TEXT: Luke 24:1-45

SUBJECT: Luke #92: Many Infallible Proofs

If you witness to educated people, it won’t be long until you hear something like this:

The best way to answer the criticism is also the easiest: Read the Bible! If you do, it won’t be long until you see that the people in it are very much like you and me. They are not looking for miracles and when Divine wonders take place, they’re not eager to believe them. This is true of all the miracles in the Bible.

Especially the biggest one of all.

The most important miracle in the history of the world is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Other miracles can be done without-- but not this one. Paul says the whole Christian faith is built on the Lord’s resurrection. If Christ is still dead, then we’re dead too!

Men who have poured their whole lives into preaching the Gospel are fools, liars, and of all men the most miserable. One of the Brothers Karamazov put his finger on the issue:

And if Jesus Christ is dead, God is dead!

But God isn’t dead. And neither is His Son! That’s what our chapter is about. Now let’s get to it and may God beget us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!

Today’s long text can be divided into four parts corresponding to the first witnesses of the Resurrection. These are not the only people to see Him alive after His death, but they were the first to enjoy that blessing.

And a great blessing it was. How privileged Mary and Peter and Cleopas and the others were—to see the Lord with their own two eyes. Yet He said we are more favored than they were.

The first people to learn of His resurrection are His lady friends, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other women (whom Luke does not name). This Mary the mother of James may be the Lord’s own mother, who is not dignified as the Queen of Heaven, but is seen for what she is—and wants to be: Maidservant of the Lord.

They came to His tomb on the first day of the week, very early in the morning. Both details are worth thinking about. In books of mythology, the writers are always fuzzy on the details. A Hero came from the East or walked out of a forest long ago, and so on.

But Luke is not a myth-maker or an epic poet; he’s a reporter. He’s telling us what happened, where, and when. It’s Sunday morning after the Passover at the crack of dawn, in a rich man’s cemetery, in Jerusalem. Just the facts, mam, just the facts!

The women had not come to the tomb to find it empty and their Savior risen from the dead. In fact, they were shocked to find the stone rolled away from the door and nothing inside.

They are bewildered and very upset. Dead bodies don’t walk away from their graves—and who would be so ghoulish as to steal one away—especially on the holiest day of the year! The Lord was not a rich man and wasn’t wearing a gold ring or a pearl bracelet—so why would anyone make off with His remains?

As they stood there scratching their heads, two men dropped in on them in shining garments. The ladies don’t know them, but they know dignitaries when they see them: and these two are very important men. Mary and her friends are filled with awe and they bow down to the Great Ones.

But the men aren’t there to be worshiped; they are Ambassadors who have a question from the King and a message to deliver. Of the women they want to know:

Why would you go to a graveyard to find a living man? Cemeteries are for the dead—not the living. And the One they’re looking for is alive!

The announcement is mind-boggling, of course, yet the Messengers expected the ladies to already know it. Why? Because they:

How could the Marys, Joanna, and the others forget His words? The Ambassadors didn’t understand. Because they are not human; they’re angels who never forget anything. But the women are human and all humans are forgetful, especially when we’re stressed out.

Matthew, Mark, and John tell us how the ladies felt at the moment, but Luke doesn’t care how they felt; he cares what they did—

John tells us that Mary Magdalene was the first person to see the Lord alive after His death. But Luke skips over that and makes her and her sisters into the first people to see the Empty Tomb. Thus they became the first eyewitnesses of the Resurrection.

The fact that they were women is significant. At that time, women were not allowed to testify in court because they were not considered reliable witnesses. If Luke were making up his story, he would not have made Mary and her friends the ones to find the Empty Tomb. But that’s the point: He isn’t making up the story!

He’s telling it like it is!

The second witness is Peter. He’s with his friends huddled up in Jerusalem when the ladies burst in with the big news. Like the others in the room, he thought the women were…nuts!

But, to help his friends see the error of their way, he ran over to the cemetery, peered into the tomb and saw the linen clothes neatly folded and put away—with nobody in them!

Here’s another detail that adds to the realism of the story. Why would you put it into a fairy tale? And why would an old man (Peter when he told the story to Luke) have such a vivid memory of just where the cloth was laying and how crisply folded it was? There’s a ring of truth to Luke’s story.

Peter goes back to his friends marveling at what had happened. It seems he does not yet believe the Lord is risen, but God is up to something. He knows that much, for sure.

Peter’s uncertainty is another hint that Luke’s story is true. When the Gospel was written, Peter was best-known Christian in the world—and the most respected. Had Luke wanted to polish him image a bit, he had the chance to do it. But he doesn’t. Because he’s telling what happened—not what should have happened.

Peter is the second witness of the Empty Tomb. Years later, he makes a lot of this. He says of himself and the other Apostles,

Nobody told Peter about the Resurrection; He didn’t read it in a book or dream up one night after eating a pepperoni pizza! He was there! He saw it for himself! He saw the empty tomb. And then He saw a Living Man who used to be dead.

The third witnesses are Cleopas and his friend whose name we don’t know. This is the first we’ve heard of Cleopas, and all we know about him is that he was a follower of Jesus and knew the Apostles and others who believed in the Lord.

He and his friend are walking from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus, about seven miles away. Both men are heartbroken at what happened a few days ago and are still talking it over.

A Stranger meets them on the road and wonders what they’re talking about. Cleopas takes him for a fool!

The Stranger is not courteous! After hearing them out, He calls them Fools and slow of heart!

The word for "fool" is something like brainless! They’re empty heads and they’ve also got no faith! Because the Stranger knew His Bible and wondered why they didn’t:

Starting with the Law of Moses, He worked His way through the Bible showing Cleopas and the other man that the Messiah would reach His throne by way of suffering and death!

The men are so moved by His teaching that they’re not offended by His harsh words, but want Him to stay for dinner. He joins them, and after saying grace, He breaks the loaf of bread, and—

Then He vanished and the men kicked themselves for not realizing who He was much earlier. They were devout men who had listened to many sermons. But only one Teacher made their hearts burn.

They jumped up and hurried back to Jerusalem, making the quickest seven mile run in history!

Cleopas and his friend are the third witnesses of the Lord’s resurrection. And note carefully: They were not superstitious men, hoping a dead man might come back to life. No, they were like you and I—dead men stay dead—and it took the strongest proof to make them think otherwise!

They knew the feel of His teaching—and this Man had it. They recognized His table manner—and this Man had it. They knew His face—and this Man had it. And, they now understood the Bible and it all points to this Man!

THE FOURTH WITNESSES: THE DISCIPLES, VV.35-45

The disciples of the Lord are in Jerusalem, sitting in someone’s dining room. I suppose they were there to share each other’s grief—or to hide out, maybe, until the heat was off them.

As they’re sitting there, the two men who left them a few hours before, run in with the incredible news: The Lord is risen indeed!

Things are getting curiouser and curiouser! First the women; then Peter; now Cleopas and the other man. What’s going on here? Has everyone lost his mind? Why do you keep saying He’s not dead?

Because He isn’t dead! He used to be, but not any more! Finally, the Lord Himself shows up and offers them the greeting of Peace!

The people are stunned—not happy, but horrified, because they are looking at a ghost! Or, that’s what they think.

But the Man is not a ghost! He tells them to touch His body, to look at the wounds in His hands and feet—to smell Him, if they want to!

The disciples are still thunderstruck—but now they’re happy as well. Yet, in the back of their mind, somewhere, there’s a niggling doubt: maybe it a ghost were looking at.

The Lord feels their doubt and—to relieve it—He wants dinner. They bring him a fish and a honeycomb—and He eats it in front of them.

He’s not see-through (like a ghost would be). He eats with the same manners they had seen a thousand times before, and so—at long last—they now believe: The Lord is risen; the Lord is risen indeed.

Just to make sure they know it’s truly Him, He expounds the Bible to them and opens their understanding, that they might comprehend [it]". The Word of God teaches that Messiah must suffer, and die and rise from the dead on the third day. I’ve done all of the above, and therefore: I’m the Messiah!

Today’s story speaks for itself: Jesus Christ rose from the dead. In the most literal sense of the words, He is risen. He has not risen in our hearts; He has risen from the grave! This is not the Christian version of the rites of spring, rebirth, hope springs eternal, and all that. It is a simple story…that happens to be true!

The Bible teaches the resurrection of Christ; the Church confesses the resurrection of Christ; Christian lives prove the resurrection of Christ. What He said of Himself is a fact—not true to Him, true to me, true to you, true to the heart—but simply true:

From the message several observations can be drawn. I must be brief, so fill them in for yourself.

The resurrection confirms our faith. Christians believe all manner of amazing things about the Lord Jesus. No cult thinks as highly of its Leader as we do of ours. His resurrection proves they are all true. Jesus of Nazareth is Lord and God; Prophet, Priest, and King; Maker of Heaven and Earth and Judge of the Living and the Dead.

This is how Paul understands it. In Romans 1, he says Jesus is declared to be the Son of God with power…by the resurrection of the dead.

When Muhammad rises from the dead, maybe we’ll listen to him. But until he does, we have only one master—Christ!

The resurrection comforts us when our saved loved ones die and when we come to die. The Lord was the firstborn of the dead—not the lastborn. This means the joy He entered into after death, is our joy too! This mortal must put on immorality; this corruptible must put on incorruptibility. Then will be fulfilled the saying of old: Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory?

Because Christ is alive, then I am alive. Because He has entered into eternal life, then, in Him, I have too. The life is spiritual, but not only spiritual. It’s also physical. Now, believers are alive spiritually, but one day, we’ll be fully alive! Alive in Him our living head!

The resurrection encourages us in times of weakness. What could be weaker than a dead man? But God got into the dead man and He came back to life. Paul says the resurrection was proof of God’s exceedingly great power, which He now exercises in you who believe.

Temptations can be resisted and holiness can be pursued. Because the power that broke Christ free from the dead has been given to everyone who believes. Thus, we ought to renounce our own power and intelligence, and Do all things through Christ who strengthens me.