Dear congregation, few things are as plain in the Gospels as the authority of Christ, the son of God. When he speaks, he speaks with authority. When he acts, he acts with authority. After all, he has come as the king of the kingdom of heaven. And no wonder people sat up and took notice. the Pharisees, the scribes, devils even. Everything and everyone felt the moral, the spiritual authority of Jesus Christ. Every word that he spake was authoritative. It had to be obeyed. And this was true before his death, and it is true after his resurrection as well. In fact, he says it in Matthew 28, doesn't he? All authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth. And that means, congregation, that all of his commands are to be obeyed without exception, without reserve, and without delay. Whether it's repent and believe the gospel, or take up your cross and follow me. Or as we have in the words of our text this morning, Luke 24 verse 39, handle me and see what had happened. well nailed to the cross by his hands and his feet. Christ had hung between heaven and earth for six hours. And there he had laid down his life and paid the price for sin. And after he had breathed his last, the centurion had come and pierced his side. And forthwith came blood and water to signify that he had truly died. And his body had been taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea where it had rested through that silent Saturday, the last Sabbath. Then suddenly, On the first day of the week, before the dawning of that day, Christ had arisen. He was raised with the power of an endless life. And in that instant, the gates of death and of hell had to give way to this conquering King. In that instant, He bound death and brought life and immortality to light in the gospel. The power of sin had now been evidently broken. The ransom price had been paid and the one who had called himself the resurrection and the life, he proved the truth of his name. And from that moment on, this conquering king began showing evidences of his victory over death. He did that in all his many appearances to his disciples, first to the women, and then later on to the various disciples, sometimes in groups, sometimes alone. sometimes on mountains, sometimes by the sea. And one of those glorious appearances we have in our passage, it's the evening of Resurrection Day. The disciples are huddled together in a room. Reports are swirling around that Jesus had been raised from the dead. The women's reports had reached them. They had seen Jesus even. And he had appeared to Simon. And no doubt these disciples were talking about all these things that had happened and what they had been hearing. And as they do so, in their doubt and in their confusion, Jesus himself stood in their midst and greeted them with peace. Terrified and frightened, these disciples didn't know what to think. Some imagined and questioned whether this was a spirit, perhaps some evil spirit impersonating Jesus. They didn't know what to think. Or maybe this was an angelic spirit. Or maybe this was even the spirit of Jesus himself, but they thought that this was a spirit that had appeared to them. Someone wrote this, during his ministry, the main question of the disciples was, is this the Christ? But now after his death, the main question has become, is this Christ the same as he was when he was alive? And Christ will answer that and so much more as he speaks peace into their souls and into their lives at this critical point. Into their doubts and fears come these marvelous words. Why are you so troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? And to help his disciples, he proves to them that he is there, Jesus, the one they knew and loved. He is in the flesh. See my hands and my feet, that it is I, myself. Later on, he'll even eat a piece of broiled fish to confirm this point. He's not some spirit floating here in midair. No, this is Jesus Christ, the Son of God in our nature. Yes, glorified, risen, the power of an endless life, and yet, The same Jesus. Notice congregation how eager Christ is to drive the doubts of these, his followers, away. And he does it by facing them with himself, with the proof of his dying love and of his resurrection power. Handle me, he says to them, and see. The Lord here is so eager to give them proof of his resurrection that he asked them to take their hands and to handle him. He is a living, walking, moving, breathing, talking Christ, able to be physically touched. The nail pierced hands and the spear pierced side are proofs that he is still the same. Like a mother who identifies her long-lost son, maybe having gone off to war, years have passed. He's changed in every regard, but as she takes him and holds him, she finds that scar maybe behind his ear or on his neck or there in his hair, and she knows this is no other. This is hers. Handle me and see it's real. It's true Christ faces us with facts And he commands us to to handle Him. And this is what we want to focus on in our message this morning. This is so rich and so full for all times and all places, not just for the disciples at the beginning, but for us as well today. And though the Lord shows His disciples His hands and His feet and His side, we want to focus in the balance of our message simply on His hands, and we take the rest kind of with it. Four things I want us to see about Christ's hands and the message that they give us here this morning. First of all, I want you to see that these are human hands. Human hands. Now, Christ's hands had done so much good from his earliest days. Even in the carpenter's shop with Joseph, his adopted father, And in his ministry, his hands had done so much. They had touched and cleansed the leper. He had healed with his hands the diseased who came to him. He had given sight to the blind. He had even raised that little girl of Jairus by taking her by his hand. His hands had broken the loaves and the fish His hands had been stretched out to the multitudes when he said, come unto me and rest. And on the night of his betrayal, these hands, he gave them over to be bound by the soldiers that our chains might be unbound. And it's these very hands, these same human hands that Christ shows to His disciples and He invites them to touch them. I think all of us can relate to the hesitation the disciples might have felt about touching Christ's glorified body. Who would dare touch this victorious King, this glorified Conqueror? At some level it might not seem right to us to touch Him, And sometimes people have even used what Jesus said to Mary earlier that day, when he had said, touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my father and your father. And they say, see, he shouldn't be touched after his resurrection, but not so. When Jesus said that to Mary, the word in the original makes clear that He allowed her, allowed her to touch Him and to hold on to Him. But He said there in that tense of that word, He said as it were to Mary, Mary, you can't keep holding on to Me because I need to ascend to My Father and your Father. So there's no problem with her touching Him per se at all. In fact, here He commands it, handle Me and see. You see, Christ wants his disciples to know that he is no spirit. They were afraid that he was. They'd been so on edge from all the events of the past days that it was only this that they could think of. This is some spirit, evil or good, or maybe even the spirit of Christ. But no, here stands their Savior in flesh and blood, still approachable, still human, and yes, also divine. But in our nature, and he says to his fearful disciples, he says, come, handle me and see, know that it is still the same Jesus. Prove the truth of what I say. Not just for yourselves, but also that you might tell it to others. Because here these apostles, for that's what they would soon be, are going to be sent out And they need to be witnesses of His resurrection to the point that they had handled Him. And the Apostle John says it specifically in 1 John 1 verse 1 through 3, that which was from the beginning, so God, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and which our hands have handled. of the Word of Life that declare we unto you. Congregation, this is an encouragement for us this morning, isn't it? That the Lord Jesus Christ is and forever will be in our nature. He will never set it aside. He is not Today even, He's not some disembodied spirit at the right hand of the Majesty on high. No, He is there in our nature, the human nature which He took to Himself. And our faith is true. And it's sure. It's based on facts. Verifiable facts. These ten witnesses proved it themselves. The Lord Jesus Christ wanted that. He wanted not just his disciples to see some or other vision, but he wanted them to know that he is still today a true man. And he is, dear congregation, forever bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. He is our near kinsman. Handle me, he says this morning, and see And before we leave this first point, let's take an application from this, and that is that if Christ wanted to show himself in flesh and blood, And not have faith be some speculative thing that just hangs kind of in midair. Shouldn't his people, shouldn't his followers, his disciples be keen to manifest faith in the flesh? Shouldn't we want to be the hands and feet of the Lord Jesus Christ here on the earth? So that people might see and know. If Christ wanted the truth to be even physically manifest, physically evident, shouldn't we care about that as well today? We don't just follow some ideas, some myths. A religion congregation is not a disembodied nebulous fog that we have to offer to the world. No, it should be, and it will be real and tangible as we follow the Savior who says, Handle me and see. Human hands. Secondly, congregation, these are heroes' hands, the hands of a hero. Jesus reached out his hands and his feet, and John, as he records this event, he says he also showed them his side. And not just to prove that he was still human, that he was still the same, but that he still had his scars, the signs of his death, the death in his body, and the victory that he accomplished in his accursed death on the cross. And of course, we know that Christ's hands are strong hands. He says it frequently. He says in John chapter 10, he says that Satan might try to pluck his sheep out of his hands, but no man shall be able to pluck any of Christ's sheep out of his hands. So strong are his hands. And the Lord Jesus said to his father in his highest priestly prayer, he says about his disciples, I have kept them. Congregation, what a comforting thought that is. If you are a believer here today, Satan might go after you. The world might try to get you out of the grip of Jesus Christ. But there are no hands as strong as the Savior's hands. I have kept them. What a comfort that must have been to Simon Peter. Satan hath desire to sift you as wheat. But my hands have been strong, Simon, and I've kept you unalterably, invariably, no matter what attack has come. But this hero does not just have strong hands, he has, and don't miss this, he has scarred hands. This might be strange to us that these scarred hands of the Savior might be comforting to the disciples. We try to cover up our scars, and we can be sorry to see scars on others, but at some level we understand this. Just think for a moment with me of veterans who have fought on our behalf and who have returned from the battlefield. Sadly, with scars and deformities. And yet, these very scars are emblems, are signs of the cost that they were willing to take on our behalf. And their scars command our respect, don't they? And they call for our honor. And if you transfer that from the human level here to the Savior, oh, how much lies in this. These crucifiers who pounded these nails into Christ's hands and feet so roughly, they didn't realize in that moment that they were furnishing the very things that would ultimately end up strengthening the faith of Christ's disciples. You see, that's the God we serve because He is able to turn everything upside down. He has to turn the most evil thing to the most good thing. And so He does here. These nails, the emblems of cruel suffering and pain, they're prints. bring comfort and balm to doubting and disquieted people of God. And so the Lord Jesus Christ, this hero, this victor over death and the grave, he shows his fearful people the signs of of the defeat of Satan. He says, look here at my hands and look at my feet. Look at my side and see, see something here. Handle and see. Let your hands, as it were, become eyes and see something. Well, what am I to see, Lord Jesus? See that I shut hell with these hands. See how I broke Satan's chains with these hands. See how I grabbed you out of Satan's jaws with these hands. Know that death has not won against me. I have defeated it, and I still bear in my hands the marks to assure you that Satan will never get you, that Satan can never take you from me. If you believe in me, if your trust is in me, You won't need to doubt when you handle these scars and see all that I done for you. The congregation, as we leave the second point, there's also an application, isn't there, to us here, and that is that to these men who felt these scars, there was a message about themselves as well, and that is to follow a crucified Savior is costly. Here's the captain of our salvation and he's saying to his disciples, yes, I've won the battle and I've been victorious, but if you follow me, everything's on the altar. You have a cross to carry. You have sins to mortify. You have the deeds of the body to crucify. And true Christianity is a costly religion. And those who have handled Christ by faith the most, they have ended up with scars because of their profession of faith, because of their witness. This hero here is among a band of followers, most of whom will pay with their lives for their profession of faith. And whether or not we pay with our lives, we all, if we follow this crucified one, We will know the cost of following Him. The Apostle Paul said it so vividly, didn't he? At the end of Galatians, he said, I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. And he's not afraid to show them. Let no man trouble me anymore, he says. I bear in my body. the battle scars of following the crucified Redeemer. What congregation shall we then hide our scars? Shouldn't we instead let others see what the cost has been, what the cost is? in order that all might follow the Lord Jesus. You see, congregation, this is a heroic Christianity that follows the hero Christ Jesus. Let us handle this Christ closely, nearly, and dearly. The church at its best times, the early church, the apostolic church, the time of the reformers, the time of the great awakening, Those were people who handled Christ by faith, and they were willing and ready to bear the cost of following Christ. Well, they're human hands. They're heroes' hands. But thirdly, Hell-defeating and heaven-obtaining hands. Hell-defeating and heaven-obtaining hands. We've seen how Christ, as a hero, defeated Satan. But we need more than just that. If Satan is defeated, but I'm not reconciled unto God, I'm still outside of God's kingdom, and I'm outside of heaven, and I'm outside the presence of God. I need someone to shut hell, not just to have Satan in hell, but to shut hell for me, and to open heaven for me. And congregation, Christ's hands have done both. Because look once again at these scars. It's remarkable that the Lord Jesus Christ didn't tell his disciples, look into my eyes. I'm the same one. Because don't you think that Christ, they knew Christ's look. Those eyes. Those piercing, searching, holy, pure eyes. And those loving eyes. Who had eyes like the Lord Jesus? But he didn't say to them, look into my eyes. Though, no doubt they did. He says, handle my hands, see the nail prints. And what he was doing in that moment congregation is so instructive for you and for me, and that is that Christ wants to focus his doubting, his confused, his bewildered disciples and his whole church on the emblems of his pain and suffering whereby he bore the curse of God for my sin. When I look at His nail-pierced hands and nail-pierced side and feet, I deserve that. And I deserve that forevermore. I deserve the curse that the cross represents forevermore. Because of my sin, with my hands, with my thoughts, with my feet, with my deeds, I deserve it. But here Christ comes to me and he says, look, I've paid it all. And because I paid it all, hell is shut for you. And heaven is open for you because of me. Payment, Christ will not twice demand. First from his surety and then also from me, no. He paid it all. He paid it all. I am free. He's saying here to his disciples, I bore the curse. I did what you could never do. I hung between heaven and earth. The cross was accursed of God and I took it. I was made a curse for you. in order that blessing might flow to you. And what blessing flowed from Christ to the disciples in that moment, in that room there on resurrection evening. Paradise is opened, he says to them, for you. You can be with me in paradise. I believe, congregation, that when God glorifies his people, They will somehow lose all their handicaps, all their scars, all that which they didn't have here on the earth or which was taken away from them here on the earth. They will be perfect in God's sight. They will shine as the angels in heaven. They will be without fault before the throne of God, the Bible says. Somehow, Jesus keeps His scars. Among all the glorified in heaven, angels and saints, it will only be Christ who will have scars. Because He is the Lamb, slain, as it were, from the foundation of the world, and He will appear that way unto all eternity. Why is that? I tried to wrap my mind around that this week, and this is all I could take away from it. Maybe there's more. To all eternity, He wants to face us and focus us with the fact that He paid it all. And the song of eternity will be louder and greater because every time I look at my Savior, the Lamb, I praise God all the more when I see He bore it all. There's glory in Christ's scars. Handle me, He says, and see. And congregation, do you see the message for us this morning? Handle me and see, in other words, look away from yourself. It's not the labor of your hands that fulfills my law's commands. Stop looking away from your own hands as if somehow you could do what you need to do to bar the gates of hell and to open heaven. Why do we do that? Why are we so busy? with our own hands trying to make ends meet spiritually. Handle me, he says, and see not the labor of my hands. Christ alone, he did it all. And there's something else here. We sometimes look a lot at our scars. The scars that life has brought us for whatever reason. Before conversion, after conversion. The things people have done to us. Things we've done to ourselves. But Christ says, handle me and see. And there any changes are focused, doesn't he? Isn't that what one or more of you needs this morning? To be redirected away from yourself and whatever you've borne and whatever you've suffered. whatever it has been, and to look to Him, to handle Him, and to find everything in Him. The Lord Jesus knows what he needs. He knows that ultimately, yes, these scars that we carry around in life, they're real, they're painful, they keep coming back in a way, but every time again, he takes us away from that focus and he shows us his scars because there is salvation, there is hope, there is peace, there is a future, there's everything I need. Congregation, handle him. Handle him and see. Well, we've seen these are human hands. These are heroes' hands. These are hell-shutting and heaven-opening hands. And finally, as we close, they're handled hands. How do I handle Christ, you ask? Now, he's in heaven. He's no longer in this room here, physically present. I can't do what these disciples did back then. And indeed, these people, they had a unique role. They were eyewitnesses of his resurrection. But what they tell us brings the truth very close to us, brings Christ to us in the gospel so close, so near. so that he says, we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but who can be touched. And under the preaching of the gospel, he calls us to spiritually handle him, to embrace him with arms of faith, to take that which he says about himself and to lose everything else. and to embrace Him and to handle Him and to see. Handling Christ opens vistas, windows, doors. We see. We see life as it truly is. We see the king as he truly is in my nature, so close, so proximate, my kinsman, so near at hand, a friend that sticks closer to me than a brother. I see it now as I handle him with faith. I see that he's everything. I see that he took the curse. I see that he steps so close. He steps into my fear, my despair, my sin. And he says, my fearful, doubting friend, handle me and see. Lose yourself in me. I am more than enough. And people of God, you know of those meetings with the Lord Jesus, don't you? It's as if he's in the room. You're reading His Word. You're in prayer, or you're just doing your work, and all of a sudden, He's there. You can't understand. No one else sees Him. No one else knows Him, but He's there. And He's there through His Word and His Spirit, but He's there really and truly. You walk with Him and you talk with Him along life's way. And no, it's not always like that. And sometimes those times are long between our meetings with Christ. We long for fresh views of Him. We long to see His hands and His feet again, to know it again. You know, we never lose that. We never get to that point where we're just never needing Christ's nearness and closeness. Come again, Lord. Maybe it's at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper where the elements are there spread before you and the bread is broken and the bread is passed around and the cup comes your way. It can be. The Lord comes so close you forget about the person to the left of you and to the right of you. It's Jesus and you and you handle him by faith and he drives fear away and he brings assurance into your soul. And you're ready to bear the cost again because he's worthy of it. Congregation, it's especially to fearful believers that the wounds of Christ are so precious and dear. Luther, you may know when he was struggling with assurance for salvation. One day he poured out his heart to his mentor, Von Staupitsch, a German preacher. And he just couldn't find peace anywhere. No assurance for his soul. He was tossed with tempest and not comforted. Von Staupitsch gave him this advice, and this is so real and so true. If you're here today and you're one of those fearful ones, this is what he said. Hide in the wounds of Christ. There is room for you there. And Satan can't get you there. There is all manner of comfort in the wounds of Christ. And so, congregation, the suffering Savior draws near to us this morning through His Word and Holy Spirit under the preaching of His Word. And He says, I'm here, I'm close. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. And if you're a believer, you say, Lord, still closer to thy side I press, for near thee all is well. And you handle Christ by faith, and your fears leave you, and your doubts vanish. My sin has been paid, my debt has been carried, the sacrifice has been made, the law The law can't get me it's satisfied, the death of Christ and the devil whom I fear greatly, he's a defeated foe and heaven is open. And their congregation as we handle Christ, our fears are exchanged with strength. We're ready to bear the cross Christ lays on us. We feel reassured that in all my tribulations, With uplifted hands, I expect my heavenly Savior, who's on His way, who's coming to get me. His arms from heaven are already open, and He is coming. O congregation, have you handled Christ? in the gospel. This is the essence of experiential religion. This is what we cherish in our church. And that is not some distant Christ of which and of whom you know certain things only and you tick off some boxes. No. Have you handled Christ in the gospel? Do you need Him? Can you not live without Him anymore? If you're here this morning, you've never handled Christ. Remember with what I started. Christ's words come with authority. They can't easily be dismissed and easily be disobeyed. Every word he says, and today he says this, handle me and see. Don't live your life, don't go into eternity disobeying this command of Christ. This morning, give him your hand. And say, Lord, thou hast classed me with thy right hand. I am thine forever. Thou shalt lead me by thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to that glory which thou now hast with the Father and with the Spirit, and then to be in thy presence a worthy lamb forevermore. Amen.