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Scripture Reading: Luke 24:1-53
In this message we shall begin to consider 24:1-53. This portion of the Gospel of Luke covers the crucial matters of the resurrection and ascension of the Man-Savior. Concerning the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, each of the four Gospels has its own point of view. Writing from his viewpoint, Luke speaks in particular of the Man-Savior’s walking and talking with two disciples on the way to Emmaus (vv. 13-35).
Before coming to Luke 24, I would like to give a word concerning Christ’s resurrection. After the Lord lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years, working in His ministry for three and a half years, He was crucified and buried. If He had remained in the tomb, that would have meant that God did not justify what the Man-Savior was and what He did. However, the Man-Savior was resurrected.
According to the New Testament, the Lord’s resurrection is mentioned in two ways. First, we are told that the Lord Jesus resurrected Himself, that is, that He raised Himself up. Speaking of His life, He said, “No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again” (John 10:18). In John 2:19 the Lord said that He would raise up His body in three days. The Lord Jesus had the power to die and to rise up from among the dead. Therefore, in one sense, He raised Himself up from the dead. On the other hand, the New Testament tells us that He was raised up by God. Concerning this, the Lord Jesus told the disciples that He would “be raised on the third day” (Matt. 16:21). Elsewhere the Lord said of Himself, “On the third day He shall be raised up” (Matt. 17:23). Acts 2:32 says, “This Jesus God raised up,” and Acts 3:15 speaks of the Lord as the Author of life, “whom God raised from the dead.” Furthermore, in Rom. 6:4 Paul says, “Christ was raised from among the dead through the glory of the Father.” On the one hand, the Lord raised up Himself; on the other hand, He was raised from the dead by God.
The Lord’s raising up Himself shows His life power, the ability in His resurrection life. But God’s raising Him from among the dead was a sign that He was justified and vindicated by God. God raised Christ from the dead as a proof that He justified what the Lord was and what He did on earth.
The Man-Savior lived in a way that others thought strange. His way of living was absolutely different from religion, culture, and society. He lived and worked in a very unusual way. If God had not come in to raise Him up from the dead, this would have meant that God did not justify Him. But God’s raising Christ up from the dead was a sign of God’s justification and vindication.
Romans 4:25 says that Christ “was delivered because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification.” The death of Christ fulfilled and satisfied God’s righteous requirements so that we may be justified by God through His death (Rom. 3:24). Christ’s resurrection is a proof that God was satisfied with His death for us.
If Christ had died on the cross, having been judged there by God, but had not been raised from among the dead, there would have been no justification or vindication rendered to Him by God. That would have affected our salvation because, in such a case, His death would not have been followed by God’s vindication. But God judged Christ in death and then raised Him up from the dead. God’s raising up Christ from the dead was His justification and vindication of what Christ was and did. From this we may have the assurance that God has accepted what Christ did for us on the cross. We are justified by God because of Christ’s death, and in Christ, the resurrected One, we are accepted before God.
Christ’s resurrection was also a sign of the success of His achievement. Suppose Christ had remained in the tomb after He died. If such had been the case, then what Christ did would not have been a success. But the Man-Savior’s resurrection from the dead is a strong sign of His great success in His universal achievement.
Christ’s resurrection was also His victory over the world, Satan, death, Hades, and the tomb. These five things caused the Lord Jesus to be put into the tomb. But when He came forth from the tomb in resurrection, this was His victory over the world, Satan, death, Hades, and the tomb. As Peter says in Acts 2:24, “Whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death, since it was not possible for Him to be held by it.” Because Christ is resurrection (John 11:25), death could not hold Him. It is impossible for death to hold resurrection; resurrection overcomes death.
Christ’s resurrection was also His glorification. Christ’s resurrection brought Him into glory (Luke 24:26; 1 Cor. 15:43a; Acts 3:13a, 15a).
The Lord’s divine nature, His divine being, was concealed and confined within His flesh. Through death the confinement of His humanity, His flesh, was broken, and then in resurrection He was released as the very God with His nature and riches. Because He was released from the confinement of His flesh in resurrection, He was glorified. This was the reason the Lord said to the disciples on the way to Emmaus that it was necessary for Christ to suffer and enter into His glory (Luke 24:26). It was through His resurrection that He entered into glory.
Furthermore, Christ’s resurrection was His transfiguration into the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). He was Christ in the flesh, but He has been transfigured into the pneumatic Christ, the Christ who essentially is the life-giving Spirit. Resurrection was His actual transfiguration. Before His death and resurrection, He was transfigured on the Mount of Transfiguration. However, that transfiguration was only temporary. His actual transfiguration was His resurrection, for in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit who imparts life into us.
Christ’s resurrection was also the germination of the new creation. Just as His death was the termination of the old creation, so His resurrection was the germination of the new creation. What He terminated in His death He germinated in His resurrection. This germination includes us; we were regenerated through His resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3). Hence, His resurrection is our germination and regeneration. In this way we have become the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). We are regenerated people in His new creation.
Furthermore, Christ’s resurrection produced the church as His Body, even as His reproduction (John 12:24; 1 Cor. 10:17). Therefore, the church is Christ’s reproduction in resurrection. When the Lord Jesus was incarnated, He was an individual. But when He was resurrected, He became corporate, a corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12), the Christ who is both the Head and the Body.
We need to understand these seven aspects of Christ’s resurrection. Resurrection was God’s vindication of the Lord’s life and work, resurrection was the Lord’s great success in His universal achievement, resurrection was His victory over all enemies, resurrection was His glorification, resurrection was His transfiguration into the life-giving Spirit essentially, resurrection was the germination of the new creation, and resurrection produced the church, the Body, as Christ’s reproduction. These matters are clearly revealed in the Acts and Epistles. We all need to know Christ’s resurrection to such an extent.
In chapter twenty-four of his Gospel Luke gives us a record of Christ’s resurrection and, in particular, of His action in resurrection. Verse 1 says, “Now on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.” Christ resurrected on the first day of the week. This signifies His resurrection brought a new start with a new age for God’s kingdom. In this verse “they” refers to the women mentioned in verse 10 and in 23:55. The Lord’s resurrection had been accomplished, but the discovery of it required the disciples’ seeking in love toward the Lord. We know from 24:10 that the women who came to the tomb at early dawn included Mary the Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, who was the mother of the Man-Savior.
According to verses 4 through 7, “two men stood by them in shining clothing” and said to them, “Why are you seeking the living One among the dead? He is not here, but was raised. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise up.” The Man-Savior’s resurrection was the proof that God was satisfied with what He accomplished through death and was a confirmation of the effectiveness of His redeeming and life-imparting death (Acts 2:24; 3:15).
Returning from the tomb, the women “reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest” (v. 9). But “these words appeared to them as nonsense and they did not believe them.” The Greek word rendered “nonsense” is used in medical language of the wild talk of delirium (M. R. Vincent). Nevertheless, Christ’s resurrection was investigated and confirmed by Peter: “But Peter rose up and ran to the tomb; and stooping to look, he saw the linen cloths alone, and went away marveling in himself at what had happened” (v. 12).
In 24:13-35 we have an account of the Man-Savior’s appearing to two disciples. “And behold, two of them were going on the same day to a village named Emmaus, sixty stadia away from Jerusalem. And they were talking to one another concerning all these things which had occurred.” One stadion equals about six hundred feet; therefore sixty stadia would equal about seven miles. These two disciples were fully disappointed, deeply discouraged. Because they were discouraged, they did not stay in Jerusalem. Instead, they left Jerusalem for Emmaus.
Luke 24:15 and 16 say, “And it came about as they were talking and discussing, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.” Here the Man-Savior was in resurrection walking with the two disciples. This differs from His walking with His disciples before His death (19:28).
Verse 15 simply tells us that Jesus drew near and went with the two disciples. We are not told where He came from. After the Man-Savior entered into resurrection, He became omnipresent. Since He is omnipresent, we cannot stay away from Him. When the disciples were in Jerusalem, He was with them. When they left Jerusalem for Emmaus, He walked with them. It is a fact that the resurrected Christ is with us wherever we may be. If we walk in a downward direction, we bring Him with us. In Luke 24 the two disciples brought the Lord with them on the way from Jerusalem to Emmaus.
In 24:17 the Man-Savior said to the two disciples, “What are these words which you are exchanging with one another while you are walking? And they stood still, looking sad.” Then one of the disciples said to Him, “Are you a stranger dwelling alone in Jerusalem and do not know the things which took place in it in these days? And He said to them, What things? And they said to Him, The things concerning Jesus the Nazarene, who became a Man, a Prophet, powerful in work and word before God and all the people” (vv. 18-19). Here we see that in their blindness they thought that they knew more than the resurrected Savior. The two disciples knew the Savior in the flesh (2 Cor. 5:16), not in His resurrection. They knew His power in work and word, not the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:10).
In 24:13-35 the Man-Savior opened the Scriptures and also the eyes of the disciples. He said to them, “O foolish and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” (vv. 25-26). The Greek word translated “foolish” indicates to be dull of perception. In verse 26 “to enter into His glory” refers to the Lord’s resurrection (v. 46), which brought Him into glory.
Verse 27 tells us that “beginning from Moses and from all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” “All the Scriptures” includes the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and Psalms (v. 44). The Scriptures are mentioned twice more in this chapter. Verse 32 speaks of opening the Scriptures, and verse 45 of understanding the Scriptures. In the Scriptures there is a full record, a complete revelation, concerning Christ and His death and resurrection. However, because these matters were not opened up to the Lord’s followers, He came to them in order to open the holy Word to them.
The Lord also came to them for the purpose of opening their eyes. When they drew near to the village where they were going, and He acted as though He would go farther, “they urged Him, saying, Stay with us, because it is toward evening and the day is already nearly over. And He went in to stay with them.” (vv. 28-29). The Greek words rendered “is already nearly over” literally mean “has already declined.” As they were reclining at the table, the Man-Savior “took the loaf and blessed it, and having broken it, He handed it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him; and He disappeared from them” (vv. 30-31). The Savior walked with them (v. 15) and stayed with them (v. 29), but it was not until they offered the loaf to Him and He broke it that their eyes were opened to recognize Him. They needed Him to walk and stay with them. But He needed them to offer the loaf to Him so that He might break it that He could open their eyes to see Him. Once their eyes were opened, they recognized Him.
Not only did the eyes of these two disciples need to be opened; the eyes of Peter, John, and James also needed to be opened. After the two went back to Jerusalem, He appeared to the eleven and those assembled with them (vv. 33, 36). They were shocked by His appearing. In this portion of the Word the Man-Savior opened the Scriptures and also opened the eyes of His disciples.
As soon as the eyes of the two disciples were opened and they recognized Him, “He disappeared from them.” Literally the Greek here means, “He became invisible from them.” The Savior was still with them. He did not leave them; He only became invisible.
Luke does not say that the Lord Jesus went away. Rather, Luke tells us that He disappeared. To disappear is not the same as to go away. Here to disappear is a way of hiding. The Lord did not leave the two disciples; He simply caused His presence to be invisible. At first, His presence was visible, and then it became invisible. When the Man-Savior’s presence became invisible, He disappeared. But when His presence became visible, He appeared.
Christ is no longer in the flesh. In resurrection He has become the pneumatic Christ, the Spirit. Nevertheless, He still has a body. We do not understand how the Spirit can have a body.
The two disciples in 24:13-35 learned a great deal on their journey. They did not want to wait until morning to return to Jerusalem. “Rising up that very hour, they returned to Jerusalem” and “related the things that occurred on the road, and how He was made known to them in the breaking of bread” (vv. 33, 35). They had left Jerusalem in disappointment, but they returned greatly encouraged.
