Well, our text tonight is found in Luke 24, verses 36 through the end of the book. Just 36 through 53. If you're using the Pew Bible, it'll be page 1126. That's Luke 24, verses 36 through 53. This is the word of the Lord. As they were talking about these things, Jesus stood among them and said, Peace to you. But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is myself. Touch me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, Have you anything here to eat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and he ate it before them. Then he said to them, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. And you are witnessing of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Then he led them out as far as Bethany, lifting up his hands. he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing. Let's pray. Father, as we come into your word, we see the wonder of it and the great news of the gospel already in it. Lord, let us have open ears and open hearts to appreciate the word that you are speaking to us tonight. Let us find wonder and grace in it and know that it is from you. I pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. What is your saddest moment? How sad have you ever been? What is a time in your life where sadness was no longer coming at you from around a strange corner, but rather coming at you from every side? A darkness creeping in, overwhelming you, encompassing you. Maybe it was the loss of a job. a child leaving for college, the loss of a relationship, possibly even losing a loved one. This is a sadness that wrecks you from the inside. It's not some outside force affecting you, but rather something that wells up deep inside. The sadness that is with you forever. You remember it. You remember the moment it sits in your head as the walls came down. That moment that is hitting you right now. What about your happiest moment? Let's turn it on its head. How happy have you ever been? Is there a moment that sticks out in your mind as pure bliss? You're so excited that you almost cannot contain yourself. Like a small child first visiting Disneyland, just welled up with energy and excitement, building up inside you. It's slowly going up until you cannot even make any noise outside of a shout, a laugh, some bellow out of you because you're so excited, so happy. How quickly can those moments switch just like that? I have a story as me as a child, an eight-year-old kid who had a birthday coming up. I was very excited as eight-year-olds can be about a birthday coming up. starting to count down the days. First it's a month, then it's a week. Then it was the day. And I was a very excited eight-year-old boy. It was at that point that I come home from school and my parents, being the wonderful people that they are, decided to play a trick on me. I come home and I rush over to my mother and say, when's the party going to start? When do I get my cake? When do I get my presents? She says, oh, Isaac, we called all your friends, and we called all your family. They're not coming. We've decided we're going to scale back the party. We'll have cake, we'll have presents, but it's not going to be a big deal. What about my cousin? Are they coming? No, they're busy, sorry. What about my school friends? No, no, I'm sorry. Well, what about my best friend? Is he coming? No, his mother is busy. She can't drive him. And there it was, the eight-year-old Isaac, just crushed by what had just been told to him. His birthday ruined. This excited kid just head down, walking away towards his bedroom. And just as I'm about to enter my bedroom, The closet next to me busts open, and out is my best friend saying, Happy birthday! And my mother running up behind me saying, We tricked you. Did you get it? Did you get it? I got it. Thanks, Mom. That mixed emotion of excited to suddenly see him and knowing that the party is still on, and that sadness that was there. You almost didn't know what to do with yourself, let alone an eight-year-old who has no idea what emotions are. But this is the world we're stepping into. That sudden shift of extraordinary sadness to the happiness that is founded only in Christ. That's the apostles in our passage today. See, they are saddened. They are depressed. They're at the lowest of lows, the valley of sadness. And we find that in our passage, Christ not only lifts them up to their greatest joy, But he also tells us and gives us an example of what we as the church are supposed to do after his ascension, after his resurrection. Luke here gives us an example of three movements in his passage. We find in verses 36 through 43, the resurrected Christ. In 44 through 49, we find the revealed Christ. And finally, in 50 through 53, we find the ascended Christ. So beginning with our passage, verse 36, we see the resurrected Christ, wherein Christ appears to his disciples with his resurrected body. Verse 36 says, Now there's a lot going on already in our first verse, But we have to understand how Luke has been running with this narrative. What has he been saying? The previous verses, as we can look in our Bible, we can see the road to Emmaus. This action of after Christ's resurrection, he first tells of the women going and seeing his empty tomb, and then he goes on to that very day, two men walking on this road to Emmaus. And suddenly having a clothed Christ appear to them, they have him explain through the law and through the prophets all was about Christ and his death. And as they were going there, they stopped to get some food and suddenly their eyes are opened and Christ reveals himself to them and they were amazed that it's him and suddenly he disappears. So then the two men rush off to the disciples and they say, we need to tell you this thing, you need to find out. And this is where we find ourselves in verse 36. They were talking about these things, this Christ who had appeared to them. And we're thinking, if you put your mind in where the disciples are thinking, going, these two men are most likely not the most intelligent men. They're seeing a resurrected Christ. We saw him. We saw him hanging on that cross. We knew he was in that tomb. Yes, there's talk about him being moved, but he's dead. We know it. They are in this pit. They are not convinced. And then, suddenly, Christ appears. Talking in this upper room. There's a discussion about this locked door as some of the other gospels say. All these doors were closed. They were in hiding. They knew that Christ had been killed because of his belief and they were looking for the followers. They were in hiding and scared. So now we see Christ appearing to them. And what is the only reaction you expect out of people who believe that this man is dead? Well, we see in verse 37, they were startled and frightened. And they thought, this is a spirit. There has to be. This is some ghost. There's no way that Jesus is standing in front of us right now. We cannot even conceive of it. And it actually takes them five more verses for them to actually conceive of it. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Because they sit there and they are frightened. They thought, this is a spirit, this is some ghost, an apparition before us. We drank too much, we ate too much, something is going on. It brings up an interesting point. Because there are many views out there that try and disprove the resurrection. They say it's all just a vision, mass vision. Something was in the drinking water, and they all just saw something that they wanted to see. Christ still remained dead. And here we have the apostles thinking the exact same thing. It's just a vision. It's just a spirit. But that's not what Luke is going to get at. He's rather pushing for more, that this is Christ. So we see this sadness in the disciples, and so it leads to Christ. Christ talking right in verse 38. He says, why? Why do you question it? Why are you troubled? What doubts in your hearts arise? See, look. Look at my hands and my feet. Touch this body, the flesh and blood that stands over this spirit. Know that I am real. I am not a spirit. This is Christ responding immediately to any question. He is flesh and blood. He resurrected in the body. This is Luke answering that call. He pushes it even further. After saying, come and touch, they come forward. They feel the holes in his hands, the hole in his side and in his feet. Our minds jump to doubting Thomas and the other Gospels. This Luke widens it to the entire group, all of them doubting, all of them wondering, how is this? How is this Christ? How is he resurrected? See, Luke, we have to wonder, why? Why is he telling us this? Why do we have this physical touch? What more does he want? Luke, being the great physician that he was, knew he wanted to prove that Christ had resurrected in the body. So yes, you may come forward and feel this body, but there's more to it than that. And this we can look at verse 41 and 42. Because they didn't believe. After even touching his body, feeling his side, they still had disbelief. It was a joyful disbelief, almost an ecstatic, this might be true, I'm almost there. It's a moment in which I'm standing there next to my best friend near my room going, is this really happening? It's really going to happen. Oh my goodness, it's happening. But I don't know. So they sit there and Christ says, do you have anything to eat? Just that small phrase. And they gave him a broiled fish. And suddenly, there's no question in their minds. The Spirit's eating. He's drinking with us. He is participating in a physical act within our world. This is a resurrected body of Christ before us. And that joy is slowly changing for them. But we also have to open up more. Why is Paul talking about this? Or why is Luke talking about this? Excuse me. What exactly is he putting forward? For that, we can jump. We can jump actually to the very beginning of Luke. I'll just read it. You don't need to turn. Luke 1 through 4 gives us an idea of why Luke would go to such lengths to describe the body of Christ resurrected. Luke 1 says, See there, Luke. Luke writing to Theophilus and to all those who end up reading, Here is a certain account, a specific account, that you may have certainty that Christ had done all these things. He was answering any doubts. He was answering any questions, any that came at him. We find that the time that Luke had written this, sometime between 60 and 70 A.D., prior to the destruction of the temple, there are many things already arising. We look to 1 John and we see this rise of a questioning whether or not Christ had come in the flesh. Some call it an early Gnostic heresy that plagued the church for many centuries. We can see it even here. 60 to 70 A.D., Paul's saying Christ did rise in the flesh. He is no spirit. He is flesh and bone. And he ate with us and he drank with us. But there are also others. Modern day, people who talk, if I had been there, if I had seen it, if I had touched it, if I could actually see Jesus walking out of his tomb, I would know. Okay, if I had seen him get stabbed and then saw him walk out, then yes, I would believe. And Christ addresses that earlier. But also in this passage, we see the disciples felt the holes. They felt his body, and they still disbelieved. It took more, more than just seeing, more than just feeling. They needed it all. They needed to see and believe this whole action of Christ's resurrection. But this leads us into our next section, our next point, verses 44 through 49, in which we see the revealed Christ. See, Christ reveals to them that all of Scripture has been speaking about him. Verse 44 starts off, Then he said to them, These are my words, and I spoke to you while I am still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. See, Christ, after moving forward from showing them this great resurrection of his body, that he is indeed here physically with his glorified body, that everything written, everything that they have taught has led to this moment, has led to them understanding that all that has been taught to them through the law and prophets, all those times spent in the temple hearing about it, all those times Christ has spoken to them, trying to teach them, these great wonders and mystery. It's all about him. It's all about what just occurred. See, Christ goes on and he opens their minds, much like what happened in the road to Emmaus with their eyes being opened, to finally understand. They finally come to a full understanding of Scripture. This is a pivotal moment. It's a realization that everything, everything leading up to it, was coming here to this pinnacle. This realization should have been mind-blowing for these people. Their understanding to finally see, it all connects. And Christ doesn't just tell them that and then opens their minds. He then interprets for them. He then says in the next verse, and he said to them, thus it is written, this is founded in the law, in the prophets, in the Psalms, that the Christ should suffer on the third day and rise from the dead. See, Christ here is not quoting exact scripture. He's not quoting a particular verse and chapter. But he is interpreting all of scripture. He's putting forward things that all of the disciples would understand. Some of them men jump. Go to Isaiah 53 and think of the stripes that have been done for our sins. all the terrible things that have occurred leading up to that cross. Some of them may jump to Psalm 22 and think more about the sin upon his shoulders. Everything. And then others jumping to Psalm 118, thinking about the resurrection that was foretold, that this Christ, this Savior, is spent for us. And that's where he finishes his thought and says that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning first in Jerusalem. Did we all see what just happened? Did we just catch what Luke did? We have Luke's Great Commission right here in this verse. When people talk about the Great Commission, we find Matthew 28 being the top one, in which Christ says, Go out to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them all that I have taught you. This is Luke telling the exact same story. He's saying everything that has been taught to you, you just had realized in your mind, and you are to go out and teach to all nations. But there's more to it than that. Luke not only tells us what we are to do, but he shows us how we are to do it. how the disciples are to do it, and how we as the church are to do it. See, this past chapter, Luke has been pointing a style of the gospel being preached. When Christ first appeared to those people, to the men on Emmaus, the road to Emmaus, he spoke the law to them, explaining everything so that they may come to a realization. and then opening their eyes, they saw the true Christ. We see a continuation here in verses 36, in which the apostles realize it is the true Christ. His physical body, feeling, seeing, eating with them. They understand it. And then leading into verse 44, in which he explains the law and the prophets and the Psalms. He is showing them, this is what I want you to do, and this is how you should do it. Go out. Go out to the nations. Tell them that you are a witness to these things, as it says in verse 48. Tell them that you saw Christ. You ate with him. You slept next to him. You talked with him. You studied with him. And he revealed the truth to you. Through his word, he was able to explain all of that. And this is what we as the church should be looking to. We should be looking to these examples of how the disciples have gone out and they have preached the word of God to all these people, understanding of Christ, everything pointing to him. But some may say, we weren't witnesses. We didn't eat with him. We didn't drink with him. We didn't see the resurrected body. But we do. We are witnesses every time we come to that table. We come and we eat with Christ. We come and we drink with Christ. We remember. And that word of the gospel is preached to us every Sunday. Every Lord's Day we come in here and we hear that good news of the gospel. The witnesses preaching to us through the New Testament. The Word of God opened for us so that we can see that Christ alone is the fulfillment. And so we see, we see that when we go out, we go out into the world, talk to friends, talk to family, talk to all those who we come in contact to. Our desire should be to invite them. Come, taste and see. Come and see the Word. Come and hear the witnesses preaching of the good news of the Savior of Christ. This is the good news. But we're not done. Because we talk just solely about ourselves, that we are the ones doing everything. We're the ones who are teaching all these people to come forward. But verse 49 speaks to that, where Jesus says, I am sending a promise of my Father upon you. Stay in the city until you are clothed with the power from on high. This is an obvious allusion to Pentecost and the Holy Spirit coming upon us. That same Holy Spirit that is upon all of us. That we have been granted a gift from God. This Holy Spirit sent to us so that we may go out. And it was through him within us that is through God working through us that this gospel may be preached. But now we come to our third and final point. The ascended Christ, verses 50 through 53. All this point coming forward, Luke working towards this final section of his gospel. Christ ascends, leaving his disciples and with that newfound joy that they have been granted. They go out and do the mission of the church. So verse 50 and 51 is Luke's gospel explaining the ascension of Christ. Two verses, two sentences, a few commas in there, very little. When I was studying for this passage, or for this Ascension Day service, I was distracted on whether or not I should actually do this passage because Luke talks so little about it. But as I studied more, I found that Luke is actually working towards this to show us exactly how we should respond to this ascension. He talks more in Acts 1 about the raised up Christ. Acts 1-4 talks about the apostles standing there watching Christ go up into the heavens until the cloud blocks their view. They talk about Christ reigning in other epistles. But Luke here finishes his argument, finishes his thought on the connection between the sadness that was founded at the beginning of our passage and the happiness that is founded in the ascended Christ. Verse 52 is what we would start with. After Christ has ascended, they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. This may seem like a minuscule point, but we need to remember who these people are. These are the disciples. It's been 43 days since they saw their Lord crucified on a cross. It's been 40 days since he arrived before them in a locked room where they were hiding, sad, desperate, hoping not to be killed. This is the sadness that was overwhelming them. And that minuscule joy that came to them in 41, that questioning joy going, is this actually happening? Is he really here? I don't know. I can't be sure. It's come to its full fruition here in verse 52. Because Christ left them at the cross. They felt abandoned. Their Lord was gone. But 52, Christ left them again. He went up into heaven. And they didn't feel abandoned. They didn't feel saddened. They felt joyful, happy, ecstatic. Their response is returning to Jerusalem, because that's where Christ said, and we do so with joy, knowing exactly what we are here to do. We have our commission. Our joy is founded in Christ who is reigning over us. He is within us and we will be with him soon enough. That is what the apostles at that time were thinking. He may have left us now, but soon enough we will be with him again. That ascension of our reigning Christ speaks further of these joyful apostles. So we go to verse 53, and this is where we see they were continually in the temple, blessing God. And this here is Luke concluding his book, but pushing forward, we can see its relation to his writing of Acts. We can see that they were in the temple, blessing God. But what do we know about the book of Acts? How do we know what Paul does specifically while teaching in the temple? See, Paul's missionary journey, he would go from city to city and he would step into the temple and he would proclaim Christ. He would proclaim it, witnessing to all those within them. And when they kicked him out, he would go to the outside of the city. But this here, this is what I see. Luke speaking to us saying, the apostles did exactly as Christ called them to do. They went into Jerusalem. They had the Spirit ascend upon them. And they were in the temple, not only blessing God, but also preaching. They were out there teaching those who wished to learn. They were out there giving the gospel to those who wanted to, here. See, we can understand the greatness of the resurrection. We can see the joy that comes about in that initial reaction of that. But we can also see the joy that is in that commission that Christ gave right before he ascended. The harvest is plentiful, beloved, but the workers are few. We look to our joy to carry us out there. When we go out amongst the world, our feeling shouldn't be, well, I guess I better go witness. Oh, let me go talk about Christ, I guess. It should be, yes! Let me go talk about Christ. Let me go tell my friends. Because he has ascended on high. He is reigning over us. And one day, we will be returning to him. Because yes, Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. But he has ascended. He has ascended indeed. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your ascension. Your sign of the end of your time here. Before your disciples, before this world, but you left us with this great joy, this great time to come and preach your gospel to all those around the world. Lord, help us to look to you continually, knowing that our joy is in you and in that gospel that has been preached to us. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.