What A Jesus!
Luke 24:36-49
There He is again! The crucified but risen from the dead Jesus! Speaking the language of His Easter morning resurrection to His little church of disciples: “Peace to you!” Yes, His-Good-Friday-all-atoning-for-sin-peace is bestowed, given or applied through this “peace-to-you”-blessing. As He speaks He does and gives. His absolution-peace-to-you-blessing does and gives what it says.
And as you believe so you have! His Good-Friday-won-Easter-forgiveness creates and sustains His church. The time after Easter is the time of the Lord Jesus is having for Himself a church! I can’t emphasize this enough. And as Jesus gathers His hangers-on or faith-ers around Himself, like you and me, He’s always speaking the good-news-gospel-verbiage of Easter: “Peace to you.” From which the church receives her life and sustenance for life in this wilderness world on the way to the Promised Land of heaven.
Upon seeing the resurrected Jesus here on that first Easter afternoon, the members of this Christian church in Jerusalem are “startled and frightened.” In fact, they “thought they saw a spirit,” a ghost, an apparition. Could this really be Jesus? Is this really the resurrected Jesus? They’re not sure.
Faith lives on what is most certainly true. So Jesus speaks what is most certainly true. “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
Incredibly, Jesus shows them His Good Friday wounds, for the healing of their wounded hearts, because they were, “still disbelieving for joy and marveling.” It all still seems too good to be true! Again, is He really the resurrected-in-the-flesh-Jesus? Really? Yes! Absolutely! The crucified Jesus is now the risen Jesus. In the flesh! So, to clinch it He chews and swallows a piece of broiled fish. Not that He’s hungry, mind you. It’s to seal the deal. To prove that He has risen. He is not a spirit. He is indeed Christ Jesus, the Lord in the flesh!
Typical Teacher and Preacher that Jesus is, He has more to say. It’s as if He’s a Lutheran preacher before there were Lutheran preachers! There’s always more with Jesus. He wants to make sure His little church here at Jerusalem and this little church at Murdock, NE will always trust in Him for salvation. Will always hang on to Him for eternal life not only in soul but also in body too!
For His having a church that believes in Him, He teaches that the entire OT is fulfilled by His suffering, death and resurrection. The OT is Jesus Christ centered from beginning to end. “That everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalm must be fulfilled … Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.”
Incredible! The Lord Jesus “opens their minds” to fully understand the OT! The OT, strictly speaking, bears witness to Jesus Himself! It always promised Jesus who would suffer and rise to atone for the sin of the world. To crush Satan’s head. And Jesus did it. He is the salvational fulfilment of all God’s OT promises! This too is most certainly true! To which faith says: “Amen! Thanks be to you Jesus!”
Next time you read the OT keep this in mind. Keep your eyes and ears open to the prophecies and promises of Good Friday and Easter Jesus FOR YOU and for your salvation whether you’re reading Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel or any of the Psalms.
Then resurrected Lord Jesus gives His church a task. It is essential. If she doesn’t do this, she is on the ragged edge of ceasing to be the church. Check it out. “And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations.” Did you catch that? The church’s task is twofold: calling sinners to repentance and then speaking the forgiveness of sins to repentant sinners!
And this task was to begin “in Jerusalem.” After all, you remember how Jesus prayed in Luke 23:34 for those who crucified Him? Yes, that’s right, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” He forgives sinners because He’s the only FORGIVER! It begins in Jerusalem. And it continues as you read the Book of Acts. The “promise of” the Father, namely, the Holy Spirit poured out from “on high” on Pentecost, that Jesus Himself promised, results in Peter and the other apostles 24-7-365 calling sinners to repentance in order to forgive them their sins as Jesus mandated here in Luke 24.
Here is where the church is losing her nerve. After all, the 21st century church desperately wants to be relevant and to be a power player in the world. She wants to be recognized and congratulated. That’s what the Jesus Gets Us commercials are all about. The message is: Do anything that floats your boat. Jesus gets you. He’s OK with whatever. And so the church is tempted to stop preaching the “R” verb. Never calling sinners to repentance. And when the church does that, she will not and cannot preach Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus, then, the One who died for sinners is piously, purposely and yet tragically and devilishly divorced from sinners and all their sin. Keep sinners from hearing the message that all their sin is forgiven because of Jesus’ Good Friday death and Easter resurrection, the gospel is lost and the church ceases to be the church.
So it bears repeating, for the church to be the church, she is to not only to be repented and receive Jesus’ forgiveness, but also that the church preach repentance for forgiveness to all sinners for whom Jesus died. So, when you’re dealing with a sinner, no matter what the sin, you don’t say, “You’re OK. Jesus understands. He gets you.” No, you say, “You’re not OK. Repent. And I’m here to forgive you in Jesus’ Name.” And as the church does this in Jesus’ Name, Jesus Himself is the one doing the repenting and forgiving. To be repented and faith-ed in Jesus Name is to be repented and faith-ed by Jesus Himself.
So, if you’re picking up what I’m throwing down, the church doesn’t need to be relevant. The church needs to be faithful! Yes, that’s right faithful!
And so, I will preach what Jesus expects and blesses. Here goes. It’s time for all of us to be repented. That we all tell the truth about ourselves and not lie. We truly are sinners. Not just today but every day. And then, it’s time for all of us to trust only in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. And every Sunday give a hearty “Amen!” to these words spoken in Jesus’ Name: “As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (LSB p. 151).
After all, resurrection forgiveness spoken and given in Jesus’ Name is resurrection forgiveness spoken and given by Jesus Himself! No matter if He spoke it on that first Easter afternoon or this morning, the 3rd Sunday of Easter here at Trinity. And, as you believe, so you have. What joy! What a church! What a Jesus!
In the Name of Jesus.
Brent Kuhlman's Blog 