[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Karen for those of you who don't know me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in and his historic moment, there were actually three Karen's on stage this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are not many of us, so we have to take it when it happens and that is pretty exciting.
[SPEAKER_00]: So my name is Karen, I'm not part of the Ministry team, so it's a huge privilege to be sharing with you this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for having me, and I look forward to seeing what God has to share with us as we dive into his word together.
[SPEAKER_00]: This morning we are staying and lingering for a little bit longer in the Easter story.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it is actually very, very central, it is a key part that creates the foundation of who we are as the Christian Church.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to stay for a bit longer in the Easter story.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to sit with some of the things that Jesus shared with his disciples in those early encounters after he rose from the grave.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you pray with me as we begin?
[SPEAKER_00]: Father, we thank you for last weekend's celebrations of Easter.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you that Easter fills us, not just with the sense of joy and celebration, but a real sense of hope for the future, hope for ourselves and hope for our world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, as we dive into this passage from Luke's gospel, this morning, I pray that you would help each of us to find ourselves in that story.
[SPEAKER_00]: and that you would help each of us to find what it is that you're highlighting to us this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that you would speak through this passage and through these words in Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Things were very tense in Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_00]: Crucifixions were always ugly, torturous events, but this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: This one was more than just a regular crucifixion.
[SPEAKER_00]: The lead up to this one was like, no other.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, there was this man, he had been very popular.
[SPEAKER_00]: He drew crowds, there were stories of miracles, of healings, of teaching that was with authority and with power.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then suddenly they turned.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there was this fierce hostility towards this man, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the execution itself was anything but normal.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, first there was the darkness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Three hours of darkness right in the middle of the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a massive earthquake in the temple curtain, which tore from top to bottom.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now a missing body reports of angels.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even more bewildering.
[SPEAKER_00]: Reports of people saying that they had actually seen Jesus a life.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not hard to understand why the disciples and followers of Jesus were grappling with a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Their friend, their rabbi, their very hope is gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: And gone in the most brutal, terrifying ordeal.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they have locked themselves away.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've gone into hiding for fear for their own lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, these rumours could these rumours possibly be true.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he was dead, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He was dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: What Jesus' followers were dealing with after his arrest and crucifixion was in every way completely overwhelming, physically, psychologically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, they were overwhelmed, have you ever been there?
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever been in a place where nothing made sense, and everything seems to have gone wrong?
[SPEAKER_00]: That was where they were.
[SPEAKER_00]: A place where expectations have been shattered and all that was once joy has turned to sorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is where we find the followers of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to pick up their story in the Gospel of Luke.
[SPEAKER_00]: It'll be on the screen behind so follow along.
[SPEAKER_00]: At this point in the story, they are gathered together in a room
[SPEAKER_00]: While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, peace be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were startled and frightened, thinking that they saw a ghost.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said to them, why are you troubled?
[SPEAKER_00]: And why did doubts rise in your minds?
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at my hands and my feet, it is I myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Touch me and see.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.
[SPEAKER_00]: When he had 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?
[SPEAKER_00]: They gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it in their presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said to them, this is what I told you, while I was still with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he opened their minds so that they could understand the scriptures.
[SPEAKER_00]: He told them, this is what is written, the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are witnesses of these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to send what my father has promised but stay in the city until you have been closed with power from on high.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peace be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says, peace be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: These were the first words that he uttered to those gathered disciples after his resurrection when he comes into the room with them in their fear with the doorlocked.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, peace be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was actually quite struck this Easter, by the way that God in a couple of stories around the Easter message, the way that God speaks into the fear and anxiety of His people.
[SPEAKER_00]: On that resurrection morning, you might remember the women went to the tomb, and when they got there, they realized that the stone has been moved and in its place there's an angel, and the first thing he says to them is,
[SPEAKER_00]: And then a little bit later on in this locked room with his followers, Jesus says to his followers, to his disciples, peace be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: In both circumstances, God chooses first to speak words of peace and reassurance, into their fear, into their uncertainty and their confusion, into their grief, and their distress, Jesus spoke peace.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this was more than just a greeting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Eh, doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll get to you, wasn't like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a peace be with you as a statement of fact.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peace be with you, or in other words, the Prince of Peace is with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am your peace, he said.
[SPEAKER_00]: God who is peace, drew near to his followers on that day, and God who is peace draws near to us because in the same way that Jesus' desire was to bring peace to his overwhelmed and anxious disciples, his desire is to bring peace that same peace to you and I.
[SPEAKER_00]: But did they cheer and celebrate?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did they high-five each other and lift Jesus up onto their shoulders and do a lap of the room?
[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, quite the opposite.
[SPEAKER_00]: Luke's account tells us that they were startled and terrified thinking that Jesus was a ghost.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, Jesus had died.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was no doubt about that in their minds.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they were not expecting to see Him alive again.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: The scriptures record three different times.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, two in Luke that I'm going to share with you in a moment, but three different times, where Jesus actually explains to his disciples that he will die and be raised again.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Luke 9, 22, Jesus is speaking to His disciples and He said, the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders in the chief priests and the teachers of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And He must be killed and on the third day He will be raised.
[SPEAKER_00]: A little bit later in Luke 18, Jesus took the 12th aside and told them, we're going up to Jerusalem and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of
[SPEAKER_00]: will be fulfilled.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will be delivered over to the Gentiles.
[SPEAKER_00]: They will mock him in salt him and spit on him.
[SPEAKER_00]: They will flog him and kill him on the third day he will rise again.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I read those and I think he's made it really clear to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've always thought these explanations were pretty direct.
[SPEAKER_00]: No ambiguity.
[SPEAKER_00]: But even in spite of this, his followers were not expecting to see him alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were not expecting him to rise from the dead, and I've wondered about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe they thought he was speaking symbolically.
[SPEAKER_00]: about end times.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe maybe the concept of a suffering and crucified Jesus just didn't fit their concept of a Savior, the one that they were hoping for, or maybe in their grief and their distress, they simply forgot.
[SPEAKER_00]: But either way, when Jesus appeared to them in that room, he did not get the welcome back that I would have expected.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Jesus invites them to look and see he engages their senses.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, touch my physical body, but still they're amazed and still they can't quite believe it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so then Jesus does something that only a living body would do.
[SPEAKER_00]: He requests food and he eats it in front of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think Jesus asked for food because he was hungry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Scripture tells us he took the fish that they gave him and he ate it in their presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: In doing this, what Jesus was providing them with was evidence, ghosts don't eat food.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is one of those moments I wish I could be a fly on the wall, you know, watching their faces as they watched him eat and the doubt and the confusion slowly melting into realization and joy.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's showing them that he is truly and bodily alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: He met their confused doubt with evidence.
[SPEAKER_00]: and why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why was it so important that they left that room absolutely sure that Jesus had risen from the dead?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why did that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why was that something that he went to such great lengths to do in multiple ways?
[SPEAKER_00]: Look, touch, feel, watch me eat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because his risenness matters, the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and is alive matters.
[SPEAKER_00]: Antirite describes the resurrection of Jesus as the full crime and the foundation point of Christian belief.
[SPEAKER_00]: Historians agree that Jesus existed, that he was a rabbi, that he was a teacher who drew lots of crowds and that he was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are not debated facts in the historical world.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's his resurrection that sets Jesus apart.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Christ's resurrection that shows that God's divine love is stronger than death and transforms Jesus' death from a tragedy into a powerful, redemptive act.
[SPEAKER_00]: Walter Brugerman explains the resurrection of Jesus is not merely a comforting doctrine about life after death.
[SPEAKER_00]: What will happen once we die?
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a profound revolutionary event that signifies God's absolute power to create new life in the midst of hopelessness and despair, yes, and even death.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's a taste of things to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: If God has demonstrated Himself victorious over death, then we can be confident it won't stop with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: If Jesus has been resurrected and made new, then we too can be resurrected and made new.
[SPEAKER_00]: And indeed, our world, our broken weary, sorrow-filled world can be resurrected and made new.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unre now and has this to say.
[SPEAKER_00]: Says the resurrection does not solve our problems
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not the happy ending to life's struggles.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nor is it the big surprise that God has kept in store for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Know the resurrection is the expression of God's faithfulness.
[SPEAKER_00]: The resurrection is God's way of revealing to us that nothing that belongs to God will ever go to waste.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing or whatever belongs to God will never get lost.
[SPEAKER_00]: The resurrection is God's expression of faithfulness to His creation, to His people, to you and to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus being raised to life is a promise of what is to come for all of us who have chosen to put our faith in Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is why He went to such lengths to prove to His disciples that He was actually fully and bodily alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: so that we can have confidence that we too can be made new, resurrected and renewed, our sins forgiven, and made whole in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And next is, it does something very important in verse 44 to 47.
[SPEAKER_00]: He makes sense of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus reminds his followers that the events they have just lived through, these terrifying days of uncertainty and confusion and hopelessness, they actually happen just as they were supposed to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus' death was not an accidental interruption to God's plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: It had been foretold and it was very much a part of the bigger picture.
[SPEAKER_00]: Given everything that had happened over those previous days, no one would blame the disciples for perhaps being a bit caught up in the moment, and a bit focused on what had happened in those days.
[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 44, Luke tells us, Jesus opened to their minds so that they could understand the scriptures, which scriptures is he talking about here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 44 mentions the law of Moses, the Psalms and the prophets.
[SPEAKER_00]: These were scriptures that the disciples would have been very familiar with.
[SPEAKER_00]: They would have heard them read in the synagogue since they're youth.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were scriptures about the promise of a Messiah.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Messiah that God would send to save Israel.
[SPEAKER_00]: The problem was, and the disconnect came in this.
[SPEAKER_00]: The traditional view of this coming Messiah was that he would be a victorious, conquering political king who would overthrow Rome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not one who was beaten and humiliated and executed on a cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know that no Roman citizens were ever executed on crosses?
[SPEAKER_00]: Crosses were execution by Cross or crucifixion was reserved for the lowest of the low.
[SPEAKER_00]: They would have beheaded a Roman citizen, but not the Cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: They wouldn't stoop that low to one of their own.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for the Jews, the Cross represented being cursed by God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So how could Jesus be the Messiah?
[SPEAKER_00]: How could he be the Messiah and have died in this awful way?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is why Jesus had to open their minds to understand because it actually didn't make sense to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus helps them to realise that these days they were a witness to were really key to understanding the whole of the rest of Scripture.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was not just an inspiring and gifted teacher whose life was cut short prematurely, his life, including his death and resurrection, were part of a much bigger unfolding story of God and his love for his world, the world that he created.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what's more, salvation was about way more than first century Roman authority.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the deeper and far-reaching plan for dealing with the sinfulness and the brokenness of the whole world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Michael Frost described it as a monumental story of love and brokenness, fear and hope, truth and lies and the unending resolve of our loving God, and his intention to save all that he had created.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus helps them to see that, in fact, they were part of a critical turning point, a moment in the story of God's creation.
[SPEAKER_00]: That unthinkable death on the cross was no accident.
[SPEAKER_00]: Galatians 313, Paul says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And because Jesus opened their minds, they got it, they saw it.
[SPEAKER_00]: and T. Wright says, here's the point.
[SPEAKER_00]: The resurrection from the beginning was never seen by the early Christians as simply a very odd event within the present worlds.
[SPEAKER_00]: They always saw it and preached it as the beginning as the foundation, as the launching point of a new creation.
[SPEAKER_00]: The followers of Jesus in that locked room came to the understanding that their lives and their story were part of a much bigger story.
[SPEAKER_00]: And just as the followers of Jesus in that room were part of a bigger story, our lives today and our story are part of that same bigger story.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we're too from here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus made it clear that his death and resurrection were a fulfillment of scripture, and they were part of a bigger tapestry that God was creating.
[SPEAKER_00]: He now goes on to say that this message is to be shared, and it's to be shared with all nations.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says to them in verse 48 of today's reading,
[SPEAKER_00]: You have seen it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have understood all that God has done.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now go until the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he instructs them to begin right there.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Jerusalem, start right here, start sharing my story right where you find yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the invitation he placed before his disciples.
[SPEAKER_00]: on that first Easter, and actually, this is the invitation he still places before each of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: The phrase, you are my witnesses of these things, speaks to our identity as a church.
[SPEAKER_00]: As the church, we don't exist just to help each other feel good about ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we take our lead from the way Jesus commissioned his followers, we the church exist as a missional presence in our world.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are not here to draw people to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're here to draw people to their creator.
[SPEAKER_00]: We the church exist to be a taste and a glimpse into who God is and what He has done to remove the consequences of sin and restore us to relationship with Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, a question for you, have you encountered God's goodness?
[SPEAKER_00]: Has his love been real for you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know what it is to be restored by the presence of God?
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you had, then my question is, where is your Jerusalem?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where is the place that Jesus is saying just start here?
[SPEAKER_00]: Start right where you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who do you cross paths with?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right where you are that needs to hear this good news.
[SPEAKER_00]: The news, there is a God who cherishes them deeply.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Jesus spoke to their fear, he opened their minds to understand the bigger picture.
[SPEAKER_00]: He helped them to see how his life, death, and resurrection were all part of a redemptive design of a loving God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's made clear that as eyewitnesses their role was to now help others to see and understand what they saw and understood.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this message they were going to share was going to be more than just an eyewitness account.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, we have the benefit of hindsight.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can see what started in that moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: The early followers of Jesus, they were just ordinary people.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were not scholars or intellectuals or professional speakers or social media influences.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were ordinary people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so how did a small band of very ordinary people begin such a world altering movement?
[SPEAKER_00]: The answer lies in the last verse that we're looking at this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am going to send you what my father has promised but stay in the city until you have enclosed with power from on high.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had a story to share, but there was a supernatural element coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: The early disciples were not just empowered with a wonderful message, they were empowered with the very presence of God's Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Philippians 2013 says, for it is God who works in you, to will and to act in order to fulfill his purposes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, my message, and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom but on God's power.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we enter into the story and the mission of God in our world, we don't go in our own strengths or our own wisdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: We go with the empowerment of God's spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So some questions for us to ponder and in this, I want to invite you to see where you find yourself in this story.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus came with the promise of peace, and I know we've covered a lot since then, but I want to take you back to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first thing that he said to his disciples was a message of peace, peace be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I, your peace, and with you, he said.
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe it is God's
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus rose, defeating sin and death.
[SPEAKER_00]: See us, Lewis observed that Christianity can never be somewhat important.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it's false, it can be dismissed, but if it's true, can it matters infinitely?
[SPEAKER_00]: How will you respond to the living resurrected Jesus this week?
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus' death and resurrection were not random or isolated, they were part of God's broader redemptive plan for His creation and you too are part of that unfolding story and He invites us to partner with Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So how will this shape your approach to the coming week, the fact that you have an invitation to be part of God's recreating of His world?
[SPEAKER_00]: How will that shape the decisions that you're making right now?
[SPEAKER_00]: And finally, the transforming power of this good news, it doesn't come from our cleverness.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't come from us having put wise or persuasive words.
[SPEAKER_00]: It comes by the empowerment of God's people by God's spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what is it that God is empowering you to do or to be in His world?
[SPEAKER_00]: And how are you following His lead to participate in the renewal of His creation?
[SPEAKER_00]: The encounter with the resurrected Jesus is transforming.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: The disciples go from frightened individuals filled with anxiety and confusion who've literally locked themselves away to an empowered community of witnesses who form the beginning of the Christian church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we can only speculate about the direction their lives may have gone if Jesus hadn't risen from the dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe they would have just waited for all the unrest in Jerusalem to settle down a bit and then quietly return to a life of fishing with some nostalgic memories of a few years of their lives that were pretty unforgettable.
[SPEAKER_00]: that's not what happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus did rise.
[SPEAKER_00]: Their minds were fully open to understand who he was and the significance of what he had done.
[SPEAKER_00]: They did unlock the door of that room and in the power of God's Spirit, they began a movement that has openly eyes and the hearts of generations to the love and saving power of our Heavenly Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is this risen Jesus who still speaks peace into our times of grief and fear.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is this God who's authority over death has not worn off.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is this Jesus who sacrificed for our sin, still reaches us, generations after that first Easter.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it is this Jesus who still invites us to participate in his mission of renewal for his creation, not in our strength.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in the power of His Spirit, amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord Jesus, we thank you for all that you have done.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you for knowing us and coming to us and meeting us at our point of need.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you for standing in our place on that cursed cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: and for demonstrating the ultimate victory by rising again, and we thank you, that you have a plan to renew our creation, our world that is so full of sorrow and brokenness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Lord, I just am so thankful that you are willing for us to participate in that mission.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you that you invite us in our humanity and our imperfection to have a place in a part and a role in what you're doing in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you Lord.