[Darris McNeely] Christ had suddenly appeared in the midst of His disciples in the time after His resurrection. They were terrified. They didn't know, were they looking at a ghost or a spirit? Then He said, "Don't worry, it's me. Feel me, touch me, I am He." He asked for food and He said, "Peace be unto you." And He calmed them down. The story is told in Luke 24 and it gives us a great deal of instruction about some things that we need in our life and we look for. We want peace, we want peace of mind, we want the courage that comes from that, we want our minds not to be troubled, terrified, full of fear. We want that. But to get to that point, there is something else that we need and Jesus is going to tell His disciples how to get to that next step from peace to have a satisfied, successful life.

What He did beginning in verse 44 of Luke 24 was to then, when He calmed them down, speak to them and teach them and He actually just began to explain the scriptures to them. He said, "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, the prophets and the Psalms concerning me." And so He then began to open their understanding that they would understand the scriptures that spoke to the prophecies about His time, His life, death, and resurrection. And He said it is written that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins be preached in His name to all nations beginning a Jerusalem and you were witnesses of these things and they were indeed witnesses of those things

And so, the teaching of the Word, He first calmed them down. He said, "Peace be unto you." And then He actually sat down and had a meal with them, which in itself has a calming effect. The fellowship, the talk, the conviviality that goes with such an occasion can settle people's hearts and minds. But it set them up for the teaching that He would give them from the scriptures and then He said one more thing to them. There was one more element that they would need. He began by saying "Peace be to you." There was one other element that Christ gave to them and told them that they would need. What was that? Let's read in verse 49. "Behold," He says. "I send the promise of my Father upon you. But wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high." "Wait," He said, "in Jerusalem until you are given power from on high." That power is the Holy Spirit which was given to them a few days later on the day of Pentecost.

And so we have two elements here in this story of Christ, peace and power. The power that comes by the presence of God in us through His Spirit. "Power that comes from on high," as Jesus said. That's what we need to live a successful life, to banish fear, uncertainty, and worry that is going to come all too quickly in our own physical lives. Christ gave that to disciples. He gave that through His words, through His instruction in the word, the Word of God, explaining the scriptures to them and through that promise that He made to them of having power from on high. Peace and power, that's what we need to have a successful confident life. Christ living His life with us.

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