TOUCHABLE HOPE - What the resurrected Jesus gave to his shocked disciples who disbelieved for joy was tangible proof he had risen from the dead! It was too good to be true - Jesus appeared to His disciples. In their disbelief for joy and amazement, Jesus made clear to them that he was not a figment of their imagination - He was physically present with them. He was alive - He gave his disciples tangible proof that he was alive. He gave them touchable proof that their hope for the future was now brighter than ever. We connect with a long heritage of believers from all over the world who have remembered Jesus on the day of his resurrection for centuries. We proclaim that we believe he is coming again - The Lord's apostles had lost so much on the night Jesus was betrayed and the day that he was crucified. Hope was gone. Dreams were gone. Their future with Jesus was crushed under the weight of despair. Their solidarity as a group was shattered by Judas' betrayal, Peter's denials, and their abandonment of Jesus in his hours of need. Now that Jesus appeared to be alive they were so full of joy that they couldn't believe. It was too good to be true. In their disbelief for joy and amazement, Jesus made clear to them that he was not a figment of their imagination. He was physically present with them. He was alive. He wasn't some vision fashioned from their delusional grief or irrational hope. He gave his disciples tangible proof that he was alive.

.............................................................................................................................................................

Touchable Hope

.

.
.
.

What the resurrected Jesus gave to his shocked disciples who disbelieved for joy was tangible proof he had risen from the dead! It was too good to be true - Jesus appeared to His disciples. In their disbelief for joy and amazement, Jesus made clear to them that he was not a figment of their imagination - He was physically present with them. He was alive - He gave his disciples tangible proof that he was alive. He gave them touchable proof that their hope for the future was now brighter than ever. We connect with a long heritage of believers from all over the world who have remembered Jesus on the day of his resurrection for centuries. We proclaim that we believe he is coming again

by Phil Ware

Beyond Bread and Wine

“While they were still talking about [the resurrection appearances of Jesus to Peter, John, and the disciples on the road to Emmaus], Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’

“They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’

“When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, ‘Do you have anything here to eat?’

“They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence” - (Luke 24:36-43).

I love the phrase, "they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement"!

The Lord's apostles had lost so much on the night Jesus was betrayed and the day that he was crucified.

Hope was gone. Dreams were gone.

Their understanding of Jesus' might, identity, and authority was gone.

The three years of their lives invested in following Jesus appeared to be wasted.

Their future with Jesus was crushed under the weight of despair.

Their solidarity as a group was shattered by Judas' betrayal, Peter's denials, and their universal abandonment of Jesus in his hours of need.

Now that Jesus appeared to be alive, we understand why they were so full of joy that they couldn't believe.

It was too good to be true. They had to be imagining all of this. But they weren't!

On the Sunday night of Jesus' resurrection, the Lord joined his disciples around a table — maybe even the same table they had used a few days earlier for the Last Supper.

In their disbelief for joy and amazement, Jesus made clear to them that he was not a figment of their imagination.

He was physically present with them. He was alive. He wasn't some vision fashioned from their delusional grief or irrational hope.

He gave his disciples tangible proof that he was alive.

He gave them touchable proof that their hope for the future was now brighter than ever.

The Supper is a blessing for believers in many ways.

We connect with a long heritage of believers from all over the world who have remembered Jesus on the day of his resurrection for centuries.

We proclaim that we believe he is coming again.

We share in this simple meal together as fellow believers and members of Jesus' one Body.

While the bread and wine we share are simple, in the moment of our shared grace they become something beyond bread and wine for us.

They are touchable and tasteable reminders of the real body of our Savior who was truly alive again after death.

If we allow them, the bread and wine are touchable and tasteable hope.

They are our tangible reminders that Jesus died for our sins and rose for our salvation. Even more, Jesus joins us as we share his meal together (Luke 22:16).

Prayer for the Bread:

O Lord Jesus, thank you for your incarnation — for sharing our moral flesh to give us back immortal hope. As we take this bread, it is more than bread for us.

We touch it and are reminded of you being with us in human flesh.

We break it and are reminded of your sacrifice for us.

We taste it and know that you have given us new life that is good.

And as we touch, break, and taste this bread, we rejoice that you used the gift of food to show that you were truly raised from death. Thank you for all the grace given us in this bread. Amen.

Prayer for the Cup:

Father, you are gracious and holy. Your grace sent Jesus to conquer sin, death, and hell for us.

So, as we take this cup, with each swallow we are reminded of the goodness you have given us in Jesus, our sacrificed yet triumphant and living Savior.

Thank you for such mercy and love. In the powerful name of Jesus, we offer you our thanks and praise. Amen.

Beyond Bread and Wine is offered in answer to requests from those who celebrate The Supper in their small groups, missional communities, and church groups on a regular basis.

Over the next several years, we will add reflections every few weeks so that they can eventually be sent out every Saturday.

We believe that "as often as" we share this time with other believers, we deepen our connection to our Lord and prepare ourselves to live for others as Jesus did.

We hope these reflections broaden and deepen your approach to The Supper and reflect the many facets of the Lord's grace.

As we eat this bread and drink this cup, let's remember Jesus as we wait expectantly for his coming again!

Phil Ware has authored 11 years of daily devotionals, including VerseoftheDay.com, read by 500,000 people a day. He works with churches in transition with Interim Ministry Partners and for the past 21+ years, he has been editor and president of HEARTLIGHT Magazine, author of VerseoftheDay.com, God's

Holy Fire (on the Holy Spirit), and aYearwithJesus.com. Phil has also authored four books, daily devotionals on each of the four gospels. (Visit the Author's Website)

Heartlight Provides Positive Resources for Daily Christian Living.

https://www.heartlight.org/articles/202004/20200415_touchablehope.html

THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE RESURRECTION - Despite the centrality of the resurrection in Scripture and church history, many have never been clearly taught its meaning, so they imagine they’ll live forever in a disembodied state - a nonphysical resurrection is like a sunless sunrise - there’s no such thing - Resurrection means we will have bodies - if we didn’t have bodies, we wouldn’t be resurrected - the fact that we have a physical eternity to look forward to is good news! If we don’t get the resurrection of the body right, we’ll get nothing else right concerning our eternal future. It’s critical that we not merely affirm the resurrection of the dead as a point of doctrine but that we understand the meaning of the resurrection we affirm. Many Bible-believing Christians today are crippled by their unbiblical view of the life to come. Ironically, there are believers who would die rather than deny the resurrection, yet they actually don’t understand or believe what the doctrine of the resurrection means! Christ’s resurrection body demonstrated what our own will be like: “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.” We are unified beings. That’s what makes bodily resurrection so vital. The truth is, God intends for our bodies, once raised, to last as long as our souls.

..................................................................................................................................................................

The Physical Nature of the Resurrection

We Need to Regain and Teach an Understanding of the Physical Nature of the Resurrection

.

Despite the centrality of the resurrection in Scripture and church history, many have never been clearly taught its meaning, so they imagine they’ll live forever in a disembodied state - a nonphysical resurrection is like a sunless sunrise -  there’s no such thing - Resurrection means we will have bodies - if we didn’t have bodies, we wouldn’t be resurrected.

By Randy Alcorn  

Many Bible-believing Christians today are crippled by their unbiblical view of the life to come.

This is why I have written at length on the subject of Heaven, putting primary emphasis on the resurrection and eternal state centered on the New Earth.

Ironically, there are believers who would die rather than deny the resurrection, yet they actually don’t understand or believe what the doctrine of the resurrection means!

Despite the centrality of the resurrection in Scripture and church history, many of them have never been clearly taught its meaning, so they imagine they’ll live forever in a disembodied state.

But this predominant viewpoint is self-contradictory.

A nonphysical resurrection is like a sunless sunrise. There’s no such thing.

Resurrection means we will have bodies! If we didn’t have bodies, we wouldn’t be resurrected.

Christ’s resurrection body demonstrated what our own will be like: “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” (Luke 24:39).

It’s no coincidence that the Apostle Paul’s detailed defense of the physical resurrection was written to the church at Corinth.

Corinthian believers were immersed in the Greek philosophies of Platonism and dualism, which perceived a dichotomy between the spiritual and physical realms.

Platonists see a disembodied soul as the ideal. The Bible, meanwhile, sees this division as unnatural and undesirable.

We are unified beings. That’s what makes bodily resurrection so vital.

That’s also why Paul said that if there is no resurrection, “we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

The truth is, God intends for our bodies, once raised, to last as long as our souls.

In an article for First Things, Abigail Rine Favale writes about “Evangelical Gnosticism” and the need for Christians to regain an understanding of what the resurrection means:

I teach in a great books program at an Evangelical university. Almost all students in the program are born-and-bred Christians of the nondenominational variety.

A number of them have been both thoroughly churched and educated through Christian schools or homeschooling curricula. Yet an overwhelming majority of these students do not believe in a bodily resurrection.

While they trust in an afterlife of eternal bliss with God, most of them assume this will be disembodied bliss, in which the soul is finally free of its “meat suit” (a term they fondly use).

I first caught wind of this striking divergence from Christian orthodoxy in class last year, when we encountered Stoic visions of the afterlife.

Cicero, for one, describes the body as a prison from which the immortal soul is mercifully freed upon death, whereas Seneca views the body as “nothing more or less than a fetter on my freedom,” one eventually “dissolved” when the soul is set loose.

These conceptions were quite attractive to the students.

Resistance to the idea of a physical resurrection struck them as perfectly logical. “It doesn’t feel right to say there’s a human body in heaven, when the body is tied so closely to sin,” said one student.

In all, fewer than ten of my forty students affirmed the orthodox teaching that we will ultimately have a body in our glorified, heavenly form.

None of them realizes that these beliefs are unorthodox; this is not willful doctrinal error. This is an absence of knowledge about the foundational tenets of historical, creedal Christianity.

Read the rest.

A 1997 poll of Americans found that of those who believe in a resurrection of the dead, two-thirds believe they will not have bodies after the resurrection.

Unfortunately, as the above article demonstrates, twenty years later many Christians are still laboring under a false understanding of the resurrection.

In response to Abigail’s article, one Christian university professor wrote on Twitter, “I did not believe this was true of my students, so I polled two of my classes today. I was floored (and dismayed) to discover the vast majority don’t believe in the bodily resurrection.”

Later he wrote, “After five minutes of discussion most of them were more open to the idea.”

This is encouraging, as I believe most believers are interested in learning the real biblical meaning of the resurrection (the fact that we have a physical eternity to look forward to is good news!)

So why does all this matter? Because if we don’t get the resurrection of the body right, we’ll get nothing else right concerning our eternal future.

I agree with Abigail’s assessment: “The tenet of the bodily resurrection is not a peripheral doctrinal issue. It is part of the entire economy of salvation.”

It’s therefore critical that we not merely affirm the resurrection of the dead as a point of doctrine but that we understand the meaning of the resurrection we affirm.

For more on the eternal life that awaits us, see Randy’s book Heaven. You can also browse additional books and resources on Heaven available from EPM.

Randy Alcorn (@randyalcorn) is the author of fifty-some books and the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries. 

https://www.epm.org/blog/2018/Jul/25/regain-teach-physical-resurrection