Christ's Resurrection and the Church's Life

The Risen Lord Appears to His Disciples

1. The Lord appeared to His disciples after His resurrection, as you have heard, and greeted them, saying, "Peace be with you" (Luke 24:36). This is true peace, the greeting of salvation. The very word "greeting" derives its name from "salvation." What could be better than for Salvation itself to greet mankind? For Christ is our Salvation.

He is our Salvation—the one who was wounded for us and nailed to the tree. He was taken down from the tree and placed in the tomb. From the tomb He arose with His wounds healed, yet His scars preserved. He judged it beneficial for His disciples that His scars should remain, so that the wounds of their hearts might be healed. What wounds? The wounds of unbelief.

He appeared to their eyes showing real flesh, yet they thought they were seeing a spirit. This is no small wound of the heart. A dangerous heresy has persisted among those who have remained in this wound. But do we suppose the disciples weren't wounded because they were so quickly healed? Just imagine, beloved, if they had continued in this wound, thinking that the body which had been buried couldn't rise again, believing instead that a spirit in the image of a body deceived their eyes. If they had persisted in this belief, or rather this unbelief, we would have to mourn not their wounds but their death.

2. What did the Lord Jesus say? "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your hearts?" (Luke 24:38). If thoughts rise up into your heart, they come from the earth. But it's better for a person not to have thoughts rising up into the heart, but for the heart itself to rise upward. This is where the Apostle wanted believers to place their hearts when he said, "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory" (Colossians 3:1-4).

What glory? The glory of the resurrection. What glory? Listen to the Apostle speaking about this body: "It is sown in dishonor, it will be raised in glory" (1 Corinthians 15:43). The Apostles were unwilling to attribute this glory to their Master, their Christ, their Lord. They didn't believe His body could rise from the tomb. They thought He was a spirit, though they saw His flesh, and they didn't believe their own eyes.

Yet we believe those who preach but don't show Him. They didn't believe Christ who showed Himself to them. What a serious wound! Let the remedies for these scars come forth. "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet," where I was fixed with the nails. "Touch and see" (Luke 24:38-39). You see, yet you don't really see. "Touch and see. A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." When He had said this, so it is written, "He showed them His hands and His feet" (Luke 24:40).

3. "While they still disbelieved for joy and were amazed" (Luke 24:41). Now there was joy already, and yet hesitation continued. This was because an incredible thing had happened—yet it had truly happened. Is it still incredible today that the Lord's body rose from the tomb? The whole cleansed world has believed it. Whoever hasn't believed it remains in uncleanness.

Yet at that time it was incredible. Persuasion was directed not only to the eyes but also to the hands, so that faith might descend into their hearts through their bodily senses. From their hearts, this faith would then be proclaimed throughout the world to those who neither saw nor touched, yet believed without doubt.

"Do you have anything here to eat?" (Luke 24:41), He asked. See how thoroughly the good Builder is constructing the edifice of faith! He wasn't hungry, yet He asked for food. He ate by His power, not out of necessity. In this way, the disciples recognized the reality of His body, which the world would later acknowledge through their preaching.

4. If there are perhaps any heretics who still maintain in their hearts that Christ only appeared to look like flesh but wasn't truly flesh, let them now abandon this error. Let the Gospel persuade them. We merely criticize them for holding this opinion; He will condemn them if they persist in it.

Who are you who doesn't believe a body placed in a tomb could rise again? If you're a Manichean who doesn't believe He was even crucified because you don't believe He was born, you're claiming everything He showed was false. He showed falsehood, and you speak truth? You don't lie with your mouth, but He lied with His body?

Look, you think He appeared to men's eyes as something He wasn't—that He was a spirit, not flesh. Listen to Him—He loves you; don't let Him condemn you. Listen to Him speaking. Look, He's speaking to you, unhappy one. He says to you, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your heart? See My hands and My feet. Touch and see, because a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have" (Luke 24:38-39). Did the Truth speak this and deceive? It was a body then, it was flesh; what had been buried appeared. Let doubt perish and praise follow.

5. He showed Himself to the disciples. What is meant by "Himself"? The Head of His Church. He foresaw His Church, which would spread throughout the world in you, but the disciples couldn't yet see it. He showed the Head and promised the Body.

What did He add next? "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you" (Luke 24:44). What does "while I was still with you" mean? Wasn't He with them when He was speaking to them? What is "while I was still with you" ? He means, "When I was still mortal, as you are now." He was with them as one who still had to die with those who would die. Now He is no longer with them in that way: "For I am with those who will die, but I will never die again."

This is what He meant when He said, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me" (Luke 24:44). I told you that everything must be fulfilled.

"Then He opened their understanding" (Luke 24:45). Come then, O Lord, use Your keys, open our minds so that we may understand. Look, You explain everything, yet You aren't believed. They think You're a spirit, though they touch You and handle You roughly. Yet those who touch You still hesitate. You teach them from the Scriptures, but they don't understand You. Their hearts are closed—open them and enter in. He did exactly this: "Then He opened their understanding." Open, O Lord, open the heart of anyone who doubts concerning Christ. Open the understanding of anyone who believes Christ was a mere illusion. "Then He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45).

6. And "He said to them" (Luke 24:46). What? "Thus it was written, and thus it was necessary." What was necessary? "That the Christ should suffer and rise from the dead the third day" (Luke 24:46). They saw this—they saw Him suffering, they saw Him hanging on the cross, they saw Him alive again after His resurrection.

What then didn't they see? The Body, that is, the Church. They saw Him, the Bridegroom, but the Bride was still hidden. Let Him promise her too: "Thus it was written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day." This is the Bridegroom; what about the Bride? "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47).

The disciples didn't yet see this—they didn't yet see the Church spreading throughout all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. They saw the Head and believed what the Head said about the Body. By what they saw, they believed what they didn't see. We're like them in this respect: we see something they didn't see, and we don't see something they did see.

What do we see that they didn't? The Church throughout all nations. What don't we see that they saw? Christ present in the flesh. Just as they saw Him and believed concerning the Body, so we see the Body and should believe concerning the Head. Let what we've each seen help us. Their seeing Christ helped them believe in the future Church; our seeing the Church helps us believe that Christ has risen.

Their faith was completed, and ours is completed too. Their faith was completed by seeing the Head; ours is completed by seeing the Body. Christ was made fully known to them and to us, but He wasn't fully seen by them, nor has He been fully seen by us. They saw the Head and believed in the Body; we see the Body and believe in the Head. Yet Christ is lacking to no one; He is complete in all, though to this day His Body remains incomplete.

The Apostles believed; through them many of Jerusalem's inhabitants believed; Judea believed; Samaria believed. Let the members be added, let the building rise upon the foundation. "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:11).

Let the Jews rage madly and burn with jealousy. Let Stephen be stoned, and Saul hold the garments of those who stone him—Saul, one day to become the Apostle Paul. Let Stephen be killed and the Jerusalem church scattered in confusion. From it went forth burning brands, spreading themselves and their flame. In the Jerusalem church, these believers were like brands set on fire by the Holy Spirit, when they were "of one heart and one soul toward God" (Acts 4:32). When Stephen was stoned, that unified group suffered persecution. The brands were scattered, and the world was set on fire.

7. Then, intent on his furious plans, Saul received letters from the chief priests and began his journey in cruel rage, breathing out threats, thirsting for blood, dragging believers away in chains and hurrying them off to punishment—to satisfy himself with shedding their blood. But where was God? Where was Christ, who had crowned Stephen? Where, but in heaven!

He looked down on Saul in his fury, and from heaven He called out, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" (Acts 9:4). "I am in heaven, and you are on earth, yet you persecute Me. You don't touch My body, but you're trampling My members. Yet what are you accomplishing? What are you gaining? 'It is hard for you to kick against the goads' (Acts 9:5). Kick all you want—you only hurt yourself. Put aside your fury and regain your soundness. Abandon your evil plans and seek good help."

By that voice, Saul was struck to the ground. Who was struck down? The persecutor. With just one word he was overcome. Where were you going? What was your fury driving you toward? Now you follow those you were hunting; now you suffer persecution for those you were persecuting. The preacher rises up—the one who was struck to the ground as a persecutor.

He heard the Lord's voice. He was blinded, but only in body, so that his heart might be enlightened. He was brought to Ananias, instructed on various points, baptized, and emerged as an Apostle. Speak then, preach, preach Christ, spread His teaching, O noble shepherd of the flock who were once a wolf.

See him, observe this man who once was raging: "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14). Spread the Gospel; scatter with your mouth what you've conceived in your heart. Let the nations hear, let the nations believe, let the nations multiply, let the Lord's blood-adorned bride spring forth from the martyrs' blood.

From her, how many have already come! How many members have cleaved to the Head and still cleave to Him and believe! They were baptized, and others will be baptized, and after them others will come. At the end of the world, the stones will be joined to the foundation—living stones, holy stones—so that at the end, the entire building will be constructed by this Church, this very Church that now sings the new song while the house is being built.

As the Psalm itself says, "When the house was being built after the captivity" (Psalm 96, title). And what does it say? "Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth" (Psalm 96:1). How great a house this is! But when does it sing the new song? While it's being built. When will it be dedicated? At the end of the world.

Its foundation has already been dedicated, because Christ has ascended into heaven and dies no more. When we too have risen to die no more, then we shall be dedicated.