Introduction

No one saw the Lord Jesus arise from the dead. But given the fact of His death and given the fact that He presented Himself alive from the dead to His disciples then the conclusion is obvious: He arose, up from the grave He arose!

Now is it not striking that this profound event of all profound events is itself unseen? Jesus is anything but ostentatious. The resurrection of the Son of God in the accomplishment of all that has been promised in the history of redemption took place very early in the morning while the world was asleep. The resurrection itself was an uneventful event. Or should we say that this event that is "marvelous in our eyes" (Matt. 21:42) was hidden from our eyes when it happened.

Therefore, the post-resurrection accounts are about seeing the risen Christ. Much is made of the fact of seeing. So as we look again at the end of the Gospel of Luke, I want to direct your attention to this fact of seeing in three ways: 1) Seeing the risen Christ on the first day of the week. 2) Seeing the risen Christ in the flesh. 3) Seeing the risen Christ in the Scriptures.

1A. Seeing the risen Christ on the first day of the week

We can consider the day of these events and then expand on some implications.

1B. The day of these events

Practically all that transpires in Luke 24 takes place on the first day of the week (vs. 1, 13, 29, 33, 36, 40, and 45; v. 13 accents the day). As far as Luke's Gospel is concerned, the impression is that the ascension took place on the first day of week as well (vs. 50, 52). However, we know from Acts 1 (from Luke) that Jesus appeared over a period of forty days (v. 3). So the ascension follows the resurrection by more than a month. But it is significant that Luke ties the ascension to the resurrection. They are so closely bonded that it is as if they took place on the same day. As to its essence, the ascension comes under the umbrella of the first day of the week. This is like saying that the resurrection and the ascension are part of the same event and are inseparable as far as the completed work of Christ is concerned (even though they were separated in time by some forty days). These facts lead to some important implications.

2B. Implications regarding the first day of the week

1C. Every Sunday is theologically loaded

Therefore, we are directed to this initial conclusion: the first day of the week is forever theologically loaded. The concatenating of events into this first day of the week earmarks it as distinctive and special (John's Gospel does this as well, 20:1, 19, 26. Compare how Warfield speaks of the day of Christ's rising as crowded with manifestations which were then interrupted for a whole week until the next first day of the week when He appeared again, Foundations of the Sabbath, pp. 12-13.). For the rest of human history on this earth, the first day of the week can never be the same. The weekly six and one cycle that governs our life by governing our time must be impacted once and for all by the resurrection. Just think of how profound this event is. Jesus completed the work of redemption as God completed the work of creation. It is that kind of event of monumental proportions. Both took place within history and impact history. Both took place on a day within the weekly cycle of earth history. Christ's inaugural, first day, as Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36) is not out of step with the divine six and one but changes the pace realigning the steps into a six and one affected by completed redemption. [It should be noted that to press the point that the first day is stressed in order to confirm that the resurrection took place on the third day as prophesied does not lessen the theologically loaded nature of the first day but increases it. Here more emphasis is put on the fact that the work that was completed by the third day from the death of Christ was in fact completed very early on the first day of the weekly cycle. The first day of the weekly cycle is thus earmarked as the day of fulfillment when all the prophecies concerning the work of Christ in suffering and resurrection were marvelously realized.]

2C. Every Sunday is Easter

The timing of the resurrection carries with it the further implication that every Sunday is Easter. Because the resurrection earmarks Sunday in such a profound way that it impacts every Sunday for the rest of human history, then we have to conclude that there is no such thing as Easter if we are referring to one Sunday out of an entire year of Sundays. Thus, I might have titled this message, "Easter is a Myth" or "There is no such thing as Easter." But that would be inappropriately negative for such a glorious theme.

However, you might wonder why I am speaking on the resurrection today. One slight reason may be that I am influenced by the once a year Easter celebration. But if anything I want to speak on this topic on this day in order to be counter-cultural or counter-traditional. I firmly want to challenge the notion of Easter if we are talking about having resurrection Sunday once a year. This is one of those words that should cause Christians to choke every time they use it in the traditional sense.

To make a point, consider the sign posted at the health club that says, "Closed on Easter Sunday." There are a number of comments to be made here. 1) It is redundant. If you say the word Easter you refer to Sunday and if you say the word Sunday you refer to Easter. 2) On the other hand, this means (if understood properly) that the health club will be closed fifty-two Sundays a year because every Sunday is Easter (but they remain open most Sundays). In the end it is inaccurate. 3) Third, they do make an important connection. When they connect Easter with Sunday, the result is that they acknowledge the special-ness of the day and honor it by closing shop. Perhaps they unwittingly acknowledge the impact of resurrection on Sunday. It is just a Holiday without the "Holi." It is a holy day without holiness. Having a once a year Easter in our culture does not enhance appreciation for the resurrection; as a matter of fact, it impoverishes appreciation for the resurrection (even for the church; just numerically the memorial is reduced by fifty-one). This cultural business practice is inconsistent in not closing shop every Sunday.

Granted, the term may be used for the benefit of communication with nonbelievers. I use terms like Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter with non-Christians in order to be accommodating (and only to a point because full and honest communication must involve definition of the Christian worldview over against the non-Christian worldview). But with believers accommodation of this sort should not be necessary and it is actually debilitating. It is debilitating in the context of the Christian community because it involves running in a direction that is contrary to Scripture. It is out of step with the march of biblical teaching. The idea of Easter once a year is foreign to the Bible. How can something that runs contrary to Scripture, that is out of step with Scripture, and that is foreign to Scripture be edifying?

3C. Every Sunday is resurrection memorial

Having Easter once a year has the practical effect of making the annual event the resurrection memorial. But is this what God has ordained? This is not the case at all. Having resurrection Sunday one time a year is not given to the church by God. Instead, it is human tradition. To prescribe this memorial for the church is to substitute the commandment of men for the commandment of God. If we work within this substitution, then we work within the milieu of legalism.

Someone might say, "okay, I agree that we cannot find a commandment of God for the annual Easter celebration, but this is a good tradition, and besides, there is no alternative." By this they mean that there is no command to remember the resurrection. We are duty bound to remember Christ but there is no binding duty to remember the resurrection. Luke, for example, tells us that Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week (Lk. 24:1f) but he attaches no duty to the day. No NT writer explicitly states that the first day of the week is to be set aside as a special memorial.

It is true that no NT writer gives expression to a divine command to remember the resurrection on the day that it took place, which is Sunday, the first day of the week. If you look at passage after passage that mentions the resurrection or the first day of the week, you can highlight the fact that in each case there is no command given to observe every Sunday as a resurrection memorial. But this misses the forest because of the individual trees.

In short, the forest to which I refer is the history of redemption and the trees are individual passages. We have a divine command to observe one day a week as the Lord's Day, the day that belongs to the Lord in way distinctive from how all days belong to Him (Ex. 20:8-11; Isa. 58: 13-15). This commandment is built on the six and one creation ordinance recorded in Genesis 1-2. God worked six days and rested one. Man being God's image bearer is obligated to therefore follow God and likewise work six days and rest one. This divinely instituted pattern is given for man to follow from creation to the end of history on earth. It involves the privilege of resting with God acknowledging His sovereignty. It is worship rest. In the time of Moses, keeping a day unto the Lord was housed within the promise form of the OT gospel. It was structured within the old wineskin of the Saturday Sabbath. But Christ has brought in the new wine of fulfillment and this put the six and one pattern into a new wineskin: weekly rest every Sunday as a resurrection memorial.

Here is the argument in all its basics. 1) Keeping a day holy unto the Lord is our obligation to the end of history. 2) The Jewish Sabbath has been dispelled like a shadow in the dawning of a new day's sun. 3) The apostolic church assembled for worship on Sunday, so we must conclude that Sunday is the day to keep until the end of history. 4) Finally, the only way to explain the shift from Saturday to Sunday is by the redemptive action of Christ who was raised from the dead on the first day of the week (as implied by the stress on the day in Lk. 24). These basics make up the biblical-theological or historical-redemptive forest that we must keep in view when we look at each individual tree of biblical teaching. To put it another way, the redemptive-historical framework is like an orchestra or a symphony with individual texts making up the instruments in the orchestra or the parts in the symphony.

Thus we should conclude that every Sunday is theologically loaded, every Sunday is Easter, and every Sunday is a resurrection memorial. We do not need to speak of Easter Sunday because that suggests that there are Sundays to which the title Easter does not apply (there is Easter Sunday and there are all the other Sundays of the year). The once a year Easter devalues Sunday; it does so by a practice that teaches. It separates the resurrection and its profound impact on history from the law, the fourth commandment, and the weekly cycle. We are conditioned emotionally by the association of certain songs with a season once a year. Additional to views that set the law aside cutting the OT off from the NT, this holiday structure blurs our sight for appreciating the first day of the week as profoundly special. This ought not so to be. We should place a premium on every first day of the week as we image God's six and one pattern. It is a special day of resting in the sovereignty of God, in the redemptive work of Christ, and as a capstone (cf. Mt. 21:43) it is a special day of resting in the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

2A. Seeing the risen Christ in the flesh (vs. 36-43)

He came to them in such a way that it is understandable that they are startled and think they are seeing a ghost. This is literally "seeing a spirit." Seeing something that has no body and that is immaterial. Becoming suddenly present in reverse of suddenly disappearing frightened the disciples as it probably would frighten any of us. Asking them why they are troubled and doubtful has the effect of drawing their attention to a particular fact that eliminates both fear and doubt. They are directed to see the risen Christ in the flesh (v. 39).

The disciples and apostles will see him in such a way that they will be able to give eyewitness testimony to His resurrection. Thus He appeared to Peter, to James, to more than five hundred disciples, to all the apostles, and last of all to Paul (1 Cor. 15:3-8). After His suffering Jesus "showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive" (Acts 1:3). Luke wrote His Gospel based on careful investigation of the eyewitness testimony so that we "may know the certainty of the things….taught" (Lk. 1:4). This eyewitness experience was repeatedly promised: "you will see" the risen Christ (Matt. 28:7, 9; Mk. 16:7). Mary says, "I have seen the Lord" (Jn. 20:18). Thomas says, "unless I see" (Jn. 20:24, 27). This is the context of the account in Luke 24:36-43.

How this is stated is of fundamental importance in helping us understand death that is conquered by resurrection. Or better it will help us understand the victory of the resurrection over death. This is the particular point I want to stress in the seeing of Christ in the flesh.

What does it mean to die? I want to make a specific point here that I hope will not be misunderstood. It is inadequate to think of death as you leaving your body. The language of being absent from the body and present with the Lord is metaphorical and should not lead us to think that somehow you are housed in a body. It may sound like that is the case because we will often say, "I have a body, I have two arms and two legs." Here in Luke 24:39, Jesus tells us that He has flesh and bones.

We talk this way because a human being is a material-immaterial unit. Thus, we have the language of the inner and the outer man (cf. 2 Co 4:16). The inner and outer aspects of our being refer to the man, the woman, the person, you. In other words, it is not simply that you have a body but you are a body. When your eyes see something, your body sees and you see. It is not that the body I have sees and somehow I myself perceive what my body sees. Instead, when my eyes see that is me seeing. It is not just that I have a body. I am a body. This body is me.

Look how this is expressed by the Lord in Luke 24:39a: "Look at my hands and feet [look at the flesh and bones I have]. It is I myself." The "I" or person includes hands and feet.

Thus there is a sense in which death means that a part of you, the inner man, is separated from another part of you, the outer man. But note how I have stated this. Part of you is separated from part of you in death. It is not so much that your body is cut away from you but in the cutting away of the body, part of you is cut away.

Death is like dismemberment. If you lose an arm, you can say that you leave your arm behind as you go forward in life. It is not so much that you leave part of your body but that you are dismembered; you are not your full self (you are not all there). You do not simply have a body; you are a body, you are "some body." So when you die as a believer you are absent from the body and present with the Lord but you are there in an unnatural state, in an undesirable state. You are there radically dismembered and exposed in a state that is like being naked. It is an unclothed state that we do not desire. Given our fundamental unity we must read of being at home in the body and away from the body metaphorically. 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 can be put in perspective if we observe the fact that there is a home going beyond being present with the Lord while in a state of absence from the body. Obviously, Paul is saying that when we die we leave home. That is one of the burdens of death that we face now (v. 4, what we desire is restoration by resurrection, then we will be at home and with the Lord rather than with the Lord but not at home. This being "not at home" refers to the radical disintegration of our person in death that is not remedied in the intermediate state; it is only remedied by being "swallowed up by life.").

Therefore, when Jesus died He experienced the radical disintegration that every human being experiences in death. He entered the unnatural, anomalous, and unclothed state of death. He did so voluntarily on our behalf.

Furthermore, by His resurrection He was restored from the radical disintegration of death as shown in the fact that He was seen in the flesh alive from the dead. Eating the broiled fish and having flesh and bones before their very eyes, Jesus said, "It is I myself." By that He affirmed His victory over death.

Therefore, we can say that Jesus did not come to save souls. He came to save people, the whole man, body and soul, the material and immaterial you.

He is the first fruit. We are the harvest. Our salvation as believers is not complete when we die and go to heaven. Our salvation will not be complete until we finally can say, "Look at my hands and my feet, at my flesh and my bones, it is I myself." These comforting words to the disciples contain the promise of eternal life.

3A. Seeing the risen Christ in the Scriptures (vs. 44-53)

Three things are stated here regarding preaching.

1B. What will be preached?

Jesus opened their minds. He opened their minds to what is to be preached. At the core is the death and resurrection as promised in the OT. Hence, He teaches us about the unity of OT and NT; the NT gospel is OT gospel. In light of this good news, repentance will be preached with the promise of forgiveness in his name.

He is seen in the Scriptures as the risen Savior, the one who suffered and rose from the dead on the third day. Because of His death and resurrection, the duty of repentance and the promise of forgiveness is to be preached in His name to all nations.

The "what" of preaching can be highlighted as the gospel of the whole Bible concerning the death and resurrection of Christ that demands repentance and promises forgiveness.

2B. By whom will it be preached?

We should ask, "by whom?" Who will do this preaching? Jesus says it is you: "You are witnesses of these things, you apostles and disciples (v. 48). The apostles are witnesses in a special foundation laying sense and disciples (including us) are witnesses in a derivative sense. The church rests on the gospel of the apostles (the gospel holds up the church) and gospel rests on the church (the church holds up the gospel).

3B. How will this witness be fulfilled?

By the power from on high that is promised (v. 49). This is the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit. The apostles and early disciples labored, and we enter into their labors to all nations. It is a hard to take in the thought that the nations are perishing! But God has an elect people for whom we should have special concern that they be saved and edified (2 Cor. 4:15, grace reaching more and more people overflows to the glory of God; 2 Tim 2:10 Paul endures many hardships for the for the sake of the elect).

Consider what is associated with seeing the risen Christ in the Scriptures. Seeing Him in the Scriptures means seeing the gospel in both the OT and NT. It means seeing the good news of forgiveness of sins that He secured by His death and resurrection. It means seeing the good news of Christ's death and resurrection proclaimed to all nations in the call to faith and repentance. It means seeing the church built by the risen Lord Jesus as life-giving Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Co 15:45).

Conclusion

Now we wait and we should do so like the early church in Luke 24:50-53. That is, we worship Him even though He is departed from this earth to heaven. It is a repugnant idea to worship a memory of someone who remains in the grave. We worship the risen Savior.

We live in joy over His resurrection and its promise of our redemption, to wit, the adoption of the body. Jesus does not save souls; He saves the whole person, the whole man, body and soul. So as we travel toward that marvelous end, we continually praise God.

Thus with joy and praise to God, Jesus is worshipped though He departed to heaven. He is worshipped as the risen Lord. There is joy in knowing Him. There is joy in knowing Him as risen Savior. There is joy in knowing Him as first fruits that promise full harvest.

Think of the first day again. Death was conquered on that unique first day of the week. Radical disintegration of the human being was experienced by Christ and conquered by Him. On the first day of the week, the promises of the Scriptures concerning the resurrection of Christ were fulfilled. On the first day of the week, the work of Christ in securing good news for the nations was completed. Therefore, Sundays through the rest of history can never be the same. Every Sunday is Easter. Every Sunday, every first day of the week, is infected with resurrection joy and hope.

Every Sunday is a reminder of how the church sees the risen Savior in the flesh and in the gospel of Holy Scripture. Because Jesus was raised from the dead and seen in the flesh, a unique importance is given to Sundays and to the gospel of the whole Bible for all nations.