Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Hello, I'm Josh.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: And today on reading the Gospel, we are studying the event Jesus appears to his disciples.
This takes place in three Gospels. Mark 16, verse 13, Luke 24, 33, 49 and John 20, 19, 23.
Follow along with us today as we read in Luke chapter 24, beginning in verse 33.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: And the two disciples arose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem.
And they found the 11. And those who were with them gathered together saying, the Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon.
Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace to you.
But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arouse 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.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: And when he, he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and they were marveling, he said to them, have you anything here to eat? And they gave him a piece of boiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. And he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.
And that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations. Because beginning from Jerusalem, you are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.
What an incredible experience.
John tells us that the disciples, they are in this room and the doors are locked.
They're gathered together.
It's not an open to the public session when Jesus comes in. And this immediately follows our previous episode where Jesus meets these two disciples on the road to Emmaus. So now they've come back and they're meeting with the 11 disciples and sharing this good news. And Jesus comes to them.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: It's interesting that in the Gospel of John we see the reason, or we read the reason why the door was locked. Because they were afraid. Afraid of the Jews, Afraid of, you know, the Leaders of the nation who are working with Romans to, you know, kill Jesus Christ.
How come that they realize that Jesus was risen, that the angels talked to the women, that that Simon and the beloved disciple were convinced that Jesus is not there, he is risen.
How come that they are still afraid?
Is it possible to have that much evidence today and still not believe?
[00:04:21] Speaker A: I think maybe they believed, but not fully.
Maybe they were still trying to convince themselves because even when Jesus comes in amongst them, they still don't fully believe that that's Jesus.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: Yeah. He said, look, touch here, look, the marks of the nails, right?
And they didn't believe it.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: And he said, well, give me some food to eat. And they gave him some food.
[00:04:49] Speaker B: Is eating more believable than marks of death and resurrection?
[00:04:53] Speaker A: I guess you would need to know the culture and superstitions.
If we take general culture today, you know, the thoughts of ghosts and things, they might see someone and say, oh, that's a ghost. He's still dead. This is his spirit coming back to be with us. And if maybe they had some thoughts similar to that, that this is the departed spirit of Jesus coming to visit them or something along those lines.
Or maybe they thought of it as a demon coming back to portray an evil spirit, an evil spirit coming back to portray and torment and torture them. Then they come down to touching and feeding.
[00:05:40] Speaker B: I like what you said, that faith comes in steps.
It's a gradual experience.
And this is why we have to grow into evidence.
And we have to.
And based on that growing evidence, we experience it in steps. And eventually our faith goes stronger and stronger from grace to grace.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: And that's what God does in our lives with everything.
And he's continuing to do this with the disciples. He's meeting them in different places and in different ways. And something that they saw Lazarus rise from the dead, so they know it can be done.
But here I think we have to remember their idea was that Jesus was going to overthrow the Romans and set up a kingdom here on this earth.
That's what they were waiting for. And so when Jesus died, it completely shattered their understanding of what the Messiah was supposed to be.
And we have stories of this in history where.
Where groups of people believed something about the Bible and then it doesn't happen and it shatters them. And what do they do in those moments?
There are those who turn from God and say, I don't want anything to do with God. There are those who turn back and seek, well, where was I wrong? And try to study the Scriptures. And I think this is what God is doing with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. And here he's pointing them back to the Scriptures to strengthen their faith so that they don't fall into that trap of turning.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: So this is another Bible study.
Last episode was a Bible study on the way to Emmaus, and now is a Bible study in this place, most likely the upper room.
Because during the week before crucifixion, Jesus Christ and his disciples stayed in Bethany, in the house of Lazarus, Mary and Martha. And the only fixed place they had in Jerusalem, they asked permission to stay there for the celebration of the Passover was the upper room.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: And this is why it's important to constantly study the Word of God.
You know that when we are mistaken, we might have studied the Bible and believe something.
And when it doesn't turn out that way, how are we going to react? What are we going to do? Are we going to throw out the Bible and walk away? Or are we going to go back and study and figure out, where did I go wrong?
[00:08:32] Speaker B: So we have to be careful how our experiences are shaping the understanding of the same word that we read prior to those experiences over and over.
As a child, we understand some Bible verses in one way, as an adult, in a different way, as a parent, even in a more mature way.
And in the golden years, we may see the same Bible verses from a different perspective.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: Yeah. And case in point, I was just talking to you before we started recording about my personal devotions. I had where I was reading Second Corinthians and read a verse that I thought meant one way.
And I had read it one way my whole life. And in reading it again, it opened up that verse in a completely new light to me.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: And it was such a revelation. You're so excited about that.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Exactly. And I shared that with you with great excitement. And we do that. This is what God does to us. He reveals himself through the Bible in new ways all the time.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: And this is why we need a fresh revelation of God, especially of his character every day.
Because that fresh revelation surprises us, sometimes shocks us, but most of the times realizes our views with God's view of that reality.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: Yeah. And I. I think of that like marriage.
So the other day I was going back and I was looking at pictures of my wife and I when we were in college and getting married. And I was trying to get a slideshow together for my son's graduation.
And as. As I'm going through these pictures, I see my wife. And she's beautiful and everything, but I'm glad that I Continued the relationship.
Because my wife, that I know today, I love her so much more for who she is. It's an, it's a total new experience, different experience than who we were back then.
And if I had have stopped talking to her, if I had to stop communicating with her and had in my mind this, this woman that I met 20 something years ago and then I saw her today, I wouldn't know who she was.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: And this is not just about the person, it's about how you see the marriage.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: So the institution of marriage and the. Is the same, but you experience it differently. It's a gradual or it is supposed to be a gradually, always increasing experience.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: Of love, which is the exact same thing with God. It's that gradual, always increasing experience of love and understanding. And, and this is why we do this. This is why we encourage you to read your Bible every day to study so that, that you come into a deeper knowledge and a deeper love with God.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: And I like how Jesus Christ or Luke explains the purpose of the words of Jesus Christ was to open not their eyes first to recognize him, but their minds to recognize him or to see him in the Scriptures, all three portions of the Scripture, right?
[00:12:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: The prophets, the law of Moses and the writings or psalms.
And in the same way Jesus Christ will be with us for a moment. We have a supernatural experience, the presence of God. But the textbook will stay with us. We'll continue to read day after day after day. And that is the Bible.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I want to touch on the, the very end of this because it's so important, he says after he's given them. This study says you are witnesses of these things and I'm sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. So when Jesus was on earth, he says, when I go back to the Father, I'll send the Spirit the comforter.
And we find that the disciples, they stay and they gather together and they pray until that day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes and speaks. And then all of a sudden they go and witness and, and Christianity spreads through the world in their lifetime. You know, they're, they're so powerful going and sharing this good news that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead.
And we have this same mission statement to go and spread the good news that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead to people around us and people who we meet and we share with.
[00:13:36] Speaker B: And I like the sequence in this last part as you mentioned.
First is the Scriptures.
After that, finding Christ in scriptures.
Next is the purpose of his resurrection was that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed.
We then study just for ourselves.
We study for those who do not have that understanding.
And right away is the mission field that is all nations, starting from Jerusalem. And the mission field is better defined in Acts chapter one, when it says Jerusalem first and Judea later. And Samaria would be the next step and all the way to the end or the edges of the earth.
And he re emphasizes in verse 48, you are witnesses of these things.
And because you are witnesses, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you.
But stay, because I am sending you.
But the actual sending comes from the Holy Spirit.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: Because the Holy Spirit was the gift to the church. The gift of the Spirit. And the Holy Spirit gives different gifts necessary for us to spread the Gospel. That means to extend that Bible study Jesus gave to the disciples in the upper room.
To all nations.
[00:15:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Let's pray.
Father God, we want that gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that we can share with others the good news that Jesus is coming soon.
I pray, Father, that just as the Holy Spirit came and gave gifts to the disciples in that upper room, that the gifts that he gives to us, we will use to be your witness.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: Amen.
