This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Ignite the Light Ministries Radio and Podcast. It is our mission to help listeners develop a deeper relationship with Jesus by sharing what the Bible says and what it means. We aim to encourage and equip you to serve others, share the gospel, and reflect Christ in every aspect of your life. I'm Pastor Wyatt Cud.
Thank you for tuning in.
So last week we took communion, and we were going over the crucifixion of Jesus. This week we are going to continue by looking at some of the events that happened after Jesus was resurrected and before he ascended into heaven. This was a question from the question box asking.
Well, I guess it was a statement. Talk about what Jesus did between the resurrection and ascension.
So, I am going to address this topic today.
Now, there is a lot that Jesus did. I think I am going to spend some time next week on this topic because I really want to do it justice. I am not sure I can. I know I can't cover all of it in one sermon.
So, let's start with the gospel. First Corinthians chapter fifteen verses one through eight. It says, "Now, brothers and sisters, and this is Paul talking.
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel which I preached to you, which you received, and on which you have taken a stand. By this gospel, you are saved. If you hold firmly to the word I preached to you, otherwise, you have believed in vain." Verse three: For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; that He was buried; that He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures; and that He appeared to Cephas, and then to twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, the one abnormally born.
So, on what basis do we believe in Jesus? This is an important question that either the world doesn't understand, doesn't want to understand, or. Maybe even we, the church, are failing to communicate. I'm not sure which it is. Maybe a little bit of all, but I don't know if you guys notice this.
But what I see in TV and contemporary media that depict the gospel, that depict Christianity, it's something like this: You don't need proof. You shouldn't even ask of that. God forbid you want verification of what happened. Jesus said, and I quote: "Just trust me, bro." Like this is the portrayal of Christianity that I see in the media, and it's nauseating to me because brothers and sisters, we're spoiled with evidence. We are spoiled with reason.
Now Paul is presenting a history, not a mythology, of the gospel. The gospel is real events. It's not symbolic. Jesus wasn't just raised in the hearts of his followers. No, he was literally raised from the dead, as he said he would, according to the scriptures, the prophecies, and the Old Testament.
One of the notable ones is Isaiah. Isaiah fifty three. It says he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, cut off from the land of the living, punished, assigned to the grave with the wicked. It was the Lord's will to crush him, to cause him to suffer, to make his life an offering of sin. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many and bear their iniquities.
This is Isaiah fifty-three.
Now, what Jesus was going to do was prophesy. Here's why Isaiah is notable. In nineteen forty-six, a group of shepherds discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls. And that was in Israel, and among them was a complete copy of the book of Isaiah, a complete copy of Isaiah with this prophecy in it, and is estimated to be around. Dated around one hundred and twenty-five BC.
That's before Christ.
So we have an existing copy of the Book of Isaiah that predates the events of the cross. Isn't that amazing? We have a copy of the prophecy that predates the events of Christ. Ah, well, you know, maybe this was just made up or fabricated by the shepherds. No, you know how I know how?
Because these shepherds were Muslim. The dude who found this prophecy was his name was Muhammad, and he was from a tribe in Palestine. What did these shepherds have to gain from this being true? That's amazing to me. That's amazing.
Side tangent a little bit, but the point stands: we base our faith on the historicity of the gospel. And Paul's saying in this passage, as justification to the gospel, that Jesus appeared to us. He appeared to the twelve. He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters, witnesses. Many are still alive.
Go ask them.
Well, saying this to the Corinthian church, they're gone. They're dead now. And then he appeared to James. Then he appeared to Paul. We have over five hundred eyewitnesses as the basis for the gospel accounts.
Now, in a court of law, one true eyewitness testimony is really good. Multiple corroborating eyewitness testimonies—that's a conviction. Five hundred eyewitness testimonies to the resurrected Jesus? Case dismissed. The resurrection.
Correction was a historical event. By all accounts, this is what we base our faith on—real events in history. Let me give you another one. Every other religion, we know exactly where their founder is buried. Muhammad is buried in Saudi Arabia in the sacred chamber of the Mosque of the Prophet, the Green Dome.
The Buddha was cremated in Kushnagar, India. John Smith, the founder of Mormonism, buried at Mount Olive Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah. Even in the Gospel, we see the other disciples. We know where they're buried too. We have Saint Peter's body buried in the Vatican City.
Paul is buried in Rome. Matthew is buried in Salerno Cathedral in Italy. We know where they're buried. Here's the point. A couple years ago, I had the privilege of going to Israel, and I got to see the two most likely places of the tomb.
They are both empty.
Now, if we're a skeptic, we have to wrestle with the question: Where's the body? Shouldn't be that hard. The Jews and the Romans had every reason to present the body when this Christianity thing started taking off. But they didn't have it. They couldn't present the body.
The disciples faithfully went to their deaths, proclaiming they had seen with their own eyes the resurrected Jesus. The disciples, when it comes down to it, had the reason to present the body in order to avoid death. If they had the body, what they're saying is a lie. Who is going to go to their death because of something that they know is a lie? But they did anyways.
Because they had actually seen the resurrected Christ, our faith is not. Just trust me, bro. It's it's not that. Where is the body? If you can't tell me, I'll tell you where it is.
It's seated at the right hand of God. Christ is resurrected. It's not just a claim of faith. When we take a look at the evidence we have, it's the most logical and consistent answer to the evidence before us. Jesus is who he said he is—the divine Son of God.
What happened was a miracle.
Now I said there was two likely locations of the tomb. Frankly, the only reason that there's a debate between two tombs is because there's no body. There's no body. If Jesus's body was still there, we would know for certain. But it's not.
Where's the body?
Okay. What about the Genesis account? Was the world really made in six days, or was it billions of years? Is the God of the Old Testament the same as the God of the New Testament? How could a loving God send anybody to hell?
And hasn't organized religion caused a lot of pain and suffering?
Now, all these are valid questions, but our faith does not hinge on any of that. We can get to those questions, but they're secondary to the primary question: Where is the body? The world. Anybody listening right now has to contend with the fact Jesus claimed to be God. He died on the cross, rose again from the grave, and ascended into heaven.
We can debate theology later.
Now C.S. Lewis says there's three options for who Jesus was. He was either a liar, he was a lunatic, crazy, or he was Lord. He's one of the free, and if he was either a liar or a lunatic, anything less than he claimed to be, you know what we would have? The body.
Where's the body?
I'll tell you where it is. Church, seated at the right hand of God. Jesus is our high priest, interceding for us. Our sin has been washed away, and His sacrifice gives us the right to step into the family. Of God, our faith does not hinge on anything else.
The rest can come later, and if we give our lives to Jesus, we can wrestle with the difficult questions with His help. We're not getting through everything today. This is just my heart right now, and I believe somebody needs to hear it. All right, so let's look at some of the first appearances of Jesus after. The resurrection.
So we're going to look at John chapter 20, verses 11 through 17. You can turn there with me in your Bibles. We're not going to have it on screen, or you can just listen. Whatever you're comfortable with. John chapter 20, verses 11 through 17.
This is where Jesus appears to Mary at the tomb.
Okay, we're going to start at verse thirteen here. They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" They have taken away my Lord," she said, "and I don't know where they've put them, where where they have put him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize it was Jesus. He asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it that you're looking for?" Thinking he was a gardener. She said, "Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put him, so I can get him, so I can go get him." And Jesus said to her, "Mary," he calls her by name, "Mary," and she turns around, cries out in Aramaic, "Rabboni," which means "Teacher." Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father." Go instead to my brothers and tell them I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.
All right.
So what do we see here? Jesus meets us in our grief, in our confusion, and in our disbelief, and he calls us by name. Jesus tells her, "Do not cling to me. Do not hold on to me." And Mary, she finds Jesus, and he's alive, and she just wants to grab onto him and never let go. But Jesus was only going to be with them a short time.
He was going to ascend into heaven and then send the Holy Spirit to live within us. This was not to abandon us. This was to equip us. We receive the Holy Spirit to guide us and enable us to perform the work that is in front of us, and God can do miraculous things when we are following His lead. It also was that Jesus could be seated at His rightful place, ruling over the universe and praying, interceding to the Father for us.
That is exactly where we want Him, ruling over the universe. And what does He tell Mary to do? Go and tell everyone. This is a monumental day of victory. Tell everyone.
And he gives us the same commission as well: go and take the gospel to the nations.
So we see in this event that Mary does not initially recognize Jesus.
Now, maybe she was just overcome with grief and couldn't tell. She mistakes him for a gardener. Maybe Jesus was dressed as a gardener. I mean, what we have is the text. But this is a common thing that we see through the events after the resurrection: is that Jesus seems to have control of people's ability to recognize him.
Now, what is exactly happening? Whether he's changing his appearance supernaturally or is just keeping them from recognizing him, the scripture kind of leaves this to our imagination. But we will see more of this. All right, so let's look now at Luke chapter twenty-four. That's going to be fifteen through thirty-five.
Jesus appears to the two disciples as they're walking along the road.
Now, this was not two of the eleven, but two of the other followers of Jesus. They're discussing everything that happened with Jesus. I mean, Jesus was a big deal at this time. He his following was massive, and if these these events happened today, this story would have been on every single news channel. This was the talk of the town.
So it says, Luke twenty four verse fifteen. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus came up and walked alongside them. But they were kept from recognizing him. See here it is again. He kept them from recognizing him.
Verse seventeen. He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?" They stood still, their faces down, pass downcast. One of them named Cleopas asked, "Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened these days?" What things, Jesus asked, about Jesus of Nazareth? They replied, He was a prophet, powerful in the word, and indeed before God and all the people. The chief priests, our rulers, handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him.
But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more is that it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early in the morning, but didn't find the body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was still alive.
Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found, just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.
So at this point. Everything has played out exactly how Jesus said and taught them that it would. He would die three days later, be resurrected. But not only this; they're hearing reports.
Something unusual is happening. Where is the body? Something miraculous might have happened. Yet still, their faces downcast. They're not believing, and they're not investigating either.
So Jesus says to them, verse twenty-five. How foolish you are! How slow to believe that all the prophets have spoken! Do not, did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter into His glory? And then, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning Him.
And that as they approached the village which they were going, Jesus continued as if He was going to go further. But they urged him, "Stay with us, for it's nearly evening; the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And then he disappeared from their sight.
They asked each other, "Were our hearts not burning?" Within us, while he was talking to us on the road and opened the scriptures to us, verse thirty-three, 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 and 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.
So Jesus breaks the bread. Then their eyes are open, and he disappears.
Now this is another thing about the resurrected body. We see that Jesus is able to appear and disappear, to step into doors and into rooms where the doors are locked. How can he do this? Because he has the full character of God. The universe was created simultaneously.
Time, space, and matter simultaneously came into existence. Genesis one one. In the beginning, there's time. God, our maker, created the heavens. There's space and the earth.
Matter. All of this happening simultaneously.
So, in order for God to create these things, He'd have to be outside of time, space, and matter. Jesus, being God, is able to step in and out of time, space, and matter as He pleases. He is not bound by them. In fact, they are bound by Him. Verse thirty-two.
They asked each other, "Were our hearts not burning?" Their hearts are burning because something in their spirit is leaping at the truth being spoken. Have you ever had this feeling? Have you ever had this feeling? You can feel something is true all the way down to your bones.
Now the question is: When we encounter truth, what do we do with it?
Well, we let it change us. We let it change our understanding of how the world works and how we ought to be in light of it.
Now, this gets into the relationship between truth and right action, or what we might call holiness. Truth and holiness are similar, the same way light is to vision.
Now, light itself cannot create an eye to see or give someone who is blind the ability to see, but light is essential to seeing. Wherever light goes, it pierces through darkness and it brings everything into view. The same way, truth by itself cannot regenerate or produce spiritual life. A decision in us must be made. What do I do with this information?
But knowing truth is essential for us to be able to respond properly. The same way as we need light in order to see. Wherever truth penetrates, it makes clear what is error. It reveals everything for what it really is.
So, what does this mean? It's not just enough for us to know that Jesus is the Son of God. We have to respond righteously. We have to let this truth completely change our lives. Faith is not just what we know to be true.
Faith is what we stake our life on. It's not just enough to know who Jesus is. We have to live it out. We have to let it inform every day. We stake our life on the fact that Jesus is our Savior.
So Jesus appears to these two disciples.
Now, some Bibles will create a break for the next section. Because we do have a different event happening here, but the wording indicates a continuation. We get this sense that the two disciples took off, ran to tell the eleven. And verse thirty-six it says, "While they were still talking about this, Jesus Himself stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you.'" And he scared the daylights out of them. We see thirty-seven.
They were startled and afraid, thinking they had seen a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your mind?" Verse thirty-nine. Look at my hands. Look at my feet. It is I myself.
Touch me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. When he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still did not believe, because of joy and amazement, they're overwhelmed. He asks them, "Do you have anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of boiled fish, 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 must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of the Moses, the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms." And then, verse forty-five, he opened their minds so that they could understand Scripture. He told them, "This is what is written: the Messiah will suffer." Rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem.
So here we have even more information about Jesus's resurrected body. Again, we see he's able to step in and out of time, space, and matter like it's nothing. He's God. He's able to step into creation and out as he wills. He tells them.
Look at my hands. Look at my feet. Touch and see. There was an early church heresy called Docetism that came much later, but there was this early church heresy, and it was this idea that Jesus was fully God but not fully man. He only appeared to be human.
He wasn't actually human. He just appeared this way. They would deny that Jesus had a physical body. But we look at this verse. And the disciples are touching and seeing for themselves Jesus's flesh and bone.
Not only that, he's able to eat and drink. He wasn't just fully God; he was fully man. Hey there! I hope this sermon has enriched your day. If you like this message, I want to personally invite you to join us for Sunday worship.
We have two locations in Virginia: Trinity Methodist Church in Concord and Mount Comfort Methodist Church in Appomattox. Come join us Sunday morning at 9:45, and we will help you get connected. As always, I'm Pastor Wyatt Hud. Thank you for tuning in.
