Embodying Resurrection: Luke 24 and Acts 3

I preached the following sermon this past Sunday (April 19th) at Riverton Fellowship Circle. The texts I am referring to are Luke 24:36-48 and Acts 3:12-19.

This week’s story comes from the Gospel of Luke.

Following Easter Sunday, which we celebrated 2 weeks ago, the disciples were confused and afraid.

 They had heard that Jesus has risen, but many of them were still confused? How is this possible? How could Jesus be alive?

They saw him on that cross outside of Jerusalem just a couple of days ago, crying out to God: “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?”

Was this rumour of Jesus being alive some sort of ploy by the romans to make them come out of hiding? Crucifixion is the sentence for rebels, If their Rabbi was killed for leading a rebellion, maybe the romans wanted to capture his followers so they could face the same punishment.

but it was Mary Magdalene and the other women that supported them that said that the tomb was empty, and Simon Peter, Jesus’ second in command says that he saw Jesus. Both are people that they could trust  And just a couple of minutes ago two disciples came into the door saying that they had walked all the way to Emmaus with Jesus, and that he had explained to them why the Messiah had to suffer.

Their confusion only increased when suddenly Jesus is there. It’s a Ghost! Oooooooooooooooooooh!

Or at least they thought it was a ghost.

But Jesus shows them that he is real.

He tells them  Look at my hands and my feet. It’s me! Touch me and see; a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you see I do.”

They touch him, but somehow the disciples are still suspicious, so Jesus tells them to get him food, apparently even if you can touch them, Ghosts still can’t eat.

Then once he’s proven that it is him, he explains how this has happened:

He says:

“This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

Even though everything they needed to know about Jesus was available in the old Testament, the disciples still needed Jesus to make it real before they could understand.

David Steinmetz explains this in his article: Uncovering a Second Narrative: Detective fiction and the Construction of Historical method.

When you read a Sherlock Holmes, or an Agatha Christie novel, three things happen:

First you read the main story where the detective goes around looking for clues, while obviously something happened, you aren’t quite sure what, you don’t know who did it.

Secondly the detective reveals who did and how.

Finally the detective walks you through the original story and explains how everything makes sense with this new information.

This is what Jesus is doing. The Disciples knew the story of the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, but they were still waiting for someone to save them.

Then Jesus comes, lives a life telling them they are saved, but he’s crucified

Now that he has returned from the grave, he explains how the old testament told his story, even if they didn’t know how to read it.

Finally he sends them out telling them to preach:

“ repentance for the forgiveness of sins to be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.^”

They need to go out and preach repentance for forgiveness of sins.

And just as Jesus first presented the real world evidence of his resurrection: by letting them touch him and by eating their food, before he presented the textual basis for his resurrection, Jesus’ followers need to demonstrate the real world evidence of what repentence looks like before we can expect the people we are talking to to listen to what we have to say.

We are the hands and feet that Jesus tells the wanderers to look at to see the resurrection.. We are the evidence that sparks people to look at their own lives and change.

For me, the people's whose actions allowed me to understand the good news are my grandparents

Donald Wenger  was the son of a Farmer, Born in Pennsylvania to a conservative Mennonite family, he was called into pastoral ministry by the drawing of lots.

Back then, when they needed a new pastor, they would pick a couple people from the congregation and put their names in the songbooks, shuffle the song books around, and then pick one. The person whose name was picked was then their pastor.

Even though he didn’t feel qualified to be a pastor because he was not familiar with the bible, he still pastored in pennsylvannia for several years because that is what GOd was telling the community. Then he was given the opportunity to learn more about the bible at a small school in southern Ontario, he brought his wife and 4 children to Kitchener, a city about an hour south west of Toronto. Where my Dad was born.

While studying there, a congregation learned about this student and asked him to be their pastor, letting him use his class notes for his sermons. He led three congregations in southern Ontario before being led to leave the ministry to start a cheese and meat store in Toronto, then become an insurance sales person, and finally a Christian book distributor. But the whole time he showed what it meant to be a follower of God. He read his bible, he loved his family, and he helped those around him any way he could.

My Grandmother Ruth, worked as a cashier in a general store, then as a teacher before becoming a mother to five children, she walked diligently alongside my grandfather, together they sponsored a family of Laotian refugees who now consider Don and Ruth Wenger as their own parents. She also has her own ministries. She covers all of us in prayer every day. And drives other people in their retirement complex to get groceries. Now that my Grandfather has dementia and can’t read anymore, she reads the bible to him daily. They embody resurrection living to me. They love each other, and everyone that comes into contact with them very much.

I didn’t know how much an impact they made until I was a freshman in university. I attended a congregation in Toronto, and the second week I was there, I told someone my full name and they recognized it.

 It turns out that 40 years ago, my grandparents had attended that very congregation, and had shown them the same love then that I had witnessed myself. They remembered my grandparents as people who cared for those who needed help. And 40 years later they were still a part of that congregation’s story.

I look at the story of my grandparents and see God at work, building his resurrection community. My grandparents embody lives transformed by following God, and seeing that transformation, their grandchildren are able to then listen to the biblical story, believe, and repent, seeking God’s forgiveness and transformation.

Let’s go back to the bible, Just before the Acts text we read today, a couple of weeks after Jesus' appearance, the disciples were walking to the temple and Peter and John healed a lame beggar. This leads to the part we read today. When people question what they’ve done, Peter and John are able to teach them the gospel. Telling them about Jesus, and how the people in Jerusalem had killed him, and how he was resurrected.

They demonstrated the transforming power of the Gospel through their healing, then they teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Telling them to turn to God so their sins may be forgiven, and their lives transformed.

Let’s be like those disicples, who demonstrate the resurrection power in their lives, and share the gospel, even if they are afraid at first.

Let’s be like my grandparent’s whose lives act as witnesses to the faith they taught me and my cousins.

Let’s embody Christ’s resurrection for those that come after us. So that when they see how we live, and listen to what we say, they too will repent and follow Jesus.