37 But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. 38 And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”
Luke 24.37-39
The central passage in describing this in the New Testament actually is this passage you just read in one Corinthians chapter 15.
In fact, in our recent Bible study, we were looking at this in connection with the Rapture of the church passage in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4.15-18
Before the Bible study, as I prepared it, I read through 1 Corinthians 15 and I thought, we should do a whole Bible study on 1 Corinthians 15, which is what we’re doing now. So, coming back to the beginning of the chapter, it says
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.
1 Corinthians 15.1-8
The Gospel in which you stand and were saved. The first question is: ‘Do you need to be saved?‘
Some smart aleck answer, ‘I don’t need to be saved. I’m not drowning.‘
Well, you may not be drowning, but we are all drowning in a world which is full of sin, and we are part of it. And we do need to be saved, because the result of the fact that we are sinners is that we’re under the wrath of God. And there’s only one way we can be saved from this condition, which is by believing in Jesus the Messiah.
John 3 verse 36, says,
36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
John 3.36
We have the Gospel, which is the good news that you can be saved from the wrath of God. It’s also bad news if you don’t believe it, because you’re still under the wrath of God, and you’re going to, one day, stand before God and give account to God for what you’ve done, and you will be eternally separated from God if you die in that condition.
And when Jesus Christ died on the cross, he bore the wrath of God upon Himself, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. He was fulfilling scriptures like the prophecy of Isaiah 53, where it says,
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
Isaiah 53.6
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
And Paul, commenting on this in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, says,
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us τὸν μὴ γνόντα ἁμαρτίαν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἁμαρτίαν ἐποίησεν [ton mē gnonta hamartian hyper hēmōn hamartian epoiēsen], that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5.21
Jesus was literally put to death in our place. He was buried. He was put in a sealed tomb. You do not bury someone who’s alive; you only bury someone who is dead. His body was literally dead, and His body literally rose from the dead on the third day.
If you look at the account of the crucifixion, you find that the last words of Jesus on the cross recorded in John’s Gospel were:
30 … “It is finished!”
John 19.30
When Jesus said ‘It is finished‘, He didn’t mean His life was finished. He meant that the work of redemption was finished. He had done all that was necessary to pay the price for the sin of the world. And He cried out to God, ‘It is finished‘, saying that the work that God had sent Him to do in the world was finished. He had completed the work of redeeming us through the shedding His blood for us on the cross. There was no need for Him to hang about in pain on the cross anymore.
The next word which Jesus spoke is recorded in Luke’s Gospel, where he says,
46 … “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ ”
Luke 23.46
As Jesus said those words, His spirit departed from His body, and the body that was left on the cross was a lifeless body, without the spirit in it. And the spirit returned to God, from whom it had come.
On the third day, of course, He rose from the dead. And the body was taken. The body, which was without life, was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb which Joseph of Arimathea had prepared. And it was sealed with a huge stone rolled across it, and the soldiers on guard to prevent anybody from stealing the body.
57 Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. 58 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. 59 When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed. 61 And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the tomb.
Matthew 27.57-61
We know the story that, on the third day, the stone was rolled away. The guards fled in terror, and the Spirit of Jesus returned into that body. The glorious, resurrected Lord burst out of the sealed tomb in His resurrection body, triumphing over death.
Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. 3 His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.
5 But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”
8 So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.
Matthew 28.1-8
And one of the things which you have to emphasise is that this was a literal event which took place in time and space, that the body of Jesus was a literally placed in a tomb. And that it was the spirit coming back into the same body as Jesus was resurrected in His resurrection body.
Jesus appeared to the disciples over a period of 40 days before ascending to heaven, from where he will return at the Second Coming. He was seen by Peter, then by the apostles. And in the account which we see in Luke 24, He was seen to be literally in a body which they could see and touch.
Luke 24 verse 36 says,
36 Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, “Peace to you.” 37 But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. 38 And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”
40 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. 41 But while they still did not believe for joy, and marvelled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” 42 So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. 43 And He took it and ate in their presence.
44 Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” 45 And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.
46 Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Luke 24.36-47
Therefore, it was a literal body. The disciples could see it, they could touch it. He could even eat food. And He even taught them things concerning His resurrection. If you read the account there, it says that He related to them things from the law, the prophets, and the writings concerning Himself.
The Jewish Bible is divided into three parts the Torah תּוֹרָה [tôrâ], the Law, the Prophets נְבִיאִים [nǝbîʾîm], the the Nevi’im, and the Writings כְּתוּבִים [kǝtûbîm], the Ketuvim from which they have the word Tanakh תַּנַ״ךְ [tana״k] to describe the Jewish Bible.
So Jesus referred in that passage to all three sections of the Jewish Bible so that you can find things about Himself.
It would be have been good to have a Bible study with Jesus, wouldn’t it? When He explained to them the things that had happened in the light of the scriptures.
He then gave him the commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. He was there literally, in front of them, and He was able to communicate with them and give them teaching as to what had happened and what was about to happen.
16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Matthew 28.16-20
Paul goes on to describe how he appeared to over 500 people at once, probably in Galilee. Paul says that many of these people were still alive at the time of him writing this epistle.
6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.
1 Corinthians 15.6-8