Behind a locked door, the disciples mourned a dead Messiah. Then He stood in the midst of them — and asked for something to eat.
Did Jesus really rise from the dead — and how could anyone know? In this Resurrection Sunday exposition of Luke 24:36–49, Dr. Toby Holt begins where Luke begins: with evidence. Luke was a physician inclined toward clinical fact, and a historian who tells Theophilus he has compiled an orderly account from eyewitnesses so that his reader might believe. The central event that whole history rests upon is the resurrection — and, as Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 15, if Christ is not risen, preaching is empty, faith is futile, and the church is just people comforting one another in a darkened world.
Dr. Holt sets the scene in the upper room: a beaten company of disciples hiding behind a barred door, certain their Messiah is dead and afraid they are next. Then Jesus Himself stands among them with a greeting of peace — and they conclude He must be a ghost. Holt traces this too-good-to-be-true reflex through Scripture, from Jacob refusing to believe Joseph was alive to the praying church refusing to believe Peter stood at their door. Against that unbelief, Jesus appeals first to the senses — "Behold My hands and My feet" — showing the disciples flesh and bones and eating broiled fish before them; then He appeals to the understanding, opening the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms to show that the Christ had to suffer and rise.
At the sermon's heart stands Isaiah 53 and the difference between appeasement and atonement. Sinners cannot buy off the wrath of God with good deeds; that wrath must be satisfied — poured out on a substitute. Calvary is that substitution, and Easter is the proof that the payment was accepted.
The listener will come away with a faith that rests on attested history rather than wishful thinking, a clear grasp of the Gospel of grace pictured in the thief on the cross, and the living hope of a risen Savior who intercedes at the Father's right hand this very day.
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On the evening of the first Easter, the risen Jesus suddenly stands among His disciples in Jerusalem and greets them with peace. Terrified, they suppose they are seeing a spirit. Jesus shows them His hands and feet, invites them to handle Him, and eats broiled fish and honeycomb to prove He has flesh and bones. He then opens their understanding of the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, showing that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and commissions them as witnesses to preach repentance and remission of sins to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Luke writes as a physician and historian, telling Theophilus he compiled an orderly account from eyewitnesses so that his reader might believe. Luke 24 sets that evidence out: the empty tomb, and then a series of appearances Dr. Holt recounts — the risen Jesus keeps showing up, to Mary Magdalene, to Peter, to two disciples on the Emmaus road, and then to the gathered apostles in the upper room — with physical proofs: the risen Christ was seen, heard, touched, and ate food in their presence. Dr. Holt stresses that the resurrection is presented not as a private vision or a legend, but as a heavily attested public event, recorded from those who were there.
Because in their minds resurrection was impossible, so a spirit was the only explanation left. They were hiding behind locked doors, fearing the authorities who had crucified their Master, when Jesus suddenly appeared among them. Dr. Holt shows this is a recurring biblical pattern of good news seeming too good to be true: Jacob refused to believe Joseph was alive, and the praying church in Acts 12 refused to believe Peter stood at the door even as they prayed for his release. Even those who most longed for Jesus to be alive could not believe it until He proved it to their senses.
To prove He was no ghost. A spirit does not have flesh and bones, and a spirit does not eat. By taking broiled fish and honeycomb and eating in the disciples' presence (Luke 24:42–43), Jesus gave physical, empirical proof that His resurrection was bodily — the same body that hung on the cross, now glorified. This matters doctrinally: Christianity does not teach that Jesus' spirit survived death or that He rose merely in the hearts of His followers, but that He rose in true flesh, the firstfruits of the bodily resurrection every believer awaits.
R.C. Sproul described the resurrection body of Christ in terms of continuity and discontinuity, and Dr. Holt draws on that insight in this sermon. There is continuity: the disciples met the same Jesus — He looked like Him, sounded like Him, and bore the marks of the nails. Yet there is discontinuity: He now entered locked rooms and possessed a glorified body no longer subject to death — what 1 Corinthians 15 describes as a body sown in dishonor and raised in glory. This framework guards against two errors: denying that Jesus rose bodily, and imagining His resurrection was a mere return to ordinary mortal life.
Appeasement is the idea that we can win God over — offsetting bad deeds with good deeds until He lets us in. Atonement is what Scripture actually teaches: God's wrath against sin must be satisfied, and the sinner's only hope is that it is poured out on a substitute. Isaiah 53 describes exactly this — the Servant wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, with the iniquity of us all laid upon Him. Dr. Holt insists that not even a million good deeds can offset one sin; God does not overlook sin but punished it fully in His Son, in the place of everyone who believes.
Jesus Himself answers in Luke 24:44: everything written about Him in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms — the whole Hebrew canon — must be fulfilled. Dr. Holt highlights Isaiah 53, written roughly 700 years before Christ, which portrays the Servant bearing our griefs, wounded for our transgressions, and healing us by His stripes — a portrait so precise that hearers instinctively identify Jesus. The Old Testament likewise anticipated that the Messiah would not stay dead. That the Christ must suffer, die, and rise the third day was not an improvised rescue; it was the plan of God announced for centuries.
The Westminster Confession of Faith, in its chapter on Christ the Mediator (chapter 8), confesses that on the third day Christ arose from the dead with the same body in which He suffered — precisely the point Jesus proves in Luke 24 by showing His hands and feet. The Shorter Catechism likewise teaches that Christ's exaltation includes His rising again from the dead on the third day, His ascending into heaven, and His sitting at the right hand of God the Father. Dr. Holt's closing emphasis on Christ's present intercession flows directly from this confessional framework: the risen Christ reigns and pleads for His people now.
Dr. Holt argues that everything — the church, the pulpit, the ministries, the Christian's entire hope — rises or falls with this one event. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that if Christ is not risen, preaching is empty, faith is futile, and we are still in our sins. But if He is risen, then death is conquered, Jesus is exactly who He said He was, and every promise He made about your resurrection is true as well. It also means the believer's hope is living and present: the risen Christ now sits at the Father's right hand, interceding for all whom He calls His children.
Believe. Dr. Holt points to the thief on the cross, who had no good works, no track record, and nothing to offer — he simply asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom, and Jesus promised him Paradise that very day. Salvation is not appeasing God or offsetting bad deeds with good ones; it is receiving by faith what Christ accomplished — His atoning death and His resurrection. That is why the risen Lord commands repentance and remission of sins to be preached in His name to all nations: whoever repents and trusts in Christ alone is forgiven and secure.
1. The Resurrection Is Verifiable History, Not Wishful Thinking
Everything in the Christian faith stands or falls on one historical claim: Jesus of Nazareth rose bodily from the dead. Dr. Holt opens by reminding us who Luke was — a physician inclined toward clinical facts and evidences, and a historian who tells Theophilus at the start of his Gospel that he has recorded an orderly account drawn from eyewitnesses so that his reader might believe. The resurrection is the central event Luke's whole history focuses upon. Holt presses the stakes with the Apostle Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 15: if Christ is not risen, preaching is empty, faith is futile, and we are still in our sins — the church would be nothing more than people comforting one another with wishful thinking as they live out their days in a darkened world. Reformed theology has always insisted that redemption was accomplished in space and time; the Gospel is not good advice about the inner life but a report of what God has actually done. Luke 24 invites the skeptic to weigh testimony, not to take a blind leap.
2. The Risen Christ Has a True, Glorified Body
When Jesus stood among the disciples, they supposed they had seen a spirit. His response is one of Scripture's clearest proofs of bodily resurrection: "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have" (Luke 24:39, NKJV). Then He ate broiled fish and honeycomb in their presence — for ghosts do not eat. Dr. Holt notes both continuity and discontinuity in the risen Lord: it looked like Jesus and sounded like Jesus, yet He now came and went through locked doors, His body sown in dishonor and raised in glory, as 1 Corinthians 15 teaches. The Westminster Confession of Faith confesses the same truth in its chapter on Christ the Mediator: on the third day He arose from the dead with the same body in which He suffered. The resurrection was neither resuscitation nor apparition, but the firstfruits of the glorified humanity every believer will one day share.
3. Atonement, Not Appeasement
Most people, Dr. Holt observes, are big on appeasement and have no place for atonement. Appeasement imagines that God's favor can be earned — that enough good deeds will offset the bad and open heaven's gates. Scripture teaches otherwise: not even a million good deeds can offset one sin, and the wages of sin is death. God's wrath must be satisfied, and the sinner's only hope is that it falls on a substitute. That is the doctrine of Isaiah 53, written some seven hundred years before Calvary: the Servant is wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, and the iniquity of us all is laid upon Him. God does not sweep sins into the coat closet of heaven; He poured out the fullness of His wrath upon His own Son in the sinner's place. This is the heart of the Reformed doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement — Christ's death made real and full satisfaction to divine justice, which is why the empty tomb can announce that the payment was accepted.
4. All Scripture Preaches the Christ Who Suffers and Rises
Jesus did not merely appeal to the disciples' senses; He appealed to their understanding, opening the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms — the whole Old Testament — to show that everything written there was fulfilled in Him (Luke 24:44–45). Dr. Holt lingers on the word necessary: it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. The cross was no tragedy that overtook Jesus; it was the plan of redemption announced for centuries. Isaiah 53 describes the Suffering Servant so precisely that anyone hearing it read aloud would name Jesus — yet it was written roughly 700 years before He came. And the same means that opened the disciples' understanding still operates today: God uses His Word, faithfully preached, to open hearts and minds to the risen Son. The means of salvation has not changed, and it has never been offsetting bad deeds with good ones — it is faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ, anticipated and prophesied for thousands of years.
5. A Living Hope in a Risen, Interceding Savior
The sermon ends where Luke ends: "And you are witnesses of these things" (Luke 24:48, NKJV). The risen Christ commissions His restored disciples — the same men who forsook Him and fled — to preach repentance and remission of sins in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Dr. Holt presses this grace home through the thief on the cross, who had no track record and nothing to offer, who simply asked to be remembered when Jesus came into His kingdom — and was promised Paradise that very day. Salvation adds nothing to Christ's finished work; it receives that work by faith alone. And the risen Savior's work continues even now: He sits at the right hand of God the Father, interceding for His people. For the believer who feels rejected, unloved, or forgotten, this is the living, abiding hope of Easter — a Savior who conquered death and pleads for His children this very week.
About The Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt serves as the third President of New Geneva Theological Seminary (Colorado Springs, CO), founded 1993. An expository preacher with over 1.9 million sermon downloads on SermonAudio.com, Dr. Holt brings over 17 years of pastoral experience to his verse-by-verse Bible teaching. New Geneva offers fully online, Westminster Confessional theological education — M.Div., Th.M., D.Min., and other degrees.
Summary. Dr. Toby Holt expounds Luke 24:36–49, where the risen Christ appears to His frightened disciples in the upper room and proves He is no ghost — showing them His hands and feet and eating broiled fish before them. Holt presents Luke as a physician-historian whose orderly account rests on eyewitness testimony, and argues with Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 that the whole Christian faith rises or falls with this one event. He then follows Jesus into the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms — especially Isaiah 53 — to show that the Christ had to suffer and rise, drawing the line between appeasing God with good works and the atonement in which God's wrath is satisfied by a substitute. The sermon closes at the thief on the cross: salvation comes by grace through faith alone, and the risen Savior now intercedes at the Father's right hand for all who believe.
When someone makes an extraordinary claim, it is reasonable to ask for extraordinary proof. On Resurrection Sunday, Christ's disciples heard claims that Jesus was risen, but they didn't know what to believe until Jesus stood right in front of them and showed them his hands and side. In today's study, we'll consider the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the many eyewitnesses who confirmed that they saw him. What do you remember about Luke? What was his physician? He was a doctor. He was one inclined towards clinical facts and evidences and the like. However, not only was he a doctor, He was also a historian. Luke was a historian. And if you were to look at the beginning of the book of Luke and the start of Luke, Luke chapter one, the first few verses, he's writing to a guy named Theophilus and he says, I'm writing to give you an orderly account that you might believe.
He says, I've recorded everything that went down. I talked to the eyewitnesses. I recorded all that you might believe. This is an orderly account. This is not conjecture. This is not my opinion. This is a record of what happened. So Luke, Luke is a doctor, but more importantly, he's a historian. And with that said, the central component, the central event that his whole history focuses upon is the resurrection. You know, everything we're doing here, this whole building, the pulpit, the church, the people, the congregation, the ministries, the programs, all of this, all of this rises or falls or has any meaning in this one historical event. Did Jesus rise from the dead? If he didn't, then all of this is just a facade. If Jesus didn't defeat death, this is just a ruse. We're just people trying to make each other feel better as we live out our days in a darkened world. If Jesus didn't defeat the grave, then all we're doing is just kind of playing house here. All we're doing is just wishful thinking and the like. We're lying to ourselves, we're lying to one another, and we're hoping something that isn't true if Christ is not risen. Now, in 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul talked about that. The Apostle Paul knew how to argue from both perspectives. He knew how to argue from the perspective of the believer. He also knew
how to argue from the perspective of the non-believer. In 1 Corinthians 15, he takes both positions and argues them. However, he argues the position of the non-believer using a technique called ad absurdum, to the point of absurdity. This is what he writes. He says in 1 Corinthians 15, if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty. Yes. And our faith is also empty. Yes. And we are found false witnesses of God because that we have testified to God that he raised up Christ. And if he did not raise him up, then the dead do not rise. And if Christ is not risen, then our faith is futile and we are still in our sins. If Jesus didn't defeat the grave, if it's just hopeful thinking, then everything across 2000 years of Christendom is just the facade. However, what if he did rise? What are the implications of Christ's resurrection?
Let's say that this is true. Let's say that on Friday, this one who presumed to be the son of God, this one who presumed to be the messianic figure that all history pointed forward to, let's say that he died on Friday, and let's say that he did arise on a Sunday. Let's say not only did he arise, but he took up his own life. Let's say he laid his life down, and then he took it up of his own choice. Can you do that? Can I do that? Not on our own. The implication of this is that He was different. The implication of this is maybe, just maybe, he was exactly who he said he was.
The implication of this is maybe, just maybe, he was fully man, but also fully God. The implication of this event really happened is that this indeed was the Son of God came down. And if he was the Son of God who came down, and if he was resurrected just as he said he was, then maybe, just maybe, all the other promises he has made about your resurrection are true too. At the minimum, that's one of the implications of this text. So the question is, did he rise? Did he rise?
Well, in today's texts, we're going to see there were eyewitnesses, and we're going to study their account, and we're going to see this. Initially, they were shocked. Let's return to the text. I'm going to reread verses 36 through 39, then we'll kind of work our way through as time allows. So verse 36, Jesus already appeared to a number of people. He keeps showing up. He shows up to Mary magdalene, talks to Peter. There's two men on the road to Emmaus. And then here he encounters a whole lot of his apostles in the upper room. So verse 36, now as they were talking, as they were saying these things, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, shalom, peace to you. But they were terrified and frightened. I imagine they would be. One minute they're talking about what's going on, the next minute he's there. And so they were terrified and they're frightened.
They supposed maybe they'd seen a Spirit, verse 37 says. And so he said to them, why are you troubled? Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? See these hands? See these hands? Behold my hands. Behold my feet. Behold my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Handle me and C, for a Spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. All right, let's set the context. Luke 24, verse 36. Think about the apostles. Think about the disciples for a moment.
They are a beaten bunch. They have just had the hardest few days in their life. The guy they've been following for three years, the guy they've completely invested themselves into, the one that they anticipated would be the savior, not necessarily from sin and death, but the savior of Israel against Rome, this guy that they had put all their hopes upon, they hung their entire future upon, was dead. Now, he had told them he was going to die, but they hadn't believed it.
Remember? They hadn't believed that. He kept telling them, I'm going to die, and three days later I'll rise. But they always put that out of their mind. He told that to Peter, and Peter said, no, heavens forbid. Heavens forbid, this can't happen to you. So the disciples, all they knew at this point was that he was dead. And they knew that they might be dead soon too. Why? Well, because the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees and all the people that hated Jesus would soon be after them. That's why in the Garden of Gethsemane, what happened? Matthew 26 is while they're in the garden and, you know, they come for Jesus and the like, we see in Matthew 26 that
the disciples forsook him and fled. And guys like Peter denied him multiple times after they even knew him. So, you have this beaten lot who feels forsaken by Jesus that he's left and is not coming back. And they're lingering on the fact that they forsook him and is our greatest need. Now, furthermore, Jesus had told them that, hey, I'm going to die, but I'll be resurrected. And when I do, let's meet up in Galilee. He told them that multiple times, but they didn't go to Galilee, did they? What'd they do? They went and found the upper room, the closed space there in Jerusalem to hide out from the Jewish authorities in fear of their lives. Now, let's say you're Jesus.
And you're resurrected. Let's say you're Jesus and you're resurrected, and these guys, these guys, these friends, had forsaken you when you needed them the most. What would you and I do? If your life was on the line, your closest friends just say, I don't even know the guy, would you be in a hurry later down the road to seek them out? Well, maybe, maybe not. But we know that Jesus absolutely did. He went to them, to his disciples, the same people who had forsook Him, the same people who hadn't followed his instructions, the same people who didn't go to galilee but stayed in Jerusalem, the same people who denied they even knew him, the same people who had left in the season of his greatest need, and he seeks them out, and he goes right in the midst of where they're meeting, and the first words out of his mouth are, shalom, peace to you.
This was a customary Jewish greeting. Now, what was their reaction? Well, verse 36 says they freaked out. They freaked out. They saw Jesus, and one minute they're standing there. The door's obviously closed and locked. They probably had bookcases up against this door because they knew people we're seeking them out. So there they are, they're cloistered, they're just together. They're probably speaking in hushed tones because the walls didn't have all the insulation in those days. They're here, they're talking, it might even be dark in the room, and all of a sudden, there he is. And so what's their reaction? Well, they freak out, verse 36, and they come to the conclusion, well, this must be what? A Spirit. This must be a ghost. How fast they went to that conclusion. They thought this must be a ghost. This can't be Jesus. Resurrection is not possible in their mind's eye.
Never mind that it just happened to Lazarus a few days earlier. However, in their mind, resurrection was impossible, so there must be another explanation. And the explanation that they came up with immediately was ghosts. Maybe this is a Spirit. You know, the irony is that some of the best news that anyone ever got in the Bible,
the reaction of the people who received the news was oftentimes to go, ah, this can't be, to not believe it. Let me give you an example. You remember the story of Joseph. Joseph, his brothers gang up on Joseph, and they hate Joseph, and they throw him down a hole, and they sell him off to Egyptian slave traders. And they go home and tell Jacob what? They tell jacob he's dead. They tell him that animals ate your son. Look at this coat, all the blood on the coat. Oh, he's been eaten. So poor Jacob goes all these years into his old age thinking that his son Joseph, decades earlier, was eaten by animals. And then one day, one day his sons come back to him.
To say, well, pops, well, dad, here's the thing. He's actually alive. And he's not only alive, but he's like second most powerful guy in all of Egypt. What was Jacob's response to that news? Well, he didn't believe it. Scripture says his heart stopped. I mean, it didn't stop permanently, but he didn't believe it, it also says. If you remember Peter in Acts chapter 12, Peter has been in jail, and then through a miracle, an angel sets Peter free, and he's able to go.
And so he goes and he seeks out the other disciples and they're meeting and you know what they're doing when they're meeting well they're praying what are they praying for they're praying that Peter would be released from jail so you have Peter he's been in jail an angel has set Peter free he goes to seek out the disciples who happen to be praying that he would be released and when he knocks on the door what's their response well one young gal named rhoda comes to the door and as you know she opens it ah and she runs in and she goes and tells the other one. She says, you will not believe this. Peter is here. He's here. And what's their response?
They don't believe it. The very thing they were praying that God would do, when he did it, they didn't believe it had happened. You see? Jacob, Peter, here are the apostles, the disciples. Their greatest desire of their hearts is that he would be alive. That's the greatest desire they have. And yet, and yet even when he's standing in front of them, they don't believe it. It's too good to be true. Too good to be true. All right, let's look at verses 40 through 43.
Now, when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. He appeals to their senses. He showed them his hands and his feet, but while they still did not believe for joy, which is another way of saying this is too good to be true, and while they marveled, he said to them, do you have any food here? It's been three days. Do you have any food here? So they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb, and he took it, and then he ate it in their presence. All right, so verse 40, Jesus says, all right, so you think I'm a ghost, huh? You all think I'm a ghost.
What can I do to prove otherwise? Well, look at this. Look at this. Do you see the nail marks? In fact, just touch my hand. It's warm. Do you see in my hand and my bones, my flesh? This is not a ghost. I am not a ghost. I'm like you, and tell you what, I'll prove it further. Do you have anything to eat because ghosts don't eat, do they? So he says, do you have anything to eat? So they give Him the broiled fish and the honeycomb for what it's worth. This proves the fact they give him broiled fish, broiled fish when they see him. This proves they're still out of their mind because everyone knows that they should have given him a nice fried fish po' boy at that time. But we'll leave that aside. They give him broiled fish, broiled fish and honeycomb at this time. So here's
the thing. You got Jesus there. He's standing in front of them. And what they see is continuity and discontinuity. This is the way R. C. Sproul put it, continuity and discontinuity. On the one hand, it sure looks like Jesus in a sense. On the one hand, it sure sounds like Jesus in a sense. On the one hand, he talks like Jesus in a sense. On the other hand, on the other hand, it wasn't quite the same. At this point, he had defeated death. There was a glorified estate in a sense that he was in. We see this in 1 Corinthians 15, that the body is sown and dishonored, but it rises in glory. In a sense, in a sense, there was something different about Jesus. With that said, one of the things that was very different about Jesus is if Pastor Gardner tries to walk through those doors without opening them, what's going to happen? We're all going to have a good laugh because it isn't going to work out. However, however, this Jesus came and went. This isn't the only time that he did so in his resurrected estate. So there was continuity. It sounded like Him. It looked like him and the like, but discontinuity because there was things that was certainly different as well. And so that was throwing them. And so they think, well, this must be a ghost. And so he appeals to their senses and he says, let's just touch my hands to find out.
All right, let's look at verses 44 through 45. Then he said to them, these are the words that I spoke to you when I was still with you, you know, before I died. These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled that were written of in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me. Guess what? That's the entirety of the Old testament. The law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms, that's the Old Testament. And what he's saying is that everything that occurred in those books was fulfilled through me. So verse 45, He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures. All right, so in the previous verses, Jesus appealed to their senses. He says, look, touch, feel, what have you. He appealed to their senses. But then, in these next verses, verses 44 and 45, He's appealing to their heart and their intellect and their reason. And He reminds them of that which they already knew but were quick to forget. He reminded them of passages in the Old Testament that pointed forward to them. He reminded them of passages in the Old Testament Scriptures that identified that when the Messiah came, that He would suffer, that He would die, but that He wouldn't stay dead.
Now, one of those passages, I've mentioned it in the past, that Bible's always open, Isaiah chapter 53. In Isaiah chapter 53, we see some of the clearest verses, the clearest references that ever speak to the personal work of Jesus Christ. The references in Isaiah 53 are so clear, so precise, that if you were to go down in downtown Gulfport Jones Park and just read them aloud and ask anyone who heard them, who is this talking about? They would say that's talking about Jesus. However, remember, Isaiah 53 was written 700 years before Jesus. So when Jesus is talking about what Moses wrote, he's talking about centuries and centuries earlier in the prophets. He's saying that God, through the gift, the power of inspiration, spoke to these men in times past. They wrote down what he said, and what they said pointed to him. Let me read just a few verses from Isaiah 53 to prove the point. This is a reference 700 years before Jesus came to who He is and what He would do. It says
this, this one would bear our griefs, carry our sorrows, and yet we would esteem Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. This is the concept of atonement. And if you get nothing else out of the sermon today, get this. Most of the people in our culture are big on appeasement and have no place for atonement. What's the difference? Appeasement is the idea that you can somehow make God love you by virtue of just doing enough things, or that you can appease God's wrath and justice and the like, by offsetting your bad deeds with your good deeds. You do enough good deeds, you're in. That's appeasement. Now, is that the doctrine of Scripture, choir? No, absolutely not. You could have sung it. No, no, it is not. You don't appease God. That's the first and only time I'll sing from this pulpit. You can't appease God, but that's what we think in the world around us. We think we're going to appease him, like you're going to show up at the gates of heaven and say, hey, God, let me in.
I'm awesome. You know who else thinks I'm awesome? My mom. My mom thinks I'm awesome. Grandma thinks I'm awesome. You must, therefore, think I'm awesome too, right? Right? That's not the way it works. You can't offset even one sin with a million otherwise good deeds. It doesn't work that way. You cannot appease the wrath of God. What has to happen? The wrath of God has to be satiated. The wrath of God has to be poured out.
And the only hope you and I have is that it gets poured out on someone other than you. And that's atonement. And that's what Isaiah 53 talked about. It talked about a lamb who would be slain, one who would come, and our iniquity would be placed upon him, and he would be punished in our place. Therefore, God doesn't just take our sins and just sweep them into the coat closet of heaven.
Rather, he pours out his entirety of his wrath against everything you've ever done. However, the good news and the hope we have is that he poured it out upon his own son in your place. Now, that would be welcome news even if we just stopped it right there. But the good news of Easter is this. After God the Father pulled out the fullness of his wrath upon his son, after his son died on Calvary, after he who knew no sin became sin for us, after he suffered and died and went to the tomb, he didn't stay there.
At three days later, he arose, and this is what Jesus explained to his disciples by going to those Old Testament texts and drawing them out and saying, hey, look at this. You remember this passage? You remember this verse? You remember what Moses said? You remember what the psalmist wrote? This is how it applies to me, and he opened their understanding in the same way that at some time, God willing, God has opened your understanding to the same thing using the same tools, using this, using His Word, God willing, faithfully preached by somebody to open our hearts and minds to understand what it is and how it applied to the risen Son. The means of salvation hasn't changed
and it's not appeasing God and it's not offsetting your bad deeds with your good deeds. It's faith in the personal work of Jesus Christ as it was anticipated and prophesied for hundreds and thousands of years. All right, let's look at verses 46 through 49, our last verses. Then he said to them, thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, in order that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem. And you, you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. As we said before, initially, the disciples were like their countrymen. They wanted a Messiah, but they had defined the Messiah on their own terms.
Guess what? You know what? In evangelical culture, we do the same thing. People like Jesus, right? The world around us likes Jesus, but they like the Jesus they define on their own terms. They like the Jesus that they can put in a box. They like the Jesus who likes the same things they like. They like the Jesus who acts the same way that they would act. And when they don't find that Jesus in the book, they make up a Jesus to fit.
That's what we see very popular in our day and age. All men are brick buildings with crosses out front. However, if you drill into what they believe about the personal work of Jesus Christ, oftentimes, it's not the Jesus you see in the book. With that said, his own disciples had the same problem. They all wanted a Messiah. They all wanted a Messiah. The people of Christ's age desperately wanted a Messiah, but the problem was they had redefined what the Messiah should be and what the Messiah should do. The Messiah they wanted was not concerned with sin and death.
No one was sitting there going, oh me, oh my, I'm worried I'm going to fall under the wrath of God because of my sins. They weren't doing that any more than they're doing that in the culture around us. What was their worry in Jerusalem? They're worried about who? Rome. They're worried about the Romans. They're worried about oppression. They're worried about the Roman boot placed down upon them. They wanted a Savior. They wanted a Messiah. But when that Savior, when that Messiah showed up, what they expected him to do was to kick out Rome. This Messiah, however, the Messiah of the book did something entirely different. He came, he suffered, and he died. And again, that's not what they expected. And so even when it happened, and even when he was resurrected,
and even when he stood right in front of them, they still didn't get it until he unpacked everything, everything that had happened. And he said in verse 46, he says, remember, this was all necessary. This was all necessary. Why did Jesus have to die? Because it was necessary. The whole concept of atonement that we talked about a moment ago points to that. If a man is sinned, a man must die. Someone's going to die for what you've done wrong.
Who's it going to be, you or him? We know the answer. We know it's him. So what then must we do? The Gospel tells you this morning, if you've never heard it with clarity before, give me 60 seconds and I'll try. The Gospel tells you with clarity this. You have a problem. The problem is this. You're a sinner. The reason that's a problem is because the wages of sin is death. That applies to every man, woman, and child in this room.
And if you don't think that sin is a problem, then why did it only take one before the entire universe was thrust into chaos from the garden forward? One sin functionally biting a piece of fruit thrusts the entire universe into chaos. How many times have you sinned? More than once. More times than you can count. So you see the problem. The wages of sin is death. But the good news of the Gospel is this.
The good news of the Gospel is about atonement. The good news of the Gospel is that while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us. What can you add to that? What can you bring to that equation to get you over the edge, get you over the hump, to jump, thrust yourself into the shores of heaven? What can you add to what he's done? You know the answer. Nothing. So what must then you do?
Believe. Faith. When Jesus died, there was two men who died on either side of him. Both were thieves. Both deserved God's wrath. Both had deserved Jerusalem's wrath, which is why the people of Jerusalem killed them, put them on the cross. They were both next to Jesus. Initially, both men mocked him. However, something happened to the one who we believe to be Christ's right. Something happened by which his heart was changed. Something happened by which he was able to look at the man in the middle and through eyes of faith to turn to him and say, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
What was the response of Jesus to this thief, to this wretch, to this sinner, to this rebel? What was the response of Jesus? He says, surely you will be with me this day in paradise. The thief didn't earn it. The thief had no track record. The thief didn't try to appease God at all. However, he trusted that what this guy was doing next to him, what this man was doing, what the man in the middle was doing was somehow being applied to him, that the sacrifice he was making applied to him.
So when the other thief was mocking the man in the middle, this guy on the right stops and says, no, you don't get it. We deserve what's happening to us. He doesn't. Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. He understood that this man died for him. And so he didn't trust in his works. He didn't say, Lord, remember me because I did some nice things 10 years ago. Remember me because I did this action, this action, and this action. No.
He says, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. All he appealed to was grace. And all he had was faith. This morning, the same is true for you. You could have a history that is as bad as bad can be. You could have done any manner of terrible things even this past week. The good news of Easter, the good news of the Bible, the good news of the Gospel is this.
While we were yet sinners, doing all manner of things wrong and very few things right, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And what he calls us to do this morning is to respond to that through faith. This morning, I hope, I trust, I pray that God uses, has used his word to stir hearts. I pray that he will and has used his word to save souls. And I pray for we who believe, as we reflect on all he has done, He will use his word to sanctify us and cause us to sin less in the time yet to come.
This morning, our hope is a living hope. This morning, our hope is an abiding hope. This morning, our hope is in a resurrected Savior who even now sits at the right hand of God the Father. What's he doing there? He's interceding for you. Jesus' work is not done. It is finished applied to his sacrifice, but his work continues, and his work right now involves this, interceding for you with the father. Remember that. This week, if you suffer from poor self-esteem, if you think no one loves you, if the people in your own family, circle, friends have rejected you, remember this. Jesus right now is sitting on the right hand of the Father, whispering, interceding on your behalf.
He does that on Easter. He'll do that throughout this week. He does that for all that He calls His children. Let's pray.
Continue the verse-by-verse series.
