here in Scripture. Because Jesus' disciples were a confused bunch on that first day, on that first Easter Sunday, that first Easter day. It started early on when some women went to the tomb to anoint Jesus' body and found that the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty. And two angels appeared and told them, He's not here. He has risen. So they went back and told the disciples, but Luke reports, quote, they did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense. I will not comment on that statement. Peter, and also John, as John's gospel records, then goes to the tomb to verify the women's story, but when they rejoined the other disciples, the whole group obviously had a tough time believing that Jesus really was risen. And as they're discussing this and debating, these two hikers come back from Emmaus, puffing and blowing, no doubt, because I'm sure they ran most of the way or tried to. And you can imagine bursting through and saying, you won't believe who we just met today. And then all the other disciples say, you won't believe who Peter met today. And they're all talking excitedly about the fact that Jesus appeared to Peter and to the hikers when suddenly Jesus himself appears. Wow. to talk about a surprise, and the disciples strangely are startled and frightened. They're thinking they see a ghost. It can't be true, they're saying to themselves. We're seeing some sort of ghost, some sort of apparition, and they're scared. And I'm really glad they were scared for a couple of reasons. Number one, It tells me that Luke's actually pretty honest, a really honest and faithful reporter. Because these guys went on to become church leaders. Peter went around preaching the gospel, Stephen, no it wasn't one of the disciples, but basically these guys all went on to become church leaders in one way or another. And yet here is Luke saying, these guys are out to lunch. They don't have a clue about Jesus' resurrection. That's not the way you make your church leaders look good, right? You make everything look really good. They saw him right away, they worshipped him, blah, blah, blah. No, not at all. So it tells you that Luke is really honest about what he wrote. We can trust what he wrote. The second truth, though, is that Jesus took a lot of time and trouble to convince these disciples that he was not a ghost, that he was a real flesh and blood person. He says, look at my hands and my feet. He says, touch me and see. The ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. Then he showed them his hands and his feet. And what do you think they saw when they saw his hands and his feet? They saw nail holes in his hands and his feet. These weren't He was, yes, he was risen, but he still had the scars of his persecution, his death on those hands. And so when they saw him, and they saw those hands with the nail prints in the hands and the nail prints in the feet, they really understood who it was they were seeing. And then they still didn't believe it, because of joy and amazement, Luke says. So what does Jesus do? He says, anything to eat. Okay, here's a piece of fish. So he eats a piece of fish. It says a ghost doesn't eat fish, right? This is real. He is a real flesh and blood person. So I find this really comforting that Jesus took the time, he loved his disciples, he took the time to make sure that he was not some sort of ghost to them and of course now to us, that he was a real person in a real body. He could be seen and touched, he could hear and speak. This clearly contradicts theologians like this James Tabor I mentioned earlier, who speak of a quote, spiritual resurrection. The idea that Jesus rose in spirit only, leaving his body behind in the tomb. Disembodied spirits do not eat fish. And if Jesus' body, by the way, was still in the tomb, how come the Jewish leaders didn't conduct guided tours of the tomb with Jesus' body in it to contradict the disciples' teaching that Jesus had risen from the dead? Obviously, they couldn't. So it was a real physical body, but also it was a different body. It wasn't like yours and mine completely. It was physical, it was real. It was actually much better than our bodies. Right? Because he could enter locked rooms, he could disappear after breaking bread with the disciples, he could be in Jerusalem one day and the Sea of Galilee later without having to walk the 70 or so miles to get there. It would be great to have a body like that, wouldn't it? I could visit my brother in England without flying in an airplane. Save a lot of money. But, you know, the fact that Jesus was raised in a real physical body, even though it was different, it tells us something about what God thinks of our bodies. He's saying that our bodies and this world really matter to God. Yes, we are souls. We have a soul. We also have a body. And that body matters to God. So Jesus did not become flesh so we could escape immediately to heaven. He showed us this world matters, what we do here, how we use our gifts, how we use our time matter to God. So not only do you matter to God, but your time matters to God, your relationships, your health with your family, all of these things matter to God because you and your body matter to God. And then the other thing I gleaned from this, and this is me, this is not in Scripture, so this is not inspired. Well, nothing I say is inspired except what I read from the Scripture. But this in particular is not from Scripture. It's just my hunch. One of the statements of the Apostles' Creed is, quote, I believe in the resurrection of the body. And I have a hunch that our resurrection bodies may be something like Jesus' resurrection body. I think we'll have real bodies. I think we'll have special bodies that are spiritual bodies in a way that we don't understand. But I think our resurrected bodies may be the perfect versions of our physical bodies. No sickness, no pains, and new abilities we can only just barely imagine. But whatever else is true, that may not be true. So don't quote me on that. Whatever else is true, we know that we'll be with Jesus and with God the Father, and that'll be wonderful. So whether we realize bodies like this or not, I think I'll recognize you folk when I get to heaven, and you get there too. And I think we'll recognize each other. But see, you don't need to quote me on that one. But then, let's move on, because then Jesus goes on to explain why the resurrection was possible. After he had assured the disciples that he really was alive, he goes on to open their minds about what was going on. And they were still confused because they had been expecting Jesus to be the Messiah who in current Jewish thinking was going to come and lead Israel into victory over the Romans, establish a new kingdom, a new Davidic rule that would be good and loving and so on. And Jesus obviously didn't do that. He was not conquering the Romans. He was crucified by the Romans, exactly the reverse of what they'd been expecting. And so they're puzzled. What's going on? And so Jesus gently and graciously explains what all this means. And just, isn't this just like him? Isn't this just like Jesus? He's previously taught the disciples he'd be betrayed and killed. They just didn't get it. So now he takes the time to explain once again what he's actually told them before. So Jesus said to them, this is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. And then he opened their minds so they could understand him and understand the scriptures. He told them, this is what is written, that Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things." These verses contain, I've highlighted them in yellow there, one of the most important summaries of the gospel. It's Luke's equivalent of John 3.16. In a way, that Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. So the truth of Christ's death and resurrection, followed by the preaching of the good news of repentance and forgiveness of sins, is the very core and essence of the gospel, as shared from our Lord's own lips. In other words, His suffering and death and resurrection are not tragic errors. They're not even accidents. They are the reason for Jesus' birth and teachings and miracles and disciples. They are why He came. So the Lord goes back to the Old Testament to teach his disciples what was written there. He shows them how his suffering and death and resurrection were all foretold. Don't you wish you could have heard that teaching? We cannot do that, but we can go back to the Old Testament and look for ourselves at some of the verses Jesus might have used in that explanation. Let's just do that for a couple of minutes. So these are some quotations from the Old Testament, scriptures from the Old Testament, that Jesus could have used in explaining these things to his disciples. Messiah would be preceded by a forerunner, of course, was John the Baptist in Malachi. See, I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple, the messenger of the covenant whom you desire will come, says the Lord Almighty. Messiah will be rejected by his own people in Isaiah 53, 3. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Messiah will be spat upon and struck, also Isaiah 50, verse 6. I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard. I did not hide my face from mocking and splitting. Messiah's hands and feet will be pierced in Psalm 22 and verse 16. Dogs have surrounded me. A band of evil men has encircled me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. Messiah will be buried with the rich. Isaiah 53. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. Messiah would be resurrected from the dead, Psalm 16. Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices. My body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. So these, and I'm sure many other scriptures, Jesus taught the disciples how to understand his death and resurrection. They'd heard his teaching, they'd seen his miracles, they spent three years in his company and still did not understand until Jesus opened their minds to understand these scriptures. There's a lesson, I think, for all of us, because, especially maybe for those of us who are struggling with discouragement or doubt, Maybe you're doubting God's goodness as you deal with struggles of illness or job loss or relationship issues. Or perhaps you're tempted to doubt God's love for you. Or perhaps you're struggling with whether to commit yourself to Jesus Christ as your Lord and your God. And these are all important things to deal with But as Jim shared last week, the key is to ask our Lord to open our hearts and our minds to the Scriptures, just as Jesus did to these disciples. And then to read the Scriptures, read the Bible carefully and prayerfully, so we can put ourselves in a place where God can answer our prayers and lead us from doubt to trust, from unbelief to belief. And Jeff mentioned the Elder Hotline in his announcements. That's one way if you want to talk to somebody about this, have questions about it, want more information, you can certainly use the Elder Hotline or speak to anybody you know who's a Christian for their help and encouragement and prayers. We move next to Jesus' gift of the Holy Spirit in Luke 24, 46, 47. This is what is written. Sorry, I got ahead of myself. This is not on the screen, this is coming. The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. So that's what Jesus said. And notice one thing about this. The first half of that statement deals with Jesus. He'll suffer, rise from the dead on the third day. But the rest of that sentence actually deals with our responsibility. Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. And so suffering and death of our Lord is tightly packed and linked to the suffering and sharing of the gospel. It's all part of a sort of package deal that includes our salvation. But then how is this going to happen given the fearful nature of the disciples who either fled when Jesus was arrested or followed him only to deny him? So Jesus then goes on to remind the disciples that they will not be alone in this ministry. And that's where our scripture comes into play in 24 to 49. I'm going to send you what my father has promised, but stay in the city till you have been clothed with power from on high. So Jesus here goes on to tell his disciples they will soon receive the gift that his father had promised, and they're to wait on this gift before beginning to speak about all they've seen and heard from Jesus. And the gift is the gift of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus has explained this in Acts 1 in a bit more detail. In Acts 1 and verse 8 he says, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. So this is Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit. As He's preparing to leave them, He sends the Holy Spirit. And that's exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit on the disciples and transformed them from fearful guys behind locked doors into bold and fearless witnesses for Jesus. And the good news for us today is that hasn't changed. The gift of the Holy Spirit is for all Christian believers who receive Him when they put their faith in Christ. And Paul made this clear in Romans 8, 9, he said, you, however, are controlled by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. So that's a package deal. Becoming a Christian, receiving the Holy Spirit, is part of salvation, all part of the salvation. So Jesus, the bottom line is that Jesus hasn't left us to serve him, to teach others, to preach others, to reach out, to witness for him, hasn't left us to do this by ourselves. If that were the case, we'd fall flat on our faces. But he's given us the Holy Spirit to strengthen us, to teach us, to encourage us, to equip us, to enable us to serve him, to speak for him, and so on. And you can see the change most dramatically on the day of Pentecost, when Peter stood up to preach, and preached to thousands of people in Jerusalem, and 3,000 became believers that day. So we move now to Christ's Ascension. Ascension Day is 40 days after Easter Sunday, by the way, if we're keeping track. That was May 13th this year. We missed it. It was actually one of my favorite days when I was a schoolboy, since the school I attended was an Episcopal foundation, and they celebrated Ascension Day with a school holiday. But that's not the reason we value Ascension Day today, I hope. But it is important, I think, to understand why Jesus returned to his Father. And the Ascension is described only briefly in Luke, again, in Luke 24, 50. When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. So I want to suggest some reasons why the Ascension is important, why we actually thank God for it. First of all, it gives us one more reason to know and believe that Jesus came from God and is God. The fact that He ascended back into God's presence was in a way a visual proof to the disciples, and thus to us, that Jesus was and is God. It tells us also that the one who loved us enough to die for us now actually lives for us, if that's the right word, with God the Father. And this I find very comforting from the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 4, 14. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, that is, has ascended, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need." So Jesus, the Ascended Lord, is with God the Father, and his presence there assures us we can come into his presence, into God's presence, with confidence. My brother Peter likes to think of Jesus as his big brother, and he can go into God's presence holding his big brother's hand, where he is loved and accepted because of Jesus. So are you maybe afraid to enter God's presence sometimes? Do you think that God doesn't love you? He does. He loves his son. You're his son's child, if you're a believer, if you're a Christian, his son's brother. Jesus is there to welcome you into his Father's presence in your prayers, in your needs. And there's a third reason why Jesus' ascension is important, and that is because without the ascension, the Holy Spirit wouldn't come. In John 16, in verse 8, I tell you the truth, he tells his disciples, it is for your good I'm going away. Unless I go away, the counselor, and that is, of course, the Holy Spirit, will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. Of course, that's a no-brainer. Had Jesus stayed on earth, His presence would have been limited to a few hundred people at a time. But once He descended and sent the Holy Spirit, His power and His love and His presence could be known by all Christian believers. So Jesus' ascension is a double blessing. It gives us our Lord's presence in heaven so we can approach the throne of grace with confidence. It gives us the Holy Spirit with us and for us and in us. And then there's one final, actually not quite final, almost final truth, and that is Christ's return. The truth is in Luke's second book, the Acts of the Apostles, and in verses 10 to 11, they were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, that is, as Jesus was ascending, they were looking up into the sky when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who's been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way as you've seen him go into heaven. So Jesus' ascension is simply the prelude to his return. This is our glorious hope as Christians. One day, it could be today, or it could be a thousand years from now, we don't know. One day, the heavens will open and Jesus will return, not as a humble Jewish teacher and suffering Lamb of God, but in his glory and majesty as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He'll come as a rider on a white horse who'll deal once and for all with Satan and all his evil, and he'll establish his kingdom of righteousness and truth and love and justice. I can't wait, can you? But then, with one more, and this I do close, let's note the immediate response of the disciples to Christ's ascension was not disappointment, oh, he's gone, that's too bad, but actually worship and joy. When he led them out to the city of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them, was taken up into heaven. Then they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God. May our response to these truths be the same. We leave here with great joy. Jesus is in heaven. He's our savior. He's coming again. He sent us the Holy Spirit. We have so much to thank him for. I hope your hearts are filled with joy today as we meditate on these great truths. May God bless us as we worship him with our closing hymn.