Carey's Bible Study Notes
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road to emmaus
life of christ: luke 24.13-35, john 20.19-23
Appearances to the Disciples
introduction
Before we look at some specific examples of Jesus� resurrection appearances, we need to look first at the evidence the NT presents for the resurrection of Jesus. We can study about the implications of the resurrection all day long; however, if we do not nail down that it occurred, then we are wasting our time.
the fact that jews were the first to believe the resurrection occurred points to its truth
First, the fact that the early Christians were Jews serves as evidence that Jesus rose from the dead. Whatever else the resurrection of Jesus indicates, it first of all indicates that Jesus is truly God the Son. Whereas Jesus did teach on a number of different subjects, the primary theme of His teaching was that He was God the Son who had ultimate claim on the lives of all people. To validate this claim, Jesus claimed that God the Father would raise Him from the dead. If God raised Jesus from the dead, then He was truly God the Son because otherwise God would not have raised Him up since to do so would have resulted in vindicating a blasphemous liar. Now a Jew simply would not make up such a story. The very idea that God would become a man was totally repugnant to any Jew since Jews believed that God was so transcendent that He would never do such a thing. In fact, the Jews felt that God was so transcendent that they refused even to speak the name Yahweh out loud for fear of committing blasphemy. The Greeks on the other hand would have had no problems with such a belief; however, this belief did not originate from Greeks but from Jews.
the empty tomb points to the truth of the resurrection
A second piece of evidence which does not prove the resurrection but which is necessary for resurrection to occur is the empty tomb. The empty tomb could be explained a number of ways. For example, grave robbery could have produced an empty tomb; however, grave robbers don�t leave the clothes of the dead body in the tomb. The next explanation for the empty tomb simply is more difficult to believe than resurrection itself. Some claim the disciples stole the body, then claimed that Jesus rose from the dead, and then died for their concocted belief. First, nobody does that. Maybe a single individual would but not a group of 11 men. One of them would have broken down and confessed the nefarious plot. Second, the 11 would have had to overpower a Roman guard watching over the tomb. That simply would have not happened, especially since the disciple displayed cowardice at every chance they got. Third, the Roman soldiers and Jewish Temple police would have searched high and low for the body. They had a lot at stake in proving Jesus had not risen from the dead. They would have searched for it until they found it, and then they would have produced it as evidence that He had not risen from the dead. Since no document, even outside the NT, even hints at such a search, we know that such a search did not occur. Why? Because the Jewish religious leaders knew they were confronted with resurrection. In order to destroy the truth, they did what everybody else does in their shoes, they tried to silence the disciples, then scourged them, and then finally killed them when the disciples refused to be silenced (see Acts 4:21; 5:40; 7:54-60).
the resurrection appearance point to its truth
Third, the resurrection appearances themselves point to the truth of the resurrection. Throughout the four Gospels we see claims people made that they had seen the risen Lord. Paul gives us the official list of these resurrection appearances (1 Cor. 15:5-8). At one point Paul says, "One time 500 people saw the resurrected Jesus at the same time. If you don�t believe me, ask them because most of them are still living!" (1 Cor. 15:6). Not only did they claim to have seen the resurrected Jesus, they also willingly died for that belief.
the presence of christ in our lives today
Finally, even today millions claim that they have a relationship with the risen Lord. They claim that God hears and answers their prayers positively when they come to Him on the basis of their relationship with Jesus. They claim that they sense God�s presence in an unparalleled way because of their relationship with Christ which they had never experienced before that relationship with Christ. Moreover, they claim that they experience a quality of life because of their relationship with Christ they could have never manufactured on their own. Each one of these pieces of evidence could be picked to pieces on its own; however, taken all together, they present powerful evidence for the claim that Jesus literally rose from the dead on that first Easter Sunday.
appearance to the disciples on the road to emmaus (Luke 24:13-35)
It is Sunday afternoon and two of Jesus� disciples (from the larger group of disciples and not the original 12) are walking from Jerusalem towards the town of Emmaus 6.8 mi. NW of Jerusalem. They are discussing the extraordinary events of that very day. Apparently some of the women followers of Jesus had gone early to the tomb that morning and had discovered that the stone sealing the tomb had been rolled away and that Jesus� body was no longer there. What�s even more, the women had claimed to have either seen angels or even Jesus risen from the dead. All this seemed quite preposterous, especially in light of the fact that the people presenting these claims were probably nothing more than hysterical women.
As the men are walking, they are joined by a stranger, Jesus. Now at this point the disciples do not recognize Jesus because Jesus refused to allow them to recognize Him. Why? Jesus has something He wishes to teach them. Once He reveals Himself to them, they won�t listen to His words but will rather focus purely on the fact that He is alive. Some important information though must be shared with them so that they in turn will be able to share it with others once He has ascended to His Father.
When Jesus quizzes the disciples as to the topic of their conversation, they are taken aback. In their opinion, Jesus must have been on another planet these past couple of days because all that anybody could talk about was the strange stories coming out of Jerusalem. First, Jesus whom they had believed to be the Messiah, the Deliverer of Israel, had actually been delivered up to the Jewish authorities and then crucified at the hands of the Romans. Since He failed to overpower the Romans and Jewish enemies, He most likely now was not the Messiah. (Little did they realize that Jesus delivered them from their true enemies of Satan, sin, and death because He DID allow them to crucify Him). Moreover, all this occurred 3 days ago; and since nothing had occurred afterwards, all was probably lost. (They might have been alluding to the fact that Jesus had claimed that He would rise from the dead on the third day, and yet that had not happened). Yet they had received reports that women had visited the tomb which was now empty and had claimed that they had encountered the resurrected Jesus.
At this point Jesus mildly rebukes them. Although the Jews were proficient in their knowledge of the OT, they were ignorant with regards to its meaning. They knew the facts of the OT but not its meaning. They knew its stories but not the purpose of the stories. For Jesus to enter His glory, He had to undergo death because His kind of glory was a resurrection-kind of glory. In order to experience resurrection, a person must die. Jesus continues by saying that all that had occurred to Jesus during these past 3 days including His resurrection formed the content and theme of the entire OT itself. Starting from the books of Moses and working His way through the rest of the OT, Jesus shows how these events fulfilled the OT.
Now as Jesus and the 2 other disciples enter Emmaus, Jesus acts as if He is going to go further on His journey. The disciples though are excited about the teaching Jesus has just committed to them. They want to hear more; therefore, they press Him to share their supper with them and then spend the evening with them. Jesus consents and enters their home where they prepare supper for them. When it comes time for blessing the food, Jesus takes the bread, breaks it, and then blesses it. Suddenly the eyes of the disciples are open, and they realize that Jesus is the One with them. He immediately vanishes from their sight.
At this point the disciples begin to converse with each other about what has just happened. They said that while Jesus was explaining the Scriptures to them that their hearts burned within them They had never heard the OT taught that way before. They decide that although it is evening that they will rush back to Jerusalem to inform the other disciples about their encounter with Jesus.
jesus appears to the 12 disciples (John 20:19-23)
When the disciples from Emmaus arrive in the upper room where the other disciples are, they begin to share about their encounter with Jesus. The other disciples then inform the 2 from Emmaus that Jesus has not only appeared to the 2 disciples from Emmaus and the women earlier that morning but that He has also made a special appearance to Peter. John describes the situation in which they disciples are in. The disciples have locked the doors to the house where they are staying because they fear the Jews. The Jews for the longest had been thwarted in their attempts to destroy Jesus. Now that they have had their way with Him, they have tasted blood and will think nothing of destroying the Jesus Movement completely by destroying His disciples. This little detail though helps us to understand what happens next. While the doors are locked and there is no way for a person to enter the room without them locking the doors, Jesus suddenly appears in their midst. The implication is that Jesus� body has been transformed to such an extent that it could materialize out of thin air.
Jesus then greets them with the customary Jewish greeting of that day, "Peace be with you." Although this was the customary Jewish greeting, Jesus means it much more than just a simple "Hello!" Jesus is claiming that because of His death and resurrection, God is not extending peace to all who receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. No longer is there hostility between that person and God. No longer is the future uncertain. No matter what may happen to me in this life, my future is secure because Christ the risen Lord holds my future in His hands.
The disciples though are skeptical of what is taking place before them. Luke says that it was hard for them to believe because of the fear that their joy would be short-lived. They feared that all this was going to be too good to be true. Moreover, they are probably afraid because they think they are seeing a ghost. To allay these fears though, Jesus presents His body to the disciples. He is no mere phantom because they can see and touch the wounds in His hands, side, and feet. (Luke says His body can even eat fish, something a ghost cannot do). Neither is He a resuscitated corpse as the locked doors prove. Instead He is the resurrected Lord who has conquered death by radically transforming His body so that death no longer has mastery over Him or over any person who aligns himself with Him.
Jesus then declares to them their peace with God. Not only have they experienced a great salvation as characterized by the word "peace," Jesus now honors them and us by commanding us to become a part of the mission the Father has entrusted to Him: "As the Father has sent Me, I send you." Note several things here. First, Jesus� mission is not over simply because He has ascended into heaven. The words "Father has sent Me" imply that once the Father has given Jesus the mission, it remains Jesus� until the mission is completely finished. Well, the mission is not finished because not all people have subjected themselves to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Jesus will still be operating just by a different method. Instead of working directly by being on earth, He will send His Spirit upon His followers who will then finish the method. The mission is still Jesus�; it�s just that He�ll be finishing it by working through His disciples. Furthermore, this implies that mission itself has not changed. God is still reaching out to people because of what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross.
Next, Jesus breathes upon the disciples, saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit." The other time in the Bible that God breathed upon mankind was in Gen. 1 when God breathed into Adam so that Adam became a living soul. When God breathed the first time, He was involved in the first creation. Well, God is breathing again upon mankind. This time though God is not creating something out of nothing and giving it life; instead, He is breathing into His creation so that it can be re-created just as He was re-created at His resurrection. This second breath means that God is re-creating His creation and that the disciples are the first to enjoy this re-creation.
The result of the disciples being filled with the Spirit is that now they are equipped to carry out Jesus� mission of forgiving the sins of others and of retaining the sins of others. I don�t have to carry out this mission in my own strength and power; in fact I can�t do it that way. Instead, Christ now lives in me to empower me to complete His mission. To be more precise, I won�t be the one carrying out the mission; because Christ lives in me, He will be carrying out the mission through me.
The statement in John 19:23 does not mean that I have the power to forgive sins. What it does mean is that I have the right to announce that a person has been forgiven if s/he has met the terms for forgiveness and the right to announce that a person has not received forgiveness if that person has not met the terms for forgiveness. If a person claims that s/he has repented and accepted Jesus as both Savior and Lord, then I can confidently assure that person that s/he is saved. The reverse likewise is true. If a person does not meet the conditions for forgiveness, then I can confidently say that that person has not received forgiveness from God.
conclusion
I would like to go back to one point in the story of the disciples from Emmaus. Many claim that the disciples recognized Jesus when He broke the bread in order to stress the belief that whenever a person partakes of the Lord�s Supper, he will experience the true presence of Christ. While I don�t want to argue whether or not this actually happens while celebrating the Lord�s Supper, I don�t believe that is what is happening here. The Lord�s Supper while pointing to the death of Christ also points to more. At the end of the institution of the Lord�s Supper, Jesus said that He would not drink the wine with them until He drinks it with them anew in the kingdom of God. The Lord�s Supper points to a greater feast, banquet or supper which will occur when Jesus returns. Because one of the key characteristics of the kingdom of God was joy, the Jews compared the kingdom of God to a great banquet because a banquet or feast is one of the most joyous events we as people experience. When Jesus breaks bread that day, He is implying that the disciples are now experiencing the kingdom of God to an extent they had never experienced before. When Christ came, they experienced it because He the King of the kingdom was in their midst. Now that the resurrection had taken place and the Spirit was being given to Jesus� followers, His followers were now experiencing the kingdom on a higher level. All that remains now is that Christ return and finish at He began after His resurrection. On that day, a great feasting-kind of joy will occur.
Note in the Book of Acts that the disciples continued to practice breaking bread even after Jesus ascended into heaven. As they broke bread together and dined with each other because of their relationship with Christ, they experienced His presence and His joy. One of the major descriptions of those early Christians was that they loved each other. In fact they called this getting together "love feasts" (Jude 12). Fellowship is not simply sitting around, eating potluck suppers, and going after the pastor. It is coming together on the basis of our relationship with Christ and then experiencing His presence in our midst.