Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1727
April 19, 2026
Luke 24.36-49 Click here for audio recording of worship.
Dr. Ed Pettus
(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)
“Scripture Fulfilled”
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.”
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Peace To You
We come to the next scene on the day of Christ’s resurrection. On Easter Sunday we visited the tomb with the women. Last Sunday we walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Today we settle into a room with the same two disciples telling all the others about their walk with Jesus and how their eyes were opened at the breaking of the bread. In the middle of that news being told, Jesus appears! The scene is like we sometimes experience when someone startles us unexpectedly. I know that happens to everyone, we take a few steps toward a door or a corner and, “wham” someone is right there. “Did I scare you?” “You startled me!” There is a scene in the comedy show Leanne when Leanne is power walking along the sidewalk and her neighbor bursts into the scene and startles Leanne who says, “Did you fall out of a tree?” It’s funny (I guess you had to be there!). I seem to have a knack for startling someone in the house. I’m just going to start quoting Jesus when that happens, “Peace to you!”
The disciples are startled at Jesus’ appearance. He is not there and then, wham, there He is. “Peace to you!” This is another way of saying do not be afraid or fear not. These kinds of greetings and assurances are common in the Bible, when God appears on the scene or an angel, anytime there is fear. We welcome words of peace when we are afraid or worried. Jesus’ words of peace are a welcomed and needed word to the disciples and to us.
Then Jesus asked them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?” It is the same kind of question that was asked at the tomb, “why do you look for the living among the dead?” Then Jesus invited them to see and touch His hands and feet and their fear turned to joy, and yet, they still did not fully believe and they still wondered. Disbelief. Too good to be true! Too miraculous to believe! How can this be? And still it was all mixed with joy. Such a strange startling feeling. Jesus shows the disciples that His physical presence is real, He has been raised from the tomb. He is not a ghost. This is a physical bodily resurrection – flesh and bones and then fish to eat. One of the statement in our essential beliefs is that Jesus arose bodily, that is, physically. “On the third day He arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven where, at the right hand of the Majesty on High, He now is our High Priest and Mediator.” In the Westminster Confession we have this line about Jesus, “On the third day he arose from the dead with the same body in which he suffered and with which he also ascended into heaven.”
The peace that Jesus granted is empowered by Jesus’ physical presence and the power of the resurrection from the dead. We too have peace because of the resurrection. We have peace in the knowledge that Jesus lives, and loves, and forgives, and will come again.
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The Testimony of Christ
I have been framing Luke 24 around the many testimonies on this resurrection day. The stone rolled away, the empty tomb, the witness of the women, and so on. And this section also includes testimonies, in particular that of Christ Himself. His physical body is a testimony, His assurance of peace, and His reiteration of all that He had told the disciples about His death and resurrection. He gave testimony to the two on the road to Emmaus and now His presence
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you...that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.” It is the same testimony He gave on the road, the eternal testimony recorded in the gospels, and the good news that He commands all who follow Him to tell the world. He asked the two disciples on the road, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” He expects them to remember, but what I find amazing is that He does not go back to what He said before when with them, but He takes them all the way back to the Old Testament. He takes them back to what they had been learning since their childhood. He takes them back to the witness and testimony of the Testament that some people want to discard from the Church. Jesus shows us here that the Old Testament is a vital witness to Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, the Anointed One for whom all Israel was waiting.
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The Testimony of Moses, The Prophets, and The Psalms
I think it is crucial that we see what Jesus does here. Just as He did on the road when He opened the minds of the disciples, He did the same here among all the disciples and those gathered. He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. In the previous scene along the road, Luke writes of Moses and the prophets and here Luke added the Psalms. Curious as to why added here. Maybe because Jesus had more time to speak to more Scripture, not along a road. Whatever the case, this is where Jesus moves them from fear and disbelief to the point of becoming witnesses to all that Jesus and the Old Testament Scripture testified about Jesus. When their fears subsided, their eyes could be opened to see more fully who Christ was and is. Many people are blocked by their disbelieve. Others are blinded by reason or what seems reasonable to them. There are many things that might prevent an open mind. The apostle Paul says it this way: “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (1 Corinthians 1:25). The news of Christ crucified sounds like foolishness to the wise and in their own fear they will not or cannot hear the good news. I think that is some of the reason why the world, why our society and culture will not hear and will not accept and has even become hostile toward the gospel and the Ten Commandments and anything Christian.
If we are fearful, if we are worried, if we are unsettled or confused or in any way “not right” just as the disciples were, perhaps our prayer should be asking God to open our minds to the Scriptures, to seek the teaching of the Holy Spirit – to pray and read and listen and study and trust that God will open our minds. The good news today is that Jesus still opens minds to understand the word of the Lord. It is not just in knowing the details about the Bible, but in understanding the Bible. There is power in understanding the Scriptures. There is hope in knowing the God of the Scriptures. There is excitement and joy in understanding this Sacred Word. In a world of competing words, of complex issues, of fearful trends, we need Jesus to open our minds to understand the Scriptures.
It is the Holy Spirit who reveals the things that are spiritual: “Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are discerned spiritually. Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny. ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:14-16). We do not have the appearance of Jesus like the disciples had. Jesus is not physically here to open our minds, but God sent the Spirit for the same task – that we might spiritually discern. Jesus says in John 14:26, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you”. The Holy Spirit opens our minds to God’s revelation.
Practically, there are some things we can do to place ourselves in position for open minds. Trust is vital. We trust that the Spirit is at work in us. We trust the Scriptures as a reliable testimony of who Jesus was and is. Scriptures reveals God to us. Scripture reveals Jesus Christ to us. Scriptures reveals the Holy Spirit and reveals our human condition, our call, our story. Certainly we must read and study the Scriptures. Psalm 1 says: “Their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night”. 2 Timothy tells us: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth” (2:15). The Scriptures are filled with encouragement to know the Word. “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). In our Holy Bible we find what we need to be equipped for the good works we are called to do.
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Scripture Fulfilled
Jesus said, ““Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5.17). Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Word of God. Since He fulfilled all that God set forth, our minds are now opened to see that the disciples saw.
His fulfillment means:
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Jesus opens minds to understand:
That Christ should suffer and die on the cross.
That Christ would rise from the dead. He lives!
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He opens minds to understand the gifts of:
Repentance – turning from sin and being reconciled to God in order to live for Him.
Forgiveness – trusting in the cleansing blood of Christ. We are set free from our sin in order that we might live to righteousness.
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He opens minds to understand:
That the Church is now the body of proclamation offering the Gospel to all people in the hope that the Spirit will open their minds.
It took some time for the disciples to understand, but they got there! Peter, in Acts 2, preaches from the prophet Joel. The Holy Spirit brought the power and the understanding to them at Pentecost. Jesus sent them out as witnesses and sends them in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul, after his conversion, would proclaim in 1 Corinthians 1:23, “but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.”
This is the fulfillment of Scripture – the gospel of Jesus Christ – the God who sent His Son. The God who heals and redeems in Jesus Christ. The God who shows his love and renews us so that we can be empowered to proclaim Christ crucified and risen. This is the God who forgives our sins and shows us compassion, merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
May our hearts be renewed with joy, not disbelieving joy like the disciples are first described when Jesus appears, but blessed joy that leads us to a zealous desire to proclaim Christ in word and deed. The Lord has blessed us with opened eyes and we shall bless the Lord by doing all that He has commanded. The Scriptures have been fulfilled and we have received the task of giving testimony as a part of the body of Christ. He is risen! He is risen indeed! Amen.
