They Beheld The Resurrected Lord

Introduction

The day that the religious world deems as Easter. We’re glad that you’ve come. The holiday, if you so call it, of Easter, is of course a man-made holiday. And there are pagan origins, even the name Easter, just look it up. But there is nothing wrong with us emphasizing the resurrection of Jesus on any Sunday. Because, brethren, today is not resurrection Sunday. Only every Sunday is resurrection Sunday. And this is the day that our Lord raised from the dead, and we remember that every week. And when we take of the Lord’s Supper, we think of that every single week as well. And so I I hope that we are all putting the Lord first every day of the week and remembering the Lord every first day of the week and not just today what the religious world remembers as Easter.

I want to give a word of reminder to our members about the invitation board back in the hallway there. We’ve got a little over 50 invites, and the goal is 500. So if we come up far short, y’all are going to embarrass me big time. So let’s work to see if we can. No, I don’t mean uh I don’t mean that y’all are going to be an embarrassment to me. Okay. I mean I’m going to be embarrassed for putting such a high goal. So let’s see if we can’t do a little bit more damage to uh, or or not damage, but in a good way. See if we can’t invite some people. I’m going to get my words together this morning, sooner or later. This was all unplanned so far.

So let me begin what I’ve planned. Fifty days. Fifty days. A lot can happen in 50 days. Your whole life can change in a period of 50 days. You could change jobs and be in a new area. You could lose or gain a massive amount of weight in as short a period as 50 days. Nations have fallen in such a time. In the time of the return, it took 52 days, once the people put their mind to it to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. A lot can happen in a period of 50 days. Fifty days was a time period between the Passover and Pentecost, the two Jewish feasts, which we are no longer under either one today. 50 days. In fact, the word Pentecost means 50th.

And that’s because it is the 50th day after the Passover. In the Old Testament, Pentecost is called Feast of Weeks. And at the time of the original Passover, when the Israelites were still in Egypt and the angel of the Lord actually passed over the houses, they were still in bondage. But yet 50 days later, and where were they? They were on Mount Sinai and they were a free people at the Feast of Weeks. A transformation.

1. Passover: Bickering and Pride

A transformation that is almost unbelievable to see the state of these men at Passover, and then the state of these men at Pentecost. It is astounding. So we’re going to take a look at that, and we’ll look at before and after and then in between and what changed them. And make application to ourselves as we go along in our own transformation. And so, 50 days from Passover to Pentecost. I kind of stole this sermon from Phil Roberts. But he’s no longer alive. So I don’t think he would mind me using his material, but it’s good and material. Passover. We’re going to start with looking at before the transformation. There were all kinds of problems that were going on at Passover and shortly before. For example, there was bickering and pride.

Bickering and pride. When Jesus gave a dry run of the Lord’s Supper, that instituting of the Lord’s Supper, the apostles were arguing about who is the greatest. That’s hard to imagine. That at that moment in time, that specific moment in time, the apostles were arguing, and of all things about who’s the greatest. I mentioned in the class, uh, some of you may remember Shobiz Pizza. That was before Chuck E. Cheese. And there was a game that you could play called whack-a-mole. They may still have it today, and you have this bat that had that’s patted, and these little moles pop their heads up, and you have to knock the heads down just as fast as you possibly can. And what the apostles were doing is the apostles were playing whack-a-mole with one another.

They didn’t want anybody’s head popping up any higher than their own. And as soon as somebody did, they wanted to knock it down, knock it down, knock it down. They wanted the preeminence. And brethren, we have to make sure that we are not, like the apostles were being, seeking the preeminence, wanting the attention and the number one spot, and wanting to knock down anybody’s head who happens to pop up any higher than ours. Jesus rebuked them for this, and he told them, if you want to be great, you have to be a servant. And in fact, that was the same night that we have John 13, John chapter 13. So here they were, observing the Passover meal, observing this first Lord’s Supper, worried about who’s the greatest the whole time.

And their feet were filthy. Now, one of the stinkiest things about having boys, and when I say stinky, I mean literally, is when they’ve been playing and get all sweaty and hot and they get in the car and you’re all closed up and they take their shoes off. Imagine how dirty the apostles’ feet were. Just utterly filthy. And it was a common, common courtesy to wash one another’s feet. Well, that had not been done. And here they are eating the first Lord’s Supper. And their feet are filthy. Without a word. Jesus arises, girds himself with a towel, and the Lord of heaven gets down on his knees. Just imagine Jesus getting down on his knees. You could have heard a pin drop. And he has a basin with water, and he begins to scrub the filthy, nasty feet of the apostles.

I want you to picture a person in your mind, a real person in your life that you really have a hard time liking. I’m trying to use nice words here. Somebody you have a hard time liking. Okay? Picture their face. Now picture them sitting in a chair looking down at you as you are on your knees washing that brother or sister’s nasty feet. Imagine that they are filthy. And you take the shoes off of that brother or sister and you begin to wash their feet. You know what that does to you? It changes you. And it changes them. That’s what Jesus wanted his apostles to become as feet washers. Not just literally, but symbolically as well in every way, to put themselves below and not always worried about whose heads are popping up higher than theirs.

But they were too worried about their rights to wash one another’s feet. And Jesus told them, I’ve set an example for you so that you should do as I, your master have done. You ought to be washing one another’s feet, and we ought to be doing that. Jesus said, You all will fall away from me. Peter said, Even if all fall away from you, I will not fall away from you. Even if I have to die with you, I will never forsake you. And it wasn’t just Peter who said that. Mark 14 31 says that all the rest were saying the same thing, even if even after die with you, I will never forsake you. You know, it might be easy for us to say things like that.

It was easy for Peter and the apostles to say right then and there. But when they were later faced with it, they failed. Now they were willing to die, but on their own terms. But when things were not what they expected, they they did not remain faithful and they fled. Do you know that martyrdom, believers dying for their faith, is very alive and well in today’s world. I heard a preacher recently who had done some research, and I can’t say exactly except for according to what he said. He said, in the last 100 years, there has been more martyrdom than in the previous 2,000 years combined. Now I don’t know how you could even really actually know that. But what I did take away from that is that there’s a lot of martyrdom in the world today, and it’s getting worse.

2. Confusion and Misunderstanding

And we live in a bubble. America. We don’t know what’s going on in the world. And we might be able to stand here boldly and say, Oh, I would die with the Lord. That’s easy to say when you don’t have a gun to your head, asking to confess, are you a Christian or are you Muslim? That’s easy to say, isn’t it? But when it comes down to it, would we be able to stick to that confession? The apostles sadly did not. So it was arrogance to make this prideful boast. Well, there was also confusion, and there was misunderstanding about all sorts of things. They were confused about Jesus’ death and resurrection. Now, this goes back to the transfiguration, which is months before Passover, but they still had that misunderstanding at the time of Passover.

After Jesus came down from the mountain, he told his apostles, Don’t tell anybody about this until I rise from the dead. And they started speaking to one another. What’s he talking about? Resurrection from the dead? Some mystical thing. They had no clue that what he meant was, well, the resurrection from the dead. Sometimes we like to complicate things when they’re as simple as Greg was saying earlier. Resurrection. And one day we are going to be resurrected. It’s simple as that. They just didn’t get it. They didn’t understand about Judas being the betrayer. You might be in John chapter 13. I’ll be looking at some verses in a moment. In verse 21, when Jesus had said this, he became troubled in spirit and testified and said, Truly, truly I say to you that one of you will betray me.

And they begin looking at each other and wondering, Well, well, who is this? And keep in mind, as they are eating, uh, they’re not sitting at a table, they’re reclining. And so Jesus, I’m not going to get down on the ground again, but Jesus was actually down on the ground, and the apostle whom he loved, which was John, was in his bosom in front of him. I don’t know where Peter was, but Peter asked John, who is it? Meaning, ask Jesus. And John leans back on his bosom and he says, Who is it, Lord? And Jesus says, The one whom I dip this morsel and give it to, he’s the one. You’d think, but that’s pretty obvious. He gave it to Judas. Now, they didn’t get it.

I don’t know why. Well, I think I do know why. They didn’t get it. And then he even said, What you do, do quickly. And they thought, well, Judas is the treasurer, so I guess that means he’s going to maybe go buy some things for the feast, or maybe he’s going to go give something to the poor. They had no clue that he was about to go betray them. Even then Jesus, he had just said it plainly for them. They were, they were lost. They were clueless. They didn’t know where Jesus was going. You look there at the end of verse 33, Jesus said, Where I’m going, you cannot come. And in verse 36, Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? I mean, I’ll go anywhere you go.

He couldn’t grasp that Jesus was talking about death. Was talking about heaven. Jesus said, Where I go, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later. Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you right now? I will lay down my life for you. They were confused about the way to the Father. You see there at the end of verse 3 in chapter 14, Jesus said, Where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I’m going, verse 4. And Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know the way where you are going. How do we know the way? Jesus said, I am the way. The truth and the life. They were really obtuse. I remember when I was in college, there was a girl that we were kind of sort of dating.

And we were having this conversation, and I don’t know what I said, but she I guess she didn’t like it. She said she was kind of intellectual. She said, That was very obtuse. And I didn’t know whether I should say thank you or what, because I didn’t know if it was a compliment. I was too obtuse to know what obtuse meant, but it means uh it means kind of annoyingly uh oblivious. He just, okay, this is obvious. You should be getting this point. They were so oblivious. They were confused about seeing uh the Father. You see there at the end of verse 7, Jesus says, From now on you know him, God, and have seen him. And Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.

Jesus said, Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show me the Father? They were confused about going to war for Christ. When Jesus was arrested that night, when he was about to be arrested, the apostle said, Shall we fight with the sword? Like, we will if we need to, but I don’t know what’s going on here. And uh, before Jesus could even answer, Peter just whack uh pulls out his sword and starts hacking away and cuts off the right ear of Malchus, the servant of the high priest. You think he was aiming for his ear, by the way? He was trying to cut his head in half or cut his head off, and somehow it was dodged.

He’s got his ear. And Jesus rebuked Peter, and then he said to Malchus, here’s your ear back. I’m sorry about that. He didn’t actually say that. But they didn’t, they they were clueless as to the nature of the kingdom, and you know, they’re they were lost about so many things in their minds. But can’t we relate to that? We’re we’re sometimes so confused about things, and you read something, and maybe you’ve read a passage a dozen times or more, a hundred times throughout your life, and you never you never understood it until one day it clicked. And you look back and you said, now why didn’t I understand that? It was so simple, it was so straightforward. And a lot of times the thing that gets in the way, and what got in the way with the apostles was their their presuppositions.

3. Laziness and Unpreparedness

They could not fathom the idea of a Messiah who loses. And he didn’t lose. But in their minds, that’s what was happening. A Messiah who dies? I can’t conceive of a Messiah who dies. So when he says he’s going to die and be resurrected, he must mean something else because I know he’s not going to die. You see? He can’t get arrested and get. Well, he did get arrested, so now what do we do? We give up. So we also see laziness and unpreparedness. Laziness and unpreparedness. When let me just start with this. Through the years, I’ve learned in my preaching that people are going to sleep when I preach. I don’t care how loud I talk or fast I talk or what I do, pound on the pulpit.

There are always going to be some people who sleep, and I know it’s not always people’s fault. People have medication and different things. There was a lady at one church who would, every sermon, she would sleep, and her head would be 90 degrees. I don’t think she heard a single sermon I preached. There was one time when there was a young man sitting on the second row, and he was asleep with both arms on the pew in front of him and his head down like this, and I went and pounded on the pulpit, and he I thought he was going to hit the roof. I’ve become nicer over time, and I just know that that’s just going to happen. But it’s frustrating, though. It’s frustrating. When I know that this information is what we all need, and some people aren’t getting it because they’re asleep.

Now, I’m not saying that as a rebuke to you. I’m saying that so we can relate to what was going on in Gethsemane. Because Jesus took his apostles, and then he took Peter, James, and John further into the garden of Gethsemane, where he was going to be arrested. And he told them, watch with me and pray. And he was deeply disturbed and distressed. And he went further into the garden and he began to pray. Father, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but your will be done. Fervent praying. Great sweat drops as blood came from his head. He prayed so fervently. And he came back to his apostles hoping that they were watching and praying, and what were they doing? Asleep. This happened three times.

I mean, this was the big event at hand. You don’t get bigger than the event that was about to happen. This is the event that God had foreknown before the foundation of the world, the lamb that was about to be slain. This is what was prophesied in Genesis 3.15 and in Genesis chapter 12, and in 2 Samuel chapter 7. There was going to be one who was going to die. And as a result, our sins were going to be forgiven, and he was going to be made king on the throne. This was the culminating event. The most important and weighty event of all human and divine history was about to happen. The big event. And what are the apostles doing? They’re sleeping. It is really hard to understand that until we start looking introspectively.

4. Betrayal and Denial

And when we realize that we enter a spiritual slumber at times when we need to be alert and we need to realize the importance of the work that’s at hand. And instead, we’re sitting on our hands and we are symbolically sleeping through it all. We do the same thing that the apostles did. We also see at Passover betrayal and denial. Betrayal and denial. Judas, the apostle, led a big group of men with swords and clubs. And he told them, the one whom I kiss, he’s the one. You ever wonder why he said that? You know, he could have said any number of things. You know, the one that I point at, he’s the one. Or any other number of things to designate Jesus. But he said, the one I kiss.

May we never betray the Lord. But especially may we never betray him with a kiss. And that’s the way that Christians normally betray the Lord. With a show of, I really love you, Lord, while we’re handing him over to be crucified. And that’s what Judas did. Hypocrisy. And what did the rest of the apostles do? They forsook him and they fled, just like Jesus said that they would. Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. You know why they fled? Because they didn’t understand this. They thought he’s the Messiah. He’s supposed to call down his angels from heaven and wipe out these enemies, and now he’s going to allow himself. He goes out to them and allows himself to be arrested. What’s going on here?

And so their whole world view of what Jesus was, who he was, was just turned completely upside down. And so they fled. And brethren, here’s the point of application for us. Whenever our faith is shaken to its core, and I’ve had that done to me before. Don’t forsake him and flee. It happens too often. A cousin of mine that was my roommate at Florida College, Christian. A couple of years later, he’s an atheist. Another cousin of mine who I baptized. Years later, he got into evolution and science. And now he’s an atheist. Another cousin of mine who was going to be a preacher, his daddy’s a preacher. In the process of training to be a preacher, in the very process. Was contacted by that other cousin I told you about, the middle one, and he became an atheist.

That’s what’s happening to our young people today. They’re being pulled away from the Lord, not for denominationalism and not for liberal churches, but for atheism. That’s what’s happening. They’re giving up on faith altogether because they look at it and they say, you know what? It doesn’t make sense to me. And instead of hanging on to the Lord and working through their problems and letting the pieces of the puzzle come together, what they do is they forsake him and flee. But I tell you, I’ve had my faith shaken to its core, and I’m still standing here today. And we’re all still standing here today. And we will not forsake him and flee, though our faith be challenged. And it will be challenged more and more in this society of unbelief that is around us, and our young people need to remember when your faith is challenged, and when it seems like that just cannot be true.

Hang on to the Lord. Don’t do what the apostles did, because you know what would have happened if they had but hung on to the Lord for a few short days and a few short weeks. They would have understood. And they did come to understand, but only after they had forsaken him. Don’t let that happen to us. Peter denied the Lord three times. Have you ever thought about the fact that Peter denied the Lord the first time before a servant girl, Mark tells us? He is cowering before a servant girl. I don’t know the Lord. I don’t understand what you’re even talking about. And as he went on to deny the Lord, he said, I don’t know the man. He wouldn’t even say his name. Jesus?

Never heard of him. I don’t know the man. You ever thought about that? He was making no connection with Jesus in his relationship at all. Total separation. May we never do that. And never be embarrassed to stand up for Jesus Christ, our Savior in the workplace and at school and in every place that we are. To boldly proclaim the name of Jesus in a spirit of humility, not a holier than thou, kind of a thing. But may we never do what Peter did and deny the Lord.

5. Pentecost: Clarity, Confession and Unity

So we see a lot of problems, don’t we, at Passover. But now let’s fast forward. And I want to show you just the utter change that had happened from Passover to Pentecost. We fast forward to Pentecost, which is in Acts chapter 2. And Greg did a good job reading some from Peter’s sermon here about the resurrection. And what do we see? Do we see confusion any longer? We see clarity and understanding. Now they didn’t understand everything. They still had some misunderstanding about the kingdom and some misunderstanding about the Gentiles and so on. But regarding the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross, regarding the Messiah and who he was, they had complete clarity and understanding about that. As Peter said, starting verse 22 of Acts 2, men of Israel listen to these words.

Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know. This man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. You nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. That is the theme of the preaching of the apostles throughout the book of Acts. You killed him, God raised him, we are witnesses. They understood. Now, this was the same Peter who had said to the Lord, You surely will not die. And the Lord said, Get behind me, Satan.

Now he understands about Jesus’ death. We also see confession and loyalty. Confession and loyalty. The same Peter who had denied the Lord three times in verse 36 of Acts chapter 2 said, Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that this Jesus whom you crucified is both Lord and Christ. He wasn’t ashamed anymore. He was going to stand and boldly proclaim the resurrected Lord. And may we do the same.

Now this is the same group of men, the most powerful Jews that there were that Peter and John were standing before. These were the men who put Jesus to death. And look at what look at what Peter says in Acts chapter 4 and in verse 19. Peter and John answered and said to them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge, for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard. There’s nothing going to stop us.

Who had it put on the church sign out in the front, just a passage that condemned the sin of a homosexual lifestyle. And he had that put out there, and boy the uproar in the community. And one of the leading, you know, um gay lesbian people in the community came and just demanded that he take that down and even brought the news station there. The local news was there and interviewed him, and he said, No, we don’t hate people who are homosexual. We love them. We want to reach out to them. He said, But I’m just, I’m just putting out there what the Bible says, and I’m not going to take it down. We are not going to remove it by your threats. And I thought, now that’s a man of courage.

And may we take a stand for truth, not because we want to offend anybody. We say everything in a spirit of love, but if the Bible says it, we stand behind it, and we’re not going to back down. Don’t let anybody make you back down from the truth of God’s word. Stand firm. And that’s what Peter did. And the same Peter who cowered at the Passover before a servant girl. Now stood before the most powerful men in the Jewish society and said, You’re not going to stop me. They were persecuted and they endured it. They were told, Don’t you dare go back to the kingdom, I mean, back to the temple, and they went right back to the temple. That’s exactly where they went. Do not let people coerce you, control you, and minimize your faith.

Well, we also see unity and servitude. There was no more of that pride and bickering that we saw at Passover. In Acts 4 and verse 32, it says that all the people, not just the apostles, were of one heart and one soul. I have a whole sermon on that verse. One heart and one soul. That’s a beautiful thought. They shared with each other generously. They were now washing one another’s feet. So we see just an amazing change in all these things that we’ve looked at. But the question is, what changed them? Why the transformation? Because I don’t care what reason you give, if it is human reasoning only, if it is a reasoning that is from natural causes, then this makes no sense. There is no way that these men in 50 days would have transformed to be the unstoppable force that they became and to turn the world upside down and to be willing to die for their faith because every apostle except John did die for their faith.

6. They Beheld the Resurrected Lord

What changed them? Well, first of all, and most importantly, they beheld the resurrected Lord. They didn’t just hear about it. When they heard about it from the women, they didn’t believe it. They needed to see it for themselves. And so Luke 24, starting verse 36, tells us of when they were gathered. Doors were locked for fear of the Jews. Jesus is dead. For all they know, he’s just dead and going to continue to be dead. And then suddenly, even though the doors were locked, Jesus appears in their midst. And he says, Hello. Peace be to you. That was a Jewish greeting. Hello. Do you have anything to eat? I wouldn’t have been able to talk. Can’t talk right now. Wouldn’t have been able to catch my breath.

Oh, can you imagine? And they fumble around and get him whatever to eat. And they had the opportunity to handle him and to touch him, and he showed them his scars. But who wasn’t there? We know he wasn’t there, don’t we? Judas wasn’t there, but he, I mean, Thomas. Well, Judas wasn’t there either. But Thomas wasn’t there. But he had opportunity to be there the next time on the Lord’s day, on the first day of the week. And he said, My Lord and my God. They were not easy to convince. They were not gullible. Sometimes we think, well, people in the first century, you know, they were superstitious and really easy to convince us. No, these were rational thinking human beings that were just as intelligent as we are.

I had a young man one time tell me. He said, Did you know that the word gullible is not in the dictionary? And I believed him. We can be gullible sometimes. We can be gullible sometimes. But the apostles were not gullible. They were not going to believe unless they saw the Lord for themselves. They demanded that. And so the Lord gave them what they what they needed. Acts 1 and verse 3. Acts chapter 1 and verse 3. To these he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs. It doesn’t just say proofs, it says convincing proofs. It doesn’t just say convincing proofs, it says many convincing proofs appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.

And I want to tell you, brethren, that’s what changed the apostles. That’s what turned them from being cowards into being the unstoppable force that they became. That’s what gave them the conviction they had to go and turn the world upside down. If they hadn’t seen the resurrected Jesus, I tell you what, Christianity would never have gotten off of its feet in the first place. We wouldn’t have it. It would be a blurp in our history books. But it happened. And it’s established. And that’s the foundation upon which we stand. Because if the resurrection is true, it’s all true. And if it’s not true, none of it’s true. But it’s true. And we have many convincing proofs. One of them being what changed the apostles. Men don’t die for something they know to be a lie.

It might be a lie, but they think it’s true. But they don’t die for something they know to be a lie. If this is all a hoax, if it was all a joke, then they wouldn’t give their lives up for it. If it was just a hallucination, which a group doesn’t see a hallucination at the same time, that eats, that can be touched. You see, it’s logical. I want us all to realize, brethren, that Christianity is faith, but it is not an empty faith. It is not an unreasonable faith. It is not a blind faith. It is a faith that is backed by powerful evidence. And Jesus knows that. That’s why He provides it.

Well, there are many other things we could talk about, but we’re running out of time over time. Christ opened their minds to understand the scriptures. They beheld the ascension of the Lord, which also filled them with courage and joy. And they received the Holy Spirit, as Jesus promised in John chapters 14, 15, and 16, the paraclete, which is the comforter, would guide them into all truth and teach them, remind them of all the things that Jesus had told them. And this filled them with conviction and confidence and reassurance. But the most compelling of all these reasons that changed the apostles is the fact that they beheld and touched and handled the resurrected Lord. As we think about this change in the apostles, this amazing, dramatic change from one extreme to the complete opposite extreme.

Conclusion

This change involved a shift in their part from focusing on themselves to focusing on Jesus Christ. They were so selfish before, but they were so selfless afterwards. And so as we come to a better understanding of the big picture of God’s plan, as we come to a more accurate understanding of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, we also, brethren, can transform our lives if we shift our focus from self to Savior. A lot can happen in 50 days. A lot can happen in 50 minutes. A lot can happen in 50 seconds. How long does it take to get plunged into the waters of baptism? Something you’ve been waiting for 50 years to do. Could be accomplished in 50 seconds. Don’t do what one man who I knew did and stand and just grip the pew in front of you until your knuckles turn white.

Walk to the front. Put on the Lord in baptism. Come to him in faith, repenting of your sin, confessing his name, and burying that man of sin and being raised with the Lord to walk in newness of life. You can do that this morning. There is no reason why any of us should leave this building today without salvation. It’s available to you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is an anti type which now saves us, baptism. Not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but an answer of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus our Lord. Why don’t you come today and be baptized as we stand and sing the song of invitation?