The Never-Ending Story [10-11-26]
October 11, 2026
Luke 24:36-53
“The Never-Ending Story”
Luke’s design is quite simple. He sets out the story of our salvation history in a reasonable, clear, and methodical way.
Here’s what I mean.
The story of Jesus begins in heaven. The Son is pre-existent with the Father. Remember, back in Genesis, we read:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
The story begins when Jesus leaves heaven and comes to earth. The story ends when Jesus leaves earth to return to heaven. That’s where we’re at now, in these final verses of Luke’s gospel. It’s been a wonderful journey for these past two years. To paraphrase an old saying, “Don’t be sad that
the trip is over. Be thankful for the journey.”
The story of our salvation history begins with Jesus coming from heaven. It ends with his return to heaven.
Luke’s gospel begins with a terrified Zechariah visited by the angel Gabriel. Remember Zechariah? He is told his wife, Elizabeth, is pregnant. And they shall name their child, John. Luke’s gospel ends with the disciples being terrified by Jesus’ divine appearance. Sounds like we’re going to have to talk about fear at some point.
Luke shows us that, when Jesus begins his public ministry, he reads Scripture in the synagogue at Nazareth. We’ll see how here, Jesus ends his earthly ministry by showing how these Scriptures have been fulfilled.
Luke opens with people waiting. Waiting for babies to be born. Zechariah and Elizabeth. Mary and Joseph. Simeon and Anna. Luke ends with instructions from Jesus for people to wait:
“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.”
Finally, when Satan tempts Jesus in the wilderness, he offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus will worship him. Jesus refuses with the response that one is to worship God only. In this final chapter, the disciples worship Jesus with great joy. Luke now refers to him as the Lord Jesus.
With these things in mind, here’s Luke 24:36-53:
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 arise 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.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.
Then 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 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, 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.”
And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.
Here’s the first thing you might want to write down:
THE RESURRECTION IS A BODILY RESURRECTION.
If someone who claims to be a Christian tells you otherwise, they are a
fraud. Anyone who claims anything but that truth is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. No other way to put it. Remember what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:
“Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”
Can you imagine visiting a church for the first time on Easter morning and the preacher saying Jesus was not bodily resurrected? Sounds absurd, right? But it happens. There are pastors who reject the literal, bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Did you know that Paul was already hearing this heresy during his time? The more things change, the more they stay the same, right? There were people back then, just as there are today, who thought they were so smart and clever, they fancied themselves the smartest people in the room. To set them straight, Paul affirms:
“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”
1 Corinthians 15:20-22
Right from the start, Luke states with certainty that Jesus is resurrected bodily. That’s the point of verses thirty-nine and forty. After showing them his hands and feet, Luke uses the grammatically emphatic way to say, “It is I myself.” That’s how Jesus puts it. This is my body…let there be no doubt. Jesus drives the dark of doubt away. Amen?
Next comes a most beautiful part. Luke tells us, while they were in a state of disbelief from their joy and marveling. What does that tell you? They
don’t know which way is up. They’re beside themselves in sadness and fear and worry. They’ve got foggy brain.
In the midst of this, we notice two huge things.
First, how does Jesus treat them? What doesn’t Jesus do? He doesn’t chastise them. He doesn’t discipline them. He doesn’t talk down to them. He is ever so kind and patient with them. He simply eats a piece of fish with them. He’s not some scary ghost. He’s not some haunting apparition. He’s not a figment of their collective imagination. He is their physically resurrected Lord and Savior.
Do you remember what we saw on the night of his betrayal? At the Last Supper {again, notice how food is part of these key moments}, Jesus tells them, “Stop letting your heart be troubled…Why are you troubled? You are not losing me.” With that, Jesus launches into the promises of heaven. This is before the cross. But as they will soon come to realize, these promises of having a room in the Father’s house will be made possible because of the cross. So by eating a piece of fish, the resurrected Lord is harkening them
back to those promises. He’s patiently bringing them along.
The second thing going on here is how Jesus patiently walks them through the promises of God’s Word. We can only know the purpose and power of the cross through the witness of Scripture. We can only know the promise of the resurrection through the witness of Scripture. There’s no cosmically explosive moment sweeping over the disciples here. There are no supernatural moments. It’s simply a moment of eating a piece of boiled fish followed by an explanation of Scripture. Which is what we’re doing here. Which is what we always do. I love how pastor and author Scott Roberts puts it:
Your feelings re not divine revelation.
Your impressions are not Scripture.
Your experiences are not authoritative.
“God told me” is not a substitute for “God’s Word says.”
Stop chasing whispers, signs, feelings, encounters, sensations, and spiritual experiences.
God has spoken. Open your Bible.
Jesus shows us that the way to people’s hearts and minds is through the Word of God.
I love how Paul approaches it in Ephesians 2:4-10:
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with
which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
That’s the promise. Through grace, in Christ, God demonstrates His mercy and kindness toward us. And we can only know about it by hearing it through Scripture. That is what Jesus is patiently doing here. He has to lead these disciples to understand there will be no endless return to earth to dazzle the next generation so they will believe he is Lord and Savior. The truth comes through the telling of God’s Word. Remember, through the Holy Spirit, when God’s Word goes out, it doesn’t come back empty. Those to whom God gives the gift of faith will hear it and believe.
And so, what does Jesus do? Starting with Moses, he opens their minds to understand the Scriptures.
We’re going to end today with where Jesus starts. With Moses.
Do you know how many years transpired between Moses and Jesus? 1,300 – 1,500 years. And they knew the stories. And they remembered the stories. Without the printing press or interwebs or a library in every town, village, and burg. Amazing.
Moses is significant. What especially intersects with Moses and the trajectory of our salvation history from Luke is a significant moment in Israel’s history. The exodus from captivity in Egypt. There’s a moment in the exodus that foreshadows what happens after Jesus sets his face for Jerusalem. We’ll look at that next week as we wrap up our magnificent journey through the Gospel according to Luke.
Until then, let’s affirm the beauty of this never-ending story with a truth from Charles Spurgeon:
IMMANUEL, GOD WITH US IN OUR NATURE, IN OUR SORROW, IN OUR LIFEWORK, IN OUR PUNISHMENT, IN OUR GRAVE, AND NOW
WITH US, OR RATHER WE WITH HIM, IN RESURRECTION,
ASCENSION, TRIUMPH, AND SECOND ADVENT SPLENDOR.
And together, those made alive in Christ say:
SOLI DEO GLORIA…
TO THE GLORY OF GOD ALONE
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