11. To all the apostles on Mount Olivet, at his ascension (Luke 24:51). (continued)
our Lord's appearing when Thomas was not present. If Thomas was not present on this occasion, how can we explain St. Luke speaking of "the Eleven"? Doddridge must supply the answer: "As Paul calls the company of apostles 'the twelve' (1 Corinthians 15:5), though
Judas the twelfth person was dead: so Luke here calls them the 'eleven,' though Thomas the eleventh person was absent, as appears from John 20:24." See Mark 16:14.
34. "Appeared to Simon." This appearance to Simon Peter alone is only mentioned here and in 1 Corinthians 15:5. The circumstances of the appearance we do not know.
It may be well to mention here the eleven separate appearances of our Lord after his resurrection.
1. To Mary Magdalene alone (Mark 16:1; John 20:14).
2. To the women returning from the tomb (Matthew 28:9-10).
3. To Simon Peter alone (Luke 24:34).
4. To the two disciples going to Emmaus (Luke 24:13)
5. To the apostles at Jerusalem, except for Thomas, who was absent
6. To the apostles at Jerusalem a second time, when Thomas was present (John 20:26, 29).
7. At the sea of Tiberias, when seven disciples were fishing (John
21:1).
8. To the eleven disciples, on a mountain in Galilee (Matthew 28:16).
9. To more than 500 brethren at one time (1 Corinthians 15:6).
10. To James on his own (1 Corinthians 15:7).
11. To all the apostles on Mount Olivet, at his ascension (Luke 24:51).
35. Recognized by them when he broke the bread. To apply this to the Lord's Supper is mere accommodation of Scripture words and not justified by the context.
LUKE 24:36-43
JESUS APPEARS TO THE DISCIPLES
We should observe in this passage the singularly gracious words with which our Lord introduced Himself to His disciples after His resurrection. We read that He suddenly stood in the midst of them and said, "Peace be unto you."
This was a wonderful saying when we consider the men to whom it was addressed. It was addressed to eleven disciples, who three days before had shamefully forsaken their Master and fled. They had broken their promises. They had forgotten their professions of readiness to die for their faith. They had been scattered, "every man to his own," and left their Master to die alone. One of them had even denied Him three times. All of them had proved backsliders and cowards. And yet behold the return which their Master makes to His disciples! Not a word of rebuke is spoken. Not a single sharp saying falls from His lips. Calmly and quietly He appears in the midst of them, and begins by speaking of peace. "Peace be unto you!"
We see, in this touching saying, one more proof that the love of Christ "passes knowledge." It is His glory to pass over a transgression. He "delights in mercy." He is far more willing to forgive than men are to be forgiven, and far more ready to pardon than men are to be pardoned. There is in His almighty heart an infinite willingness to put away man's transgressions. Though our sins have been as scarlet He is ever ready to make them as white as snow, to blot them out, to cast them behind His back, to bury them in the depths of the sea, to remember them no more. All these are scriptural phrases intended to convey the same great truth. The natural man is continually stumbling at them, and refusing to understand them. At this we need not wonder. Free, full, and undeserved forgiveness to the very uttermost is not the manner of man. But it is the manner of Christ.
Where is the sinner, however great his sins, who need be afraid of beginning to apply to such a Savior as this? In the hand of Jesus there is mercy enough and to spare. Where is the backslider, however far he may have fallen, who need be afraid of returning? "Fury is not in Christ." (Isaiah. 27:4.) He is willing to raise and restore the very worst. Where is the saint who ought not to love such a Savior, and to pay Him willingly a holy obedience? There is forgiveness with Him, that He may be feared. (Psalm 130:4.) Where is the professing
Christian who ought not to be forgiving toward his brethren? The disciples of a Savior whose words were so full of peace, ought to be peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated. (Coloss. 3:13.)
We should observe, for another thing, in this passage, our Lord's marvelous condescension to the infirmity of His disciples. We read that when His disciples were terrified at His appearance, and could not believe that it was Himself, He said, "Behold my hands and feet—touch me and see."
Our Lord might fairly have commanded His disciples to believe that He had risen. He might justly have said "Where is your faith?
Why do you not believe my resurrection, when you see me with your own eyes?" But He does not do so. He stoops even lower than this.
He appeals to the bodily senses of the eleven. He bids them touch
Him with their own hands, and satisfy themselves that He was a material being, and not a ghost or spirit.
A mighty principle is contained in this circumstance, which we shall do well to store up in our hearts. Our Lord permits us to use our senses in testing a fact or an assertion in religion. Things ABOVE our reason we must expect to find in Christianity. But things CONTRARY to reason, and contradictory to our own senses, our Lord would have us know, we are not meant to believe. A doctrine, so-called, which contradicts our senses, is not a doctrine which came from Him who bade the eleven touch His hands and His feet.
Let us remember this principle in dealing with the Romish doctrine of a change in the bread and wine at the Lord's Supper.
There is no such change at all. Our own eyes and our own tongues tell us that the bread is bread and the wine is wine, after consecration as well as before. Our Lord never requires us to believe that which is contrary to our senses. The doctrine of transubstantiation is therefore false and unscriptural.
Let us remember this principle in dealing with the Romish doctrine of baptismal regeneration. There is no inseparable connection between baptism and the new birth of man's heart. Our own eyes and senses tell us that myriads of baptized people have not the Spirit of God, are utterly without grace, and are servants of the devil and the world. Our Lord never requires us to believe that which is contrary to our senses. The doctrine that regeneration invariably accompanies baptism is therefore undeserving of credit. It is mere antinomianism to say that there is grace where no grace is to be seen.
A mighty practical lesson is involved in our Lord's dealing with the disciples, which we shall do well to remember. That lesson is the duty of dealing gently with weak disciples, and teaching them as they are able to bear. Like our Lord, we must be forbearing and patient.
Like our Lord, we must condescend to the feebleness of some men's faith, and treat them as tenderly as little children, in order to bring them into the right way. We must not cast off men because they do not see everything at once. We must not despise the humblest and most childish means, if we can only persuade men to believe. Such dealing may require much patience. But he who cannot condescend to deal thus with the young, the ignorant, and the uneducated, has not the mind of Christ. Well would it be for all believers, if they would remember Paul's words more frequently, "To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak." (1 Cor 9:22.)
Notes on 24:36-43
36. "Peace be with you." This greeting implied that the great battle was fought and the great victory won over the prince of this world, and peace with God was won for man. It implied that our Lord came to his disciples with peaceful, gracious, and forgiving feelings, and with no resentment for their having forsaken him.
"Peace" was the last word in Zechariah's prophetic hymn; "peace on earth" was part of the good news proclaimed by the angels when Christ was born; "peace" was the proclamation which the seventy disciples were ordered to make in every house which they visited; "peace" was the legacy which our Lord left and gave to the apostles on the night before he was crucified; and "peace" was the first word which he spoke when he appeared among them again after his resurrection (Luke 1:79; 2:14; 10:5; John 14:27).
Peace, in short, is one main ingredient of the Gospel. All of St. Paul's letters begin with a gracious wish of "peace" to those to whom they are addressed.
LUKE 24:44-49
Let us observe, firstly, in these verses, the gift which our Lord bestowed on His disciples immediately before He left the world. We read that He "opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures."
We must not misapprehend these words. We are not to suppose that the disciples knew nothing about the Old Testament up to this time, and that the Bible is a book which no ordinary person can expect to comprehend. We are simply to understand that Jesus showed His disciples the full meaning of many passages which had hitherto been hidden from their eyes. Above all, He showed the true interpretation of many prophetical passages concerning the Messiah.
We all need a like enlightenment of our understandings. "The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. 2:14.) Pride, and prejudice, and love of the world blind our intellects, and throw a veil over the eyes of our minds in the reading of the Scriptures. We see the words, but do not thoroughly understand them until we are taught from above.
He that desires to read his Bible with profit, must first ask the Lord Jesus to open the eyes of his understanding by the Holy Spirit.
Human commentaries are useful in their way. The help of good and learned men is not to be despised. But there is no commentary to be compared with the teaching of Christ. A humble and prayerful spirit will find a thousand things in the Bible, which the proud, selfconceited student will utterly fail to discern.
Let us observe secondly in these verses, the remarkable manner in which the Lord Jesus speaks of His own death on the cross. He does not speak of it as a misfortune, or as a thing to be lamented, but as a necessity. He says, "The Messiah must suffer, and rise again the third day."
The death of Christ was necessary to our salvation. His flesh and blood offered in sacrifice on the cross were "the life of the world."
(John 6:51.) Without the death of Christ, so far as we can see, God's law could never have been satisfied—sin could never have been pardoned—man could never have been justified before God—and
God could never have shown mercy to man. The cross of Christ was the solution of a mighty difficulty. It untied a vast knot. It enabled
God to be "just, and yet the justifier" of the ungodly. (Rom. 3:26.) It enabled man to draw near to God with boldness, and to feel that though a sinner he might have hope. Christ by suffering as a Substitute in our stead, the just for the unjust, has made a way by which we can draw near to God. We may freely acknowledge that in ourselves we are guilty and deserve death. But we may boldly plead, that One has died for us, and that for His sake, believing on Him, we claim life and acquittal.
Let us ever glory in the cross of Christ. Let us regard it as the source of all our hopes, and the foundation of all our peace.
Ignorance and unbelief may see nothing in the sufferings of Calvary but the cruel martyrdom of an innocent person. Faith will look far deeper. Faith will see in the death of Jesus the payment of man's enormous debt to God, and the complete salvation of all who believe.
Let us observe, thirdly, in these verses, what were the first truths which the Lord Jesus bade His disciples preach after He left the world. We read that "repentance and forgiveness of sins" were to be preached in His name among all nations.
"Repentance and forgiveness of sins" are the first things which ought to be pressed on the attention of every man, woman, and child throughout the world. All ought to be told the necessity of repentance. All are by nature desperately wicked. Without repentance and conversion, none can enter the kingdom of God. All ought to be told God's readiness to forgive every one who believes on Christ. All are by nature guilty and condemned. But any one may obtain by faith in Jesus, free, full, and immediate pardon. All, not least, ought to be continually reminded, that repentance and forgiveness of sins are inseparably linked together. Not that our repentance can purchase our pardon. Pardon is the free gift of God to the believer in Christ. But still it remains true, that an impenitent man, is an unforgiven man.
He that desires to be a true Christian, must be experimentally acquainted with repentance and remission of sins. These are the principal things in saving religion. To belong to a pure Church, and hear the Gospel, and receive the sacraments, are great privileges. But are we converted? Are we justified? If not, we are dead before God.
Happy is that Christian who keeps these two points continually before his eyes! Repentance and forgiveness are not mere elementary truths, and milk for babes. The highest standard of sanctity is nothing more than a continual growth in practical knowledge of these two points. The brightest saint is the man who has the most heart-searching sense of his own sinfulness, and the liveliest sense of his own complete acceptance in Christ.
Let us observe, fourthly, what was the first place at which the disciples were to begin preaching. They were to begin "at
Jerusalem."
This is a striking fact, and one full of instruction. It teaches us that none are to be reckoned too wicked for salvation to be offered to them, and that no degree of spiritual disease is beyond the reach of the Gospel remedy. Jerusalem was the wickedest city on earth when our Lord left the world. It was a city which had stoned the prophets and killed those whom God sent to call it to repentance. It was a city full of pride, unbelief, self-righteousness, and desperate hardness of heart. It was a city which had just crowned all its transgressions by crucifying the Lord of glory. And yet Jerusalem was the place at which the first proclamation of repentance and pardon was to be made. The command of Christ was plain— "Begin at Jerusalem."
We see in these wondrous words, the length, and breadth, and depth, and height of Christ's compassion toward sinners. We must never despair of any one being saved, however bad and profligate he may have been. We must open the door of repentance to the chief of sinners. We must not be afraid to invite the worst of men to repent, believe, and live. It is the glory of our Great Physician, that He can heal incurable cases. The things that seem impossible to men are possible with Christ.
Let us observe, lastly, the peculiar position which believers, and especially ministers, are meant to occupy in this world.
Our Lord defines it in one expressive word. He says, "You are witnesses."
If we are true disciples of Christ, we must bear a continual testimony in the midst of an evil world. We must testify to the truth