Luke 24. 36-48

So the disciples were together, trying to put together the "Easter puzzle" ... Mary had her piece of the puzzle; Peter and John had theirs; Cleophas and his companion - likely his wife, another Mary - had theirs. What did they all mean? (Just by the bye, the best way to work on that puzzle, is together, among other puzzled “Easter people”. And actually the church is always a community that is trying to put the Easter puzzle together.)

Then suddenly, Jesus was there. Luke doesn't say "he appeared" but "He stood in the middle of them". It's so matter of fact. Jesus was there. Present. “Shalom! Peace to you” he says to them. They needed peace. They were confused - thought they were seeing a ghost. So Jesus responded to that by doing something practical and concrete. He showed them his hands and feet. They still “disbelieved for joy:” It was too good to be true! So Jesus asked for something to eat. He ate a piece of barbecued fish (and, some Greek manuscripts add, “honey” which sounds like an interesting coating for barbecued salt fish!) And then he went on to explain how all that happened to him was a fulfilment of Old Testament scripture: it was the purpose of God all along that Jesus should die for sin and rise again. So they could place what was happening within a coherent worldview.

“And” Jesus told his disciples, "You are witnesses of these things”. Witnesses to the resurrection. A witness does not deal in opinions but in events: not in what she thinks but what she saw. That is what God wants for us: to have a story to tell – not just an idea or a concept, but a living encounter. We are witnesses

To presence. To conversations with Jesus, to encountering Him. To experiencing his peace. To being “surprised by joy” to quote C S Lewis. And sometimes, struggling with moments of misinterpretation and wondering. The ambiguity of a religious experience. The old song (and it was a favourite of Marjorie Ritchie) says “He walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own!”
To practice. Seeing God at work. He made us with physical bodies. Jesus had a physical body. Even in his resurrection he had a physical body: the same body that could pass through a locked door could also eat a fish supper. And he understands our need for the physical. It may be a healing; it may be an answer to prayer; it may be a transformation in our own lives. A working man who was a heavy drinker and gambler got religion and started going to Church. And his work-mates started to mock him. One said "you're an idiot. Do you really believe that Jesus turned water into wine? He answered, "I don't know. But I do know that in my life has turned beer into bread and betting slips into coal."
To the purposes of God worked out in our lives as we know forgiveness, and new life. And as we accept his call to play our part in the spread of his Kingdom. We are witnesses to those purposes worked into a coherent worldview.

And we witness by presence: being with people. By practise: making the Kingdom and the love of God concrete. And by living in our purpose and with that coherent, scriptural worldview.

Just a little more than six weeks later (Acts 3. 15), Peter spoke about the resurrection and said “We are witnesses of this.” I like that: he had owned what Jesus told him Let’s own that together now in Peter’s words: “We are witnesses of this.”

But we’re not – are we – most of the time? We are stuck up there in the witness-box – and we have nothing to say.

Sometimes, if we are honest, we feel we haven’t got much of a story to tell.
And sometimes we bottle out of telling our story. We say “The pastor can be a witness. That’s what we need, an expert witness! That’s what we pay him for!?” But I can’t be a witness to your family, your neighbours. Most of them I don’t know!
And sometimes we have a try, and make such a hash of it that we promise ourselves “I'm not doing that again in a hurry!” We feel we don’t know where to start, what to say, when to stop.

Jesus knows about that. So he says “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” What on earth is Jesus talking about? He is talking about the Holy Spirit. In Luke’s theology – and you have to say it’s Jesus’ theology too – the Holy Spirit features big – right from the start of the Jesus story. In fact, from before. In Joel 2. 28 God promises “Afterwards, [or in the last days] I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” Part of the promise, part of the purpose of God in the cross and the resurrection – is that God’s people will have the Holy Spirit poured out into our lives so that we will be able to be witnesses. Forgiveness of sins, new life the Kingdom of God, the coming of the Spirit, and people like us being witnesses, is all part of the purpose of God. Jesus says “Wait until you’re clothed with power from on high”. The Greek word “Clothed” means all dressed up. Literally enveloped, sunk in these robes. There is an abundance about the way the work of the Spirit is described in Luke’s writings. Clothed. Baptised. Coming upon us. Like a rushing mighty wind.

The Spirit comes to enable us to have something to say. It is by the Spirit that we encounter the presence of Jesus today. It is by the spirit that transformation in practical terms takes place. It is by the Spirit that we enter into the purpose for which God had created and saved us. You could say that the Spirit reveals Jesus to us in our emotions, our bodies and our thinking.

The good news is, the Spirit is part of the promise. The bad news is Jesus warns us – don’t leave town without it. Before you engage in this business of witness – wait for the Spirit to come. And if we wait, and ask, he will. Jesus has promised us as much. And interestingly Luke records it for us (11. 13) “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” The Holy Spirit is the last piece of the Easter Puzzle. “Come, Holy Spirit!”