APRIL 19th, 2026 PASTOR DON PIEPER
A GOSPEL OF GRACE 1 Peter 1:3-9/Luke 24:35-49
“WITNESS TO THE EVIDENCE”
Last week we met up with Cleopas and his traveling buddy who now race back to Jerusalem to tell their friends of their encounter with Jesus...: “You'll never believe what happened! Okay, we were talking, and then, and then, he was talking, only we didn't know it was him talking, and our hearts were burning as he was talking, right?! And then we were inviting him to join us for dinner, only we didn't know it was him we was inviting, and then he was like breaking the bread as he always did, and we're like, whoa, and like wow, looking at him, then at each other, and sayin':'Yup, its him! He's alive'”
All this time James and John trying to get in a word edge-wise: “Wait. we know – we know. Would you guys slow down! Would you just hold on a moment! We know the Lord has really risen! We've been trying to tell you! He already appeared to Peter!” (Luke 24:34)
Apparently they forgot to do a headcount because its right about now that they realize that there's another fellow standing in the room, who turns to them, smiles and says to them, “Peace be with you.” (Luke 24:36) So no sooner had they swapped stories of their encounters with their risen Lord then Jesus shows up yet again and, as Luke tells us, “the whole group was suddenly, terribly frightened, convinced that they were seeing a ghost!” (Luke 24:37)
I wonder how Jesus felt about that. “Look, first I send a couple of angels to give you a heads up, then I met with Mary and sent a message to all of you thru her and her friends, then I have a short chat with Peter here after he found my tomb vacant, then I met with Cleopas and company in route to Emmaus, and we broke bread together just like we used to do, and all you guys can say when you finally see me, is, “It’s a ghost…!? So much for the old addage, 'Seeing is believing!”
Jesus’ disciples are more inclined to see an apparition than evidence of the resurrection. It's not the first time they see Jesus unexpectedly and conclude they're seeing a ghost. They draw the very same conclusion when he walked out on the stormy Sea of Galilee. Matthew & Mark tell us about it.
“When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the stormy sea, they were terrified, and cried out, 'It's a ghost!' But Jesus said to them: 'Don't be afraid. Take courage. I am here!' (Mark 6:50)
There something about scary situations that messes with our perception of things. No wonder the Bible's most articulated command is that which Jesus here conveys: “Do not be afraid!”
When I was little, I shared a bedroom with my older brother, Frank. One night, after he told me a spooky story I lay awake as he began to snore. While doing so, the moon came out from behind a cloud and lit up our closet door where I saw ghostly apparation, a headless ghost floating in the air. Terrified I tried to wake Frank but my voice failed me... (whispering/gasping) “F-F-Frank....Frank! There's a g-g-ghost! (shouting) Frank! Wake up there's a ghost!”
Frank fell out of bed with a thud, leaped to his feet, and turned on the light. “What?! Where?! Where is it?” he asked. “There! In front of the closet!” I replied from underneath the covers. “You numbskull!” he said. “That's just my shirt on a hanger! Now go to sleep and don't be such a baby!”
“I'd rather be a baby then ghost food!” I said. “Ghost food? Ghosts can't eat!” he replied.
“They can't? Oh. Well, that's a relief. I'd hate to give it indigestion...!”
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The disciples need similar reassurance so Jesus provides four ways to verify that it's really him, and not a ghost. First, Jesus greets them as he had in the past: “Peace be with you.” (Luke 24:36) It's a customary greeting, a way of saying, hello, which they’d heard Jesus say numerous times before. By greeting them as he had countless times before he was providing audible proof that it was really him.
Years ago Robin Williams portrayed Army Radio DJ, Adrian Cronauer, who began his show every day by saying, “Good morning, Vietnam!” With that greeting his audience instantly knew that it was Adrian, whose voice brought encouragement and humor to their day in the midst of scary times. So it was when Jesus greeted his disciples, with “Peace be with you.” His words and voice would've been instantly recognized, bringing peace and encouragement: “Don't be afraid. Take courage. I am here!'
(Mark 6:50)
Second, when Jesus' disciples were more alarmed than elated Jesus offered them visible proof: “Why are you frightened?” he asked. “Why do you doubt who I am? Look at my hands. Look at my feet. You can see that it’s really me.” (Luke 24:38-9) You can see – that's visible evidence!
He offers us visible evidence as well. Transformed lives are one example. Pete Fullwood is walking evidence that Jesus lives! The way Pete was set free from his past was truly supernatural...!
As the disciples looked they could see the holes where the Roman soldiers had driven spikes thru his hands and feet - tell-tale marks of his crucifixion. That should’ve been enough but Jesus goes on to offer even more proof. He offers not only audible and visual evidence but tactical evidence as well. “'Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost, because ghosts don’t have bodies, as you see that I do!' As he spoke he held out his hands…and showed them his feet.” (Luke 24:39)
Can you imagine that moment? His stunned, nervous, anxious friends gather around him and begin touching him, cautiously at first, and then perhaps with enthusiasm as one by one they realize – he’s flesh and blood! He’s real! He’s alive! And they say to themselves & each other: “Yup, it's him!”
And he's still providing tactical evidence. The primary way I've experienced this is through prayer ministry. I'll never forget attending the Alpha Conference at HTB in London and at the end of the conference gathering with others to pray for a man who'd wound up in the hospital. Then one of the women said, “I think that we should lay hands on Pastor Don and pray for him as well.” As they did I was overwhelmed with God's love..., tingling spread over my body as I was filled w/the H.S!
In the upper room Jesus offers his friends irrefutable, physical evidence as well. “He asked them, ‘Do you have anything to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish and he ate it as they watched.” (Luke 24:41-42) He eats that cold, nasty piece of broiled fish not because he’s hungry but as further evidence. Yuck! Now that is love! (Nicky tells of a poach fish conversion...)
Through physical and inner healings Jesus offers us physical evidence as well. Those of us who saw Josh Collier healed of his infected liver before our eyes at an Alpha retreat will never forget the impact it had us. The way our hearts burn in us for love for another is another! Yup, that's him!
But in spite of all this proof – audible, visual, tactical and physical – his friends still cannot fathom it. They still have trouble believing. Luke reports, “As he spoke, he held out his hands…and showed them his feet. Still they stood there doubting.” (24:40-41)
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Apparently seeing is not always believing! Some times we see life thru a cracked or smudged viewfinder. Some of us just can’t see the forest for the trees... Some times our minds, like those of the disciples, can become closed by such things as grief, guilt, doubt, fear and unresolved anger.
So it is that Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. ‘When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me by Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must come true... So you see, it was written long ago that the Messiah must suffer and die and rise again from the dead on the third day. With my authority, take this message of repentance to all the nations, beginning here... There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me.’” (Luke 24:44-46)
As noted last week, he took them from cover to cover..., opening their minds with a wholistic, biblical worldview, one in which all of Scripture, all of history, is focused on God's revelation and salvation plan made personal and powerful in Jesus' person and message, in his death and resurrection.
What was it that their minds needed to be opened to? His followers thought Jesus would bring God’s power to play on earth in such a way that would see kingdoms topple, evil destroyed, enemies conquered and suffering eliminated. Jesus, on the other hand, reveals a God who instead of removing suffering, enters into it in order to redeem it, a messiah who doesn’t come to destroy his opponents but to transform them, who comes to them not with a sword in hand but with nail holes in his hands & feet!
We, like Jesus’ disciples, try to recreate God in our image. We don’t understand how God can allow so much suffering because we see God’s power in terms of control because we are so consumed with control issues ourselves. But God’s power is not expressed thru control but thru restraint. Love can’t be forced it must be freely given. Jesus came not to eliminate suffering but to redeem it, to take the handiwork of the enemy and make it the very means by which the wounded come to minister to the like-wounded with the love and forgiveness God offers them thru a trusting relationship in Christ.
No wonder they didn’t recognize him! Jesus opened their minds by expanding their under-standing of his purpose – of God’s ancient plan: “There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me. You are witnesses of these things!” (Luke 24:47-48) He sent them out as witnesses that for those so willing God is ready to turn things around – transform our garbage into displays of grace!
It's like the story of the boy who is asked by his grandfather to fill a pitcher with water from the well at the bottom of the hill and bring it back so the aging man is able to have some cool water to drink with his meal. But upon his return from the well the boy discovered that the pitcher had several cracks and leaked terribly. By the time he returned to the house there was not much left.
Each day he performed this service for his grandfather. Some days he ran as fast as he could. Other days he tried to cover the cracks with his fingers or with tape but nothing helped. Finally in exasperation he told his grandfather of the futility of the task - and of his shame.
“I have failed you, granpa! I’ve made a mess of the job you gave me to do!”
“Look out the window, my boy, what do you see” the old man answered. The boy looked and saw flowers springing to life along one side of the foot path leading to the well. “You have done well, my boy. Now switch hands, so the other side will be well watered too!”
The boy was completely unaware of the real nature of the task at hand. In his eyes he was fail-ing, but the cracked, leaky vessel was serving a greater purpose then he had realized. The grandfather redeemed the flawed and cracked water pitcher and made of that chipped vessel the means to new life.
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Jesus came on just such a mission, to redeem the cracked, leaky human vessels of this world! Look at the disciples, even upon seeing Jesus alive with their own eyes they convinced themselves that he was something other than what he really was. You can hardly be more cracked than that, and yet Jesus used them and their witness to turn the world upside down as he filled them with his Spirit! Now He sends you and I as witnesses to tell others: 'This is what I've heard, seen, felt, experienced...!'
“There is forgiveness of sins, (a new way of living rich in the love and grace of God in Christ Jesus), for all who turn to (him). You are witnesses of these things!” Go and tell! (Luke 24:47-48)