Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Reformation Covenant Church

in Breslau, Poland and also from Alec who ministers in Legnica and Gdansk. I saw all these people and more in my two weeks in Poland. It was a wonderful time. I thought as we were singing this last psalm as well as earlier Psalm 110 of the work of King Sobieski of Poland. Many of you know and prayed for me. By the way, before I talk about that, the saints in Poland want to extend their great thanksgiving to you as a congregation for your supporting financially the ability to send me to Poland and minister there and they’re deeply grateful for that as well as my time.

One of the major tasks I had was a short talk, but I think a significant one on homeschooling and the changes in the laws that we made here in Oregon in 1985. I gave this talk at a symposium or conference sponsored by the Sobieski Institute. This is a limited government, maybe conservative, we would say, think tank newly formed in Poland four years ago and it primarily deals with taxation issues, EU issues, these sorts of things. How to bring increasing economic liberty to Poland.

This was their first foray into education and there is now a growing, small but growing, home school and private school freedom happening in Poland and there’s legislation currently moving through their parliament. So the purpose of this symposium or conference was on the part of this think tank to put together a series of talks and then a report to legislators, members of the parliament, so that they can consider this as they go about their legal work. And it was a great delight to be there. One of the cabinet members of Poland was in attendance the first two talks and mine was the second talk, so that was good.

Afterwards, this cabinet member, the under secretary in charge of education, spoke to the assembled listeners there and presenters before he left for the day and mentioned my talk specifically. And then there were spirited times with questions from two or three people in the audience. This cabinet member and apparently my talk in terms of what we’ve accomplished in Oregon became a significant part of what they were asking for in Poland. And the director of the Sobieski Institute himself referenced this talk.

So I don’t say this in terms of self-aggrandizement but I say this in terms of the work of this church and some of the founding members of this church who were very significant in what we did in the early 80s in Oregon and I want you to know that your fruit continues and now is at work in the context of Poland.

Andre, the pastor of the church in Posnań that many of you have met, was also a presenter at this conference and did a wonderful, superb job. He is greatly matured in his statesmanlike qualities. He’s a very successful attorney now in Poland. We stayed at his charity and I stayed at his house one night and church was held at his house the next morning as well.

The Sobieski Institute is named after King Sobieski of Poland who was largely responsible for the defeat of the Islamic Turks at Vienna in, I think, 1683. And this was the significant battle that turned back the Muslim horde—the crescent versus the cross, in terms of the language of the day—and currently saved Europe from forced submission to Islam. A very significant moment in our history and in freedom for Western peoples.

And this moment came about as a result of a king of Poland. You can read his letter back to his wife, the queen, on the internet—King Sobieski’s letter—and talks about his slaughter of the Turks and the victory being God’s alone. He says in his letter, a very significant event happening on September 11th. And this was no doubt the reason why the modern-day Islamic military efforts against Western Christianity began in significant symbolic form on September 11th in our own nation. We live in times that make us reflect on world history and we owe a great debt to Poland for many reasons but certainly among this as well.

And it’s interesting that now this institute that labors diligently for growing freedom—economic and educational freedom—in Poland is named after King Sobieski and I think you can draw the inferences.

So it was a wonderful time of visiting there. Thank you so much and I thought it appropriate to bring just a short report on this day when we think about the effects of the gospel converting the nations of the world and bringing the glories of the Gentiles into the church of Jesus Christ. And it was wonderful to see the growing freedom and expression of Christian faith in Poland as I was there. So please continue to pray for these dear saints and their work for the Savior, which is doing great things in the context of that country.

The advances of homeschool and private school liberty are really being spearheaded primarily by Andre, the pastor in Posnań, who this church has helped and supported and influenced tremendously. So take great joy in the success of the gospel and its work in Poland.

Now today we’re going to look at another post-resurrection experience or appearance rather of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon text today is found in Mark 16 and I’m going to begin at verse 9 and read through verse 20.

Mark 16:9-20. This is part of the preparation by our Savior and his post-resurrection appearances for 40 days to prepare the church for what would begin as the world conquest by the preaching of the gospel on the day of Pentecost. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Mark 16, beginning at verse 9.

Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. After that, he appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. Later he appeared to the 11 as they sat at the table and he rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen.

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe. In my name they will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues. They will take up serpents. And if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, he was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your great love for us. We thank you for the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ at your right hand now ruling over this sphere from heavenly places. We thank you, Lord God, for this appearance of our Savior alluded to here in our text. We pray that you would help us to understand it. May it transform our lives. May, if necessary, we hear we grant, Lord God, that we might hear the rebuke of the text to our unbelief. And grant us, Lord God, the strengthening of the commission given to these original disciples that we might indeed go into all the world and to whatever we do and say this week in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we ask for this. Amen.

Please be seated.

Today is the day that some would say kind of belongs to the charismatics, huh? Pentecost, Pentecostal type Holy Spirit coming upon men and having a great emotional experience. The common story that the modern church today believes in is that the day of Pentecost is about the Spirit coming to deenergize people and equipping them all of a sudden through the ability of immediate means of the Holy Spirit working upon their lives to then be good solid Christians and proclaimers of the truth.

Now, it’s a good story. There are times in our lives when the Holy Spirit does come upon us and revive us and renew us. And there’s a sense in which that happens in the context of worship as well. The Spirit transforms us. The Spirit is alive in the context of the church and in each of us individually. And he brings us the things of the Savior. So it’s not necessarily a bad story in and of itself, but it’s not the story of Pentecost.

The story of Pentecost is the story of the Holy Spirit of empowerment coming forth from the ascended Savior who now sits at the right hand of God. And that’s the basis for the sending of the Spirit to bring him to the church to accomplish mission and purpose. The Spirit doesn’t come to disciples who weren’t being faithful. They were being faithful. They had been trained for three and a half years by Christ, but then in a very intensive way trained for 40 days leading up to his ascension and preparing them for the kind of thing that happened on the day of Pentecost.

And we’re not going to speak on the Pentecost text today, but were we to turn there, what we would see is not some kind of great religious experience that Peter and the others call other people to. That’s not what’s going on. What’s going on is a renewed understanding based upon the teaching of the Savior for 40 days, based upon the work of the Spirit, bringing them the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the truth. Understanding that truth, articulating biblical themes from the Old Testament in the context of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and his ascension to the right hand of the Father and challenging the world in which they lived with the truth of the gospel—not with ecstatic utterances.

These were not that. That wasn’t the point. The point was that it allowed every language to hear what was being said, the message of the preaching of that faithful group of disciples who had been trained so well by the Savior. He had been with them for 40 days explicitly in the book of Acts teaching them things of the kingdom of God. And this helped prepare them. Then when the Spirit came upon them and empowered them, they knew what to say. They’d been instructed by the Savior.

So the focus of Pentecost is certainly the conversion of the world, bringing in of the nations, which we symbolize here today as we have done other Lord’s days. And it’s certainly the gift and the giving of the Holy Spirit, empowerment for ministry, but it’s not empowerment of some sort of ministry apart from the word. It’s given specifically so that the word, God’s truth, might be brought to a people and challenge them and bring them to conviction for sins and repentance based not on some religious experience detached from the word, but rather based very directly upon a renewed understanding of that word as a result of the teaching of the Savior.

So we want to turn again and I’m sort of out of sync. You know, with the holidays, I kind of like to get into them before they happen, and then I like to stay there after they’ve happened for a while. And with this season, it’s the same thing. We’re returning to a sermon series I started a couple three sermons several weeks ago on the post-resurrection appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we’re going to look, you know, more explicitly at this text in Mark specifically, and we’ll sort of camp out there today for the bulk of what we have to say.

Now, the text itself alludes to one of the first appearances of Jesus to Mary and then it alludes to another appearance to the disciples on the road to Emmaus and then it recounts for us the third appearance recorded in Mark’s gospel is to the disciples assembled together at the table eating together and Jesus coming to them then. Now there’s one other appearance that is between the appearance to Mary Magdalene and then the appearance to the disciples on the road to Emmaus that afternoon and that is the appearance to a set of women, a group of women.

So the first two appearances are to women and we talked about this a couple of weeks ago and I think it’s significant. You know, I did say that I drew the implication from Luke 7:38 that Mary Magdalene was the woman the text tells us explicitly seven demons were cast out of her. We can’t be sure that she is the woman in Luke 7 even though she’s identified in Luke 8. So I might have misspoken in terms of Mary Magdalene. We don’t know that she was the prostitute that was addressed in Luke 7.

But in any event, she’s a woman that’s been delivered from a lot of grief—casting out seven demons. And the Lord comes to these two sets of women first in the morning. And automatically, we see in the context of trying to understand these appearances and the training of the disciples, we see humility. We see, well, we see first of all that in terms of the women there’s an assurance of forgiveness as he meets with them. He tells them peace and then he tells them not to be afraid and in both cases he specifically sends them on a mission.

So the Lord Jesus, the way he trains people is to speak to them of assurance of forgiveness, the peace that we have with God through him, assure us that we can be courageous as we go about our lives. And that courage is used in the context of mission. And so we all have a mission to do. And if these women had missions to do and they weren’t, you know, the apostles, they were members of the church. And we can say that in terms of each of us individually, we have this mission to go and speak things of the Savior to those that we meet with.

And so we all are brought into church on Sunday to be sent out with a mission that the Savior has commissioned us to.

The third appearance is on the road to Emmaus. That’s in the afternoon. The fourth appearance which I want to talk about here is Jesus meeting with the disciples the evening of the day of resurrection—the first Easter Sunday we could say. And my contention will be that there are three records of the same incident given to us as Jesus met with these men and so I think that’s the final appearance to the assembled disciples in Jerusalem on that day so that would be four on the first day.

The following week, we remember that the week later, Thomas wasn’t with him on the first Sunday, he returns on the second Sunday. And so Christ comes back as well. So the fifth appearance would be on the second, you know, 8 or 7 days after his resurrection. And that would be the fifth appearance. And then he also meets with them by the Sea of Tiberius to the seven disciples as they fish. And we remember that appearance.

And then finally, he meets with them at a mount outside Galilee where he gives them the great commission so-called and that’s alluded to in our text as well and then I guess that’s the seventh appearance and the eighth appearance is to the disciples, the recorded appearance that is in the book of Acts as he prepares his ascent.

Now, as I said, what we don’t want to assume from this is that Jesus sort of tweaked in and tweaked out, that he kind of appeared and then disappeared and he was kind of a spirit. No, the scriptures are quite clear that it’s very important in Paul’s exposition of what happened to Jesus in 1 Corinthians 15 that he has now a permanent body, a glorified, transformed body. He’s not a spirit or a ghost. He has a supernatural but super-physical body. He has a super-physical body and that this is important for us.

We don’t want to go to heaven ultimately. We want Jesus to return to earth. We don’t want to escape our bodies. We want new, better clothing, a better tent as he says in 1 Corinthians 5. And so this is what we want and will we receive this at Christ’s return. And in the meantime, that means that what we do in these bodies and what we do on this earth have tremendous significance in terms of our mission and ministry.

And these appearances of Christ then are not like the only times he met with him. We’re told in Acts he met with him for 40 days teaching things of the kingdom of God. And so, you know, what he’s doing is he’s giving us several—I think eight specific appearances—that have training purposes for us. They’re chosen specifically by our Savior to put in the inscripturated word and they’re chosen to give us particular things that we’re to meditate on and think about. And so that’s why we’re going through some of these resurrection appearances and that’s why we turn to the appearance today following that of the women.

Now we know he appeared to the 11 and other records—there’s we would say there’s actually 10 because Thomas isn’t there. It’s actually referred to as the 12 as well so the term 12 can be referred to the group of apostles even though Judas is gone and his replacement hasn’t been chosen. They’re still referred to as the 12 in certain places and we would say 11 because Judas isn’t there or 10 even because Thomas isn’t there either on that first evening of resurrection Sunday. So whether it’s 10, 11, or 12, these are naming conventions. But this is what he does—he meets with them and we don’t know that there were no women present. We don’t know if these were just the men who are gathered together or what’s happening exactly.

But I do want to say that to clear up a misconception of what I might have said a couple of weeks ago: I do not mean to infer that our gathering shouldn’t be just women or just men at times. We want to have a renewed appreciation for what the scriptures teach and doesn’t teach about the distinctions between biblical femininity and masculinity. But that doesn’t mean that everything we do should be done in the context of both sexes.

And I only say this because we’re beginning a series of men’s discussion nights in a couple of weeks. And so these events are—were planned and are going to be executed—for the men to get together and discuss things. They’ll be able to discuss things in a way that they wouldn’t in the same way if women were present at the same time. Some women’s meetings have also a freedom to them that wouldn’t be present if men were involved and other meetings, of course, both sexes get together. So I wanted to clear up any misconception I might have left from this previous sermon.

And then we want to talk, you know, fairly directly here about Mark 16 and the way Jesus trains men. So he trains us and we could say by inference from his resurrection appearances to Mary Magdalene: he trains us, first of all, in humility. It is the sin of fallen masculinity to think that we are most important, we’re more important than women, and to think that we’re the ones who should initiate mission. And Jesus Christ makes it quite clear that he first initiates mission through the mouths of women who bring the news to the disciples.

And so the figure, you know, in a way the first thing he does with the disciples is test them. You know, the first thing he does to Mary Magdalene is he asks her a couple of questions. Our Savior is all about helping people to understand where they’re at and to be moved to where he wants them to be. And so the first thing he does to train these men is to bring a message from people that they don’t expect it from, that aren’t legally even at this time able to testify in court.

And so Paul doesn’t cite them in his list of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. But it really is—should be—a humbling thing to men who in their fallen natures think that somehow this isn’t the right way. It is the right way. Our Savior gives us a test. He gave his men a test at the beginning of them to help them understand who they were and who they weren’t. And so this is an important part of training for ministry: a revelation of who we are through questions and then through trials or tests, we might say. And so our Savior does that.

We talked about his appearances to the women. And he also, as I said, builds ministry through the assurance of peace and through joy. And he does this in the context of what he says to the women at his first two appearances to them. So there’s joy and assurance that leads to mission.

And then one last thing to mention before we get to this appearance later in the day. Well, two more things to recount: you got the women in the morning, two appearances. Then you’ve got Jesus on the road to Emmaus with the two disciples in the afternoon. And then in the evening, he meets with the 12. And when the two disciples from Emmaus go and tell the 12, they’re at the beginning of that meeting as well. When they tell them that Jesus has appeared to them, they also say that he’s appeared to Cephas, who is Peter.

Paul also in his list in 1 Corinthians 15 cites Peter as a specific individual recipient of a post-resurrection appearance by Jesus. So we know from two different lines of statements in scripture that the Lord appeared to Peter and he must have appeared to Peter prior to his meeting with Peter and the rest of the disciples that evening. Okay. But he doesn’t tell us what he says to him. We don’t have any account of the post-resurrection appearance of Jesus to Peter directly.

So God wants us to know it happened. Otherwise, he doesn’t have to put it in the scriptures. But he also wants us to know that we don’t know anything about it. And what I take from this by implication is that ministerial training—to train and empower us to take the mission of the gospel, the truth, God’s word to the culture—part of that is that private things were private. We don’t know what Jesus told Peter and we don’t know it because he doesn’t want us to know and he didn’t want it recorded for all of history to know either.

Jesus does things with us individually and we meet with each other sometimes individually and it is very important as part of the ministry of Jesus Christ to keep confidential things confidential.

Now lest you’re thinking in your mind, “What’s he talking about? Is it something going on at church?” Not a thing that I know of. There’s nothing I know of that I’m alluding to here directly. But I’m saying that if we look at how the scriptures relate these appearances by Christ, we’re stuck with this knowledge that there was a meeting that we don’t know anything about. And I think we can infer from that there were things that happened between Jesus and Peter that we’re not supposed to know anything about.

Now, I think that is an important point of ministerial training, whether it’s the special ministers of the church or whether it’s the general ministry or special ministry of the officers of the church, their training, or whether it’s the training of all of us to be disciples and adherents and Christians as we go about our lives. It’s an important part of that to know that private things are private and some things are private and should stay private.

Also, before we get to Mark 16—well, actually it’s in the context of Mark 16—we know that Jesus appeared to these two disciples on the road to Emmaus and while we don’t want to spend a lot of time in that text and I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. Just briefly I want us to look at one thing there or a couple of things very briefly. This is in Luke 24. So if you turn to Luke 24, please. Luke 24.

First of all, note in verse 16. This isn’t a central point of what I want to say today but it is significant, I think. Verse 16 tells us that as he walked along with them, their eyes were restrained so they didn’t know him. Now in the text of Mark, I don’t know if you were listening carefully as I read the scripture text when we read in verse 12 of the Mark text that “after that, he appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country.”

That’s a word that’s only used three times in the New Testament, this form. The other two occurrences are in Philippians where Jesus existed in the form of God but thought it not robbery to be equal with God but instead took upon himself the form of a bondservant. So I bring this up because again we read that text in Mark and we think that Jesus morphed into some other looking thing. I don’t think there’s any reason to assume that based on these texts and in fact the text tells us explicitly in Luke 24 where we have a detailed account of this meeting that the reason why he appeared to them differently was not because he changed but because their eyes were restrained.

So Jesus, you know, again, we have this idea that his post-resurrection body is kind of really different from a normal human body, but it is different, radically different, but it’s not different in that way. It’s the same body. And again, in later in other appearances, we see that they don’t recognize him. Well, they’re at a distance when they don’t recognize him. So in any event, this text from Luke tells us that when Jesus appeared in the afternoon, in his third appearance or maybe fourth depending on how he met with Peter—their eyes are restrained and then he asks them conversing. He asked them questions. In the next verse, the same way he asked Mary Magdalene questions, he asked several questions of them. Again, this is ministerial training. It’s good to ask questions. It’s not good just to stay asking questions though.

Jesus doesn’t just ask questions. He’s not the Buddha who’s trying to bring us to inner enlightenment that we can get without him. No, he wants us to know what we’re thinking and our need, but he’s going to answer those things then in specific and direct terms.

Look at verse 25 there. So he’s asking questions. They said, “Well, Jesus died and we hoped it would be better than this, but gosh, the guy died and isn’t that too bad?” And Jesus then replies to them in verse 25. And he says to them, “Oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets has spoken.”

So again, the beginning of the ministerial training here is his self-acknowledgement that gets them to know who they are and then his first words of instruction before he gets to—and he’s immediately going to start talking to them about the Old Testament being witnesses to him. But he prepares them for his instruction by helping them to see how stupid they are. How stupid they are. That’s what he does.

Now you know the point of this and the Mark text where he rebukes them is: we don’t want to be nicer than Jesus. We said this many times, but this is a text that calls for this sort of a statement. You know, if you have a church in which people are not at times rebuking one another and saying “you’re out of your mind to think such a thing, you’re foolish,” you’re not thinking—which is what specifically the word means, foolish ones here—then you’ve got a church that’s nicer than Jesus to each other and you have a church that’s not prepared for ministry.

I mean, again, I’m looking at these appearances as final preparation, seminary, after they’ve gone to college. And the way seminary works is he humbles them. And he humbles these two disciples. Could be both a man and a woman. We don’t know. But whatever they are, he brings them to humility by referring to them as foolish.

Now, this word foolish is used in various other places in scripture. But you know, it’s not just a mild word. Paul says in Romans 1 that he’s a debtor both to Greeks and to the barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So foolishness is the opposite of wisdom. Paul says in 1 Timothy 6, “He says those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts.” So riches blind us to the truth of reality.

As I said, this word foolish just means not thinking essentially. In Titus 3:3 we read, “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures.” So when he tells them that they’re foolish, this is a strong term. It’s a rebuke to them. And he does this to prepare them for the instruction of the word. And then he gives them the word.

And we know the rest of the story. They walk along. They don’t know it’s him. And then they get to Emmaus, to their place they’re going to. He breaks bread with them. They eat together. And that’s where they discern who he is. And so the three-fold movement of the liturgy of the church is a reminder of these things. When we come into the worship service, the first formal act that we do once we’re here and settled is we confess sin.

We confess our foolishness. God rebukes us for what we’ve done wrong. We acknowledge our wrongfulness and sinfulness and foolishness. And we do that in preparation for God preaching his word to us the same way he brought them to preparation to receive the word through an understanding of their foolishness. Without him, who can understand these things? No one.

And then after he gives us the word in church then we go to the table and that’s just what he does on the road to Emmaus. There’s almost liturgical training going on, I guess I could say by way of inference, that he’s training these ministers at the progression of the worship that they’ll formally engage in. They’ve already known it but it’s the same thing: confession of sin, acknowledgement of sin, preaching of the word, and partaking of supper with the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of these things are preparation for this extended ministry of the church on the day of Pentecost—the ministry of the church that will bring in the nations of the world.

And now let’s turn to the Mark text specifically then. And here again, you know, I’m going to say something very similar to what I just said about his calling the disciples foolish before he begins to teach them. And so we read that he appeared to them in another form and they brought message. And the text tells us that the disciples didn’t believe either message. They didn’t believe the message of the women and they didn’t believe the message of the two disciples, whichever they were—man and woman, two men, whatever it was. They don’t believe it and the text wants us to know that.

And then verse 14 says “Later he appeared to the 11.” Here it calls him the 11. That’s accurate numerically. As they sat at the table. So again we’re now having a table meal between Jesus and those that he meets with. And what does he do? He’s going to commission him. He’s going to give a tremendous commission. He’s going to do other things at this meeting as we see from parallel texts in Luke’s gospel. But in the first gospel record of this event, what we see is the first—what’s presented to us is the first thing that Jesus does. Well, it’s now the second or third thing, right? Because already these disciples have failed to hear two messages. He’s already done things to train them. They should have been humble to know that Jesus—well, it’s okay with us if he goes to women first and if he goes to average laymen first. That should be okay. We should still hear that message, but they wanted it from the seminary doctors, I suppose we could say. They wanted it some other way and they did not believe the report.

And what Jesus does here is he rebukes them. Again, this is not some mild term. This is a strong word. This word rebukes. He rebukes them for their unbelief and hardness of heart. Why? Because they did not believe those who had seen him. I sent you messengers, he said.

Now, I want to say that we don’t want to be nicer than Jesus. We want to engage in rebuking one another, but of course, we don’t want to fall into the other ditch of being nastier than Jesus either. And so, what I’m going to say in the next couple of minutes, you can’t take as saying it’s okay when I yell at my wife or my husband or my kids because Pastor Dennis says we shouldn’t be nicer than Jesus and they were really stupid for what they did. That might have been okay and probably wasn’t okay because so often our rebukes of one another are not based in the mind and work of the Savior but rather on our own emotions. We’re impatient. We’re frustrated personally. It’s our anger that leads to our rebukes.

So, while I’m going to say we don’t want to be nicer than Jesus, we want to engage in rebuking one another and accepting rebukes. I also want to say at the outset that we don’t want to be nastier than Jesus either. He rebukes them. What does this mean? Well, let me read a couple of cross references here in terms of what this word means. And you don’t have to turn to these references. We’ll just go through them very quickly.

This is the same term that’s used in Matthew 5. Peter Leithart’s going to bring us great teaching on the Sermon on the Mount at family camp. And in that Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, Matthew 5, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.” Revile—it’s the same word. It’s the word that’s used of when non-Christians revile you because of Christ. It’s that kind of strong term.

In Matthew 11, we read, “He began to rebuke the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent.” So now we’ve got impenitent, rebellious cities of Israel not accepting Messiah and he rebukes them. So this is a strong word that he uses in context that are quite powerful.

In Matthew 27 we read, “Even the robbers who were clothed with him reviled him” with this, with the same thing. So Jesus on the cross is reviled or rebuked by men on either side of him. So these are unrighteous, sinful rebukes. But my point is this is the same word that’s used about our Savior’s words to his disciples.

The first words that this account at least records that he—what he does when he meets with them. Not sort of what we would hope to see the first time we see Jesus that evening. We think he’d assure us too. And he does that. He moves on to assurance as we go from what we look at other texts in the gospels recording the same meeting. But the first word we’re told here is of Christ’s rebuke of them.

In Romans 15, “Even Christ did not please himself that as it is written, the reproaches, the rebukes of those who reproach you fell on me.”

James 1, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach, without rebuke, and it will be given to him.” So that tells us that these disciples weren’t in a humble, submissive, teachable state yet. They were hardened in their hearts. They were rebuked by the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Timothy 4 says, “For to this end we both labor and suffer rebukes because we trust in the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.” So again, sinful rebuke, but the point is this is the same word that’s used by our Savior in his rebuke of the disciples.

And then in 1 Peter 4, “If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” So all these instances, many of them are of sinful rebukes. But my point is this is the word that is used, these strong reviling sort of terms. This is what Jesus does to the disciples.

Now why does he do that? The scriptures tell us—there’s a song by David Gilmour, guitarist from Pink Floyd, called “Take a Breath” and he says this kind of love is hard to find. I never got to you by being kind. It’s about tough love. And of course God does get to us by being kind. That’s probably the main way he gets to us is through his kindness. “Don’t you know the goodness of God,” the scriptures tell us, “leads us to repentance?” But God is also involved in the sort of love that’s harder to find in the Christian church that wants to be nicer than Jesus. It’s the sort of love that gives rebukes.

Now, the Proverbs are filled with references about the importance of rebukes. Proverbs 9:7-9, “He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself. He who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself. Don’t correct a scoffer lest he hate you. Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser.”

Now that tells us that rebukes that we use have to be given to particular people: the wise and not the foolish. The foolish aren’t going to profit by it but the wise will. So it instructs us about how we give rebukes. And our Savior is rebuking wise men here. But the wise man accepts rebukes and actually loves the one who has brought him a truthful rebuke, coming ultimately from this empowering Spirit that we have in our midst bringing the things of Jesus. And Jesus’s things are things of rebuke.

How do you take rebukes? The way you take them will determine if you remain foolish or if you’re a wise person. Do you love a godly rebuke given to you?

Proverbs 15:32, “He who disdains instruction despises his own soul. He who heeds rebukes gets understanding. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honor is humility.”

This is the lesson that we’re learning here. In a few verses from here, he’s going to tell these same disciples he rebukes that they’re going to conquer the world through the preaching of the gospel. They’re going to go into all the world and they’re going to do these neat things. They’re going to pick up serpents. They’re going to drink poison and it won’t affect them.

Now, I think there’s typological meaning to each of those things. It’s not our purpose today, but they’re going to be honored guys in the kingdom, right? They’re going to be his messengers to bring the gospel and bring the glory of the Gentiles into the kingdom of God. But before honor, before that honor of being those men, before ministerial capability comes humility. And humility specifically comes in the Proverbs among other things by means of rebuke. So heed to rebuke, you’ll get understanding and it will actually help your soul.

So when a Christian brother rebukes you for something and it rings true, see, don’t stiffen. Understand this is for my well-being. This will help me.

Proverbs 13, “A wise son heeds his father’s instruction. A scoffer does not listen to rebuke.” Now, he might sit there and listen to it, but he doesn’t hear it and take it into who he is.

Proverbs 25:12 says, “We should be careful in how we give rebukes. A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold, in settings of silver, like an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold. This is a wise rebuker to an obedient ear.”

So we have to be careful how we give them. Correct time, correct way. Don’t give ungodly rebukes. Don’t give them out of your flesh, so to speak, your personal animosity, anger, hurt, whatever it is. Do it in the Savior, and it’ll be effectual.

Psalm 141:5, “Let the righteous strike me. It shall be a kindness. Let him rebuke me. It shall be an excellent oil. Let my head not refuse it.” These disciples were men who understood the Proverb. They’ve been trained for 40 days and they respond to the rebuke clearly because Christ now commissions them to go into all the world. They respond to the rebuke loving the one who gives it. Loving the one who gives it.

May God give us the same grace.

Ecclesiastes 7:5, “It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools.”

What do you like better? Which is better to you? To go get together with guys and just sing stupid songs, the songs of fools. Ah, let’s have a good time. Or is it better to hear the words of rebuke? God’s word says, the wisdom of the wisest man ever lived, apart from Jesus, says it’s a better thing to get a rebuke.

What do you want? Do you want to be rebuked or do you just want to hear the songs of fools? And the answer to that question will in many ways be determinative of your effectiveness for the Savior who died and bled for you. I assume we all here want to be effective ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to see justice come down from heaven and fill this land. We want to see beauty in our land instead of increasing, you know, anti-beauty in our culture. And we want to see community and blessing in the context of our families, neighborhoods, towns, and the world. We want to see the effects of Jesus. We want to be effective ministers.

And I’m telling you here today, you won’t be unless you properly prioritize what our Savior says is the beginning point of his destruction of those who would conquer the world through the preaching of the gospel, those who would turn the world upside down, which is to say right side up, through proclaiming that there is one King that rules over all other kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. You will be ineffectual in that message if you would rather hear the songs of fools than to hear the word of rebuke.

He is often rebuked, Proverbs 29. And hardens his neck. Okay. So, first of all, you’ll be ineffective if you don’t love rebukes. And if you are rebuked and you stiffen your neck against the rebuke, he will suddenly be destroyed, that without remedy. You just won’t be ineffective for the kingdom. You will be destroyed. The text tells us unless you love rebukes. You’re brought rebuke several times and then break. The church pronounces you excommunicate. Your wife leaves you. Your employer fires you. I mean, bad things happen. Why? Because you’ve stiffened your neck against rebukes, thinking somehow that well, you know, I haven’t heard him before. It hasn’t crushed me. Well, it will. Suddenly, the scriptures tell us another place.

Proverbs 12, I believe: “He who loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.” Stupid, foolish, the one who hates correction.

Proverbs 15, “Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, but he who regards rebuke will be honored.”

When they regarded the rebuke, they were honored. Before honor comes humility.

So, in terms of looking at the post-resurrection appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ, the first one now meeting directly with the 11, 12, 10, whatever number we got to call them, prepare them for the tremendous commission that he gives them in this very text—and a commission with power and authority to prevent them from harm of any sort around them. The beginning of that, you know, training for that 40 days of seminary training. The first day: first, humility through hearing a message and a mission, a message to mission from other people, whether it’s women or ordinary people. And then secondly, the direct rebuke of the Savior for failing willingness to hear, being hard-hearted, and not believing the message that have been given to them.

So this is the meaning of this post-resurrection appearance. Before honor comes humility. Before your effectiveness for kingdom work in order to carry out the Pentecostal work that we celebrate today, in order to have an effect upon your neighborhood, your place of work, your friends, your family, and the culture. Before you get that honor of ministering in the name of the ascended Lord Jesus Christ, before that honor comes humility.

And when we respond to the rebukes of those round about us in a godly way, then we receive the honor and the passion of the calling of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for these recorded events in the ministerial training by our Lord Jesus Christ of his church. Help us, Father, to understand the importance of these words to each one of us individually and to this church corporately as well. May we be a people, Father, who know how to bring wise rebukes. Cause us, Father, to avoid like the plague unwise rebukes, sinful rebukes, the sort that we read of in different passages in the New Testament.

But help us not to be so fearful of that we don’t rebuke one another when sin is obviously evident. And bless each one of us, Lord God, that we may hear the rebukes of those who love us, to accept these rebukes as what they are—the loving words of the Savior, not harming us, not taking us out of the game, but equipping us for being effective players in this mission and task of taking your word, your truth to challenge our culture.

We thank you, Lord God, for your love for us. Thank you for rebukes. In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.