as we celebrate this Resurrection Sunday, Luke chapter 24, starting in verse 36. The Lord Jesus appears to his disciples here in this chapter. And beginning in verse 36 of Luke 24, the scriptures read, as they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace to you. And they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And when he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, have you anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. Then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sin should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem You are witnesses of these things, and behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.' And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple, blessing God." In our passage, the risen Christ He has appeared to his disciples, and we see in verse 33 that this group includes the 11, and also a number more. And we also see from the text that they're astonished. They're astonished because Jesus is alive. He knows that they're having difficulty with this, wrapping their minds around the fact that he is there and that he is alive. He's not a spirit. He is risen bodily from the dead. He offers to let them touch him because then they would realize that he has a physical form. He has flesh and bones. He knows the difficulty with which they received the news during his earthly ministry that he was going to be betrayed that he was going to go to the cross and that he was going to die. And so as he offers this proof of letting them touch him, he also shows them his hands and his feet. And we know from John 20, 24 to 28, that his hands and his feet would have shown evidence of being crucified. They would know that he was not another man, but he was and is the Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, he eats in front of them. because the spirit wouldn't eat, but the living resurrected Lord would. It is clear that Jesus has risen. He's alive right now. He's seated at the right hand of the Father. And one day, maybe today, he's going to return on the clouds, and the dead in Christ will rise, and those that remain will rise after, and so shall we always be with the Lord, amen? It's gonna be a great day. But what we see in verse 44 is that Jesus reminds them the scriptures concerning the Christ must be fulfilled. He references the different divisions of the Old Testament. He references the law of Moses. he references the prophets and the Psalms. You might say, well, there's more than just the law of Moses. There's more than just the prophets. There's more than just the Psalms. Those were general references to all three sections of the Old Testament as the Jews would have recognized them. And I don't have the time to go into that right now. If you're curious about that, we can talk later. Three different sections of the Old Testament. Jesus says, those things must be fulfilled that are written concerning me. Brothers and sisters, this is the glorious eternal plan of God. This is the plan of God. That's right, the plan of God from eternity past that his very own sinless eternal son would take on flesh being conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, betrayed by his own countrymen, crucified, yielding his life as an atonement for sin on a Friday, and three days later, according to the eternal plan of God, to rise from the dead victoriously over sin, death, and hell. This is the eternal glorious plan of God. We read in Genesis 3.15 what scholars refer to as the Proto-Evangelion, the first gospel reference. That the offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. That was Adam and Eve's first very brief glimpse that one day God would undo the effects in the curse of sin. And they continually longed and looked forward to that day that that offspring would come. Deuteronomy 18, 15 says, God promises that another prophet like Moses would be raised up by the Lord. Lord Jesus was even greater than that, greater than they could have imagined, greater than Moses, just as the maker of the house is greater than Moses, according to Hebrews. Isaiah spoke of the suffering servant who would bear the sins of many, being pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. Jeremiah spoke of the new covenant that God would establish with Israel and Judah, which we now know is established by the shedding of the blood of Christ. The Psalms speak of the Son who will rule over the nations with a rod of iron in Psalm 2, verses 7-9. The Psalms also foretell of the resurrection of the Christ, that he would not leave his soul in Hades. Psalm 16, 10. Psalm 22 speaks of the crucifixion and the suffering of the Messiah in verses 14 to 18. You see, all of these grand promises were made by the living God. They were looked forward to, anticipated by the nation of Israel and those that were living in the first century. If you know Christ as born again believers, we look back on these grand promises, these glorious truths, this glorious eternal plan of God. Look at verse 44 of Luke 24. Jesus reminds his disciples, I told you these things. He told them before they even occurred. While He was walking with them and ministering to them prior to the cross, He told them that the Son of Man would be betrayed, that He would be crucified, and that He would take up His life again the third day. But they didn't understand, and the reason they didn't understand was because God did not allow them to understand. And if you hear that this morning kind of strangely, why would God not allow them to understand? It was because at this very moment we read in verse 45 that he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. It was at this moment in the eternal glorious plan of God that he would allow them to understand all the things that he had taught them so that they would then go out and be witnesses to the lost and dying world. So when we read the gospels and we hear the stories and we say how could they be so clueless? If we were there, we would have been just as clueless as they were. Because it is the sovereign work of God to enable people to turn to Christ and be saved, and the sovereign work of God to enable those that turn to be saved to understand. It's all by grace. Remember that. It is all by grace. While Jesus was walking on the Emmaus Road with the two disciples who were unnamed, He expounded the Scriptures to them just before our current passage. He unpacked the Scriptures for them and gave them a proper understanding and a proper application. And they said in verse 31 of chapter 24, they speak with one another after Jesus sovereignly enables them to recognize him. They're sitting down to eat, he all of a sudden opens their eyes, they recognize him, and then he's gone. Gone. That's something. And they say to one another, did not our hearts burn within us as he unpacked the scriptures to us? Can you imagine? And so they immediately go to meet up with the 11 and the rest, and then Jesus shows up again. Can you imagine that? All the rest of them, they're talking about things that have happened. People have seen that the tomb is empty. Peter has seen Jesus. These two, they've seen Jesus. We know that Thomas, poor Thomas, He says, I won't believe unless I put my finger in the nail holes in his hands and put my hand in his side. And when Jesus shows up, all Thomas says is my Lord and my God. He knows. In this gathering of the 11, Jesus exercises his divine power and gives them clear understanding of the law of the prophets and the Psalms and how they all pointed forward to these events. And he says to them, in verse 46, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. He told them that before, but now because he has enabled them, they understand. You think of all the times when you're sitting down to read the scriptures, you're listening to the scriptures be taught or preached, and God causes the light bulb to go on? How exciting that is. Can you imagine how exciting it is in that moment? That now they understand? And they're overjoyed. It says that they disbelieved for joy. That sounds strangely, those words together, doesn't it? They disbelieved for joy. It was so exciting to them that they could hardly believe it. It seemed like it was too good to be true. That's why they were so upset when all of a sudden Jesus is ascending to the right hand of the Father. The angels have to tell him, what are you still standing here for? They're hoping maybe he's coming back. Not then, because that's not according to the glorious eternal plan of God. We're waiting for that portion of the glorious eternal plan of God to be fulfilled when Jesus comes on the clouds. following his act of allowing them to understand these scriptures. Jesus sums up in 46 and 47 all that the scriptures were pointing forward to that has been fulfilled up until this point. Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. But he doesn't just stop there. It's not enough for them to know that Jesus died and rose again and provided them eternal life. It's not enough for them to know that he has risen. He goes on and he says in verse 47, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. It's not just enough for them to know. They now are commissioned to go let others know. Jesus died for our sins. He rose again. He ascended to the right hand of the Father, and He is willing to save all those who will call upon His name, that will repent of their sins and believe on Him for eternal life. It's not just enough for us to know that Jesus died for our sins and rose again. We now need to let others know that he died for our sins and he rose again the third day and he is willing to save all who repent and call on his name to be saved. That is the glorious eternal plan of God. It is our commission that Jesus has entrusted to us as ambassadors This risen Christ that in eternity past spoke into existence the soil that we walked in on this morning. That he sustains this universe with his powerful word, Hebrews chapter one says. That this morning as you breathe and your heart beats, it is all by the mercy of God. It's by the mercy of God that we're gonna sing praises this morning. And we're gonna rejoice in our hearts. And we're gonna fellowship and we're gonna partake of food and then we're gonna do those things all over again later today. And we're gonna be able to do all those things if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord. You're gonna be able to do all those things in hope and in joy because, as Pastor Jim says, a better day is coming. Jesus is alive. He is risen. He's coming back. That is the glorious eternal plan of God. Let's pray. Father God, you are a gracious and merciful creator, Lord, and savior. And we look forward to the day that your son returns. God, as we think on those things, as we rejoice in that truth this morning, as we sing our songs of praise, God, help us to remember that no matter what valley, no matter what trial, no matter what thing we are experiencing in this moment that we're walking through or someone else here today is walking through, Jesus has overcome the world. And through him, we overcome the world. And the victory that has overcome the world is our faith in Christ. Help us to remember that, that we serve a living Savior today, tomorrow, and until He comes. And then we will enjoy Him forever. Thank you for that gift, in Jesus' name, amen.