It’s All About Jesus

It’s All About Jesus

Luke 24:44–49 (ESV)

44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Introduction

It’s a few weeks after Easter, and it’s right to ask this question … If you believe in resurrection, so what?

What difference does that make? If we believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, what should we be doing? Where should we be going? How should we be living?

The answers are in this text because when Jesus met with his disciples in the days and the weeks after his resurrection, those were the very questions he addressed. He sat down with his disciples, and he said,

“Now that I have been raised from the dead, that means this is how you have to live in the world.”

Easter was over. The women had made their early journey to find the empty tomb.

Peter had raced to see the grave clothes.

It turned out that Cleopas and his companion had walked to Emmaus with Jesus and then back to Jerusalem with their hearts on fire.

Jesus himself had suddenly appeared among his disciples, showing them his hands and feet.

It was the day of resurrection—the first of all Easters—and it filled the disciples with so much joy they could hardly believe it.[1]

Preparing for the Mission to the World

Luke 24 almost gives the impression that Jesus went back to heaven the same day he rose from the dead. But he was with his disciples for forty days between his resurrection and his ascension, as Luke said himself in Acts 1:3.

So presumably, the end of chapter 24 is a summary of what he taught during those weeks—one long sermon to explain Easter Sunday, everything that led up to it, and everything that would follow.[2]

He is hinting that he is about to leave his disciples.

But before he goes, he has something supremely important to do: prepare them to reach the world.

The destiny of humanity depended on their faithful witness, so at the end of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus briefed them on their mission to the world.1

The Scars

“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer”

Not only that but when Jesus Christ shows them his hands and his feet, what is he showing them? His scars.

At this point, there’s something pretty amazing going on.

The last time the disciples saw Jesus’ scars, they thought those scars were ruining their lives.

You have to remember something about the disciples. The disciples thought they were on a presidential campaign and thought their candidate would probably win. They thought they were all going to be in the Cabinet, and they were banking on all this.

When they saw the nails going into the hands and feet, and when they saw the spear going into the side, they believed those wounds had destroyed their lives.

Now, Jesus Christ shows them that his scars remain in his resurrected body.

Why would that happen? If you had a resurrected body, wouldn’t you want to eliminate all the scars? No.

Here’s why.

Now that you understand the scars and why he did that,

the memory and the sight of those scars only make the eventual glory and joy of your life greater.

For them to see Jesus Christ with his scars reminded them of what he did for them, and the horrible things about those scars that they thought had ruined their lives actually made their eventual joy and glory in Christ greater.

On the day of the Lord, the day God makes everything right, the day everything sad comes untrue, on that day, the same thing will happen to your hurts and your sadness.

You will find that the worst things that have ever happened to you only will make your eventual glory and joy greater. On that day, all of your sadness will be turned inside out, and you will know joy, joy beyond the walls of the world more poignant than grief. [3]

The Starting Point

This encounter was undoubtedly the ultimate teachable moment in all history.

Jesus would have seated himself, taking the traditional posture of a teacher,

and as he gestured in the candlelit room his nail-pierced hands or wrists emphasized his points. No wandering minds here.

In briefing his disciples on their mission to the world,

Jesus does not begin with their personal spiritual experience. He does not even begin with the physical reality of his own resurrection.

Jesus begins in the same place where we should always begin everything in life: with the Word of God.

“Jesus did not want them to rest their belief in his resurrection on their personal experience alone.

He was not interested in their becoming an elite group with a special knowledge of Christ. Resting their faith on a miracle was not sufficient.” Kent Hughes

Jesus wanted them to ground their experience of his resurrection on the massive testimony and perspective of Scripture. 2

Thus, the Easter sermon of Jesus Christ is biblical.[4]

Tragically, one can actually believe in the Resurrection and not believe in Christ—as Jesus had warned earlier in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus: “ ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead’ ” (Luke 16:31).

Jesus’ passion and resurrection only make saving sense in the beautiful context of the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. [5]

A Christ-Centered Sermon

Jesus preached a Christ-centered sermon, as any biblical sermon ought to be.

The way Jesus refers to the Bible here is by calling it the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.

This is the way many Jews referred to the three traditional parts of the Hebrew Scriptures.

For them, the Law was the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

The Prophets included the Major and Minor Prophets, and also the historical books, like Samuel and Chronicles.

The Psalms referred not only to Israel’s hymnbook, but also to other writings in the wisdom literature, like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

Thus talking about “the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms” was really a shorthand way of referring to the whole Old Testament.

Jesus based his life and ministry on everything those writings said about his saving work. In fact, Jesus said that everything in the Bible was about him.[6]

The resurrection and its implications for the world.

Jesus preached a biblical sermon, proclaiming the gospel promise from the Old Testament.

Jesus had always told them he would die and rise again, but the disciples had never really understood what he was discussing.

Things were different now, though, because they were in the very presence of the crucified and risen Christ. So,

The disciples were ready to understand the gospel and its implications for the world and their own call to gospel ministry.

“Don’t you see,” Jesus could say to them now, “this is what I was talking about.

What I did on the cross and through the empty tomb was the outworking of everything I have ever taught you.”

The Audacity of Jesus

Jesus has the audacity to say,These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

“No, the Law is about me,” now wait a minute.

How could the law of Moses be about Jesus?

The law of Moses is a set of rules.

“You must do this. You must do this. You must do this to please God. It’s not about you and me. It’s not about Jesus. It’s about us, right?”

He says, “No. The Law, the Prophets, the Wisdom Literature, everything in the Bible is fulfilled in me.”

“Everything in the Bible is pointing to me.”

Do you know what that means? When Jesus Christ says, “The law of Moses is really not about you; it’s about me, Jesus Christ,”

What Jesus is saying is, “I have fulfilled that. I have obeyed the Ten Commandments.”

What about the ceremonies of Moses, the sacrifices for sin in the tabernacle and the clean laws?

Jesus says, “I’m the ultimate sacrifice. I’m the ultimate priest. I’m the ultimate temple. I’m the ultimate way you are clean before God. ”

What about all the stories of Abraham and Isaac?

Jesus says, “I am the true seed of Abraham who offered up Isaac.”

“I am the true Jonah who was thrown into the deeps to appease the wrath of God.”

“I am the true David, who stood before the great giants of evil and sin and didn’t just save his people at the risk of his life like David, but at the cost of my life.”

I’m the true David. I’m the true Jonah. I’m the true Prophet, Priest, and King. I’m the ultimate sacrifice.”

There are two ways to read the Bible.

The one way is to read the Bible as basically about you, what you have to do in order to be right with God.

In which case you’ll never have a sure and certain hope because you’ll always know you’re not quite living up. You’ll never be sure about that future.

The other way you can read it is that it is all about Jesus; everything in it is not about what you must do to make yourself right with God but what he has done to make you absolutely right with God.

Jesus Christ says, “Unless you can read the Bible correctly unless you understand salvation by grace, you’ll never have this sure and certain hope.

Once you understand it’s all about me, Jesus Christ, then you can know you have peace.

You can know you have this future guarantee, and then you can face anything.”

Look at the wounds of Jesus. He is showing you his hands and his side. Know what it means. Let it pierce you like a shaft and change you as it can. [7]

The main thing that Jesus had taught his disciples—from the Old Testament—was the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ.In other words, he preached the gospel because these are the two basic facts of the gospel: the dying and the rising of the Savior whom God promised.

When Jesus appeared to them after his resurrection, they thought they were seeing a ghost (Luke 24:37), not a living Savior. Somehow they were still missing something.

What made the difference for these disciples?

How did the go from not believing to believing?

How did they ever start trusting in the cross and believing in the empty tomb? Luke tells us that Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45; cf. 24:32).

Jesus’s teaching was enhanced by divine illumination.

Luke 24:45 (ESV)

45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,

Though they had been his devoted followers, a spiritual veil had covered their understanding so that on two occasions when he had foretold his death we read,

“It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it” (Luke 9:45), and again,

“The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about” (Luke 18:34; cf. 2 Corinthians 3:13–16).

On Easter night the blinders were removed as the Holy Spirit opened their minds!

It’s a dynamic combination—the Holy Scriptures illumined by the Holy Spirit. What they learned that night and in succeeding conversations during the forty days before Christ’s ascension became the Biblical substance for the apostolic preaching of the gospel and their apostolic mission.[8]

What these men needed—what everyone needs—is the mind-opening work of God.

Christianity is rational, but understanding the gospel is not merely intellectual. It takes a work of God for anyone to know Jesus in a saving way.

The Bible says that “the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).

It does not matter how smart we are; we will never understand the message of God’s salvation unless and until God enables us to understand it.

This is what Jesus did for his disciples, and what he will do for anyone who sincerely asks him for understanding: he will open our minds to see his salvation.

Knowing Jesus is the work of God the Holy Spirit—a work he does when the Bible is preached in a Christ-centered way.

When his disciples had trouble understanding what he was saying from the Scriptures, Jesus did not decide to try some other method. He did not say, “The Bible must be too hard for them to understand; I need to find some other way to communicate.” On the contrary, Jesus knew that God does his saving work by the Word. So he went back to the same Scriptures he had always preached and preached them again.

Jesus sets an example for our own evangelism, in which we should always trust the Word to do the real work of our witness.

The Lord’s mandate for the church in the world.

Luke 24:47 (ESV)

47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Scriptures tell us how to fellowship, teach us doctrine, and teach us how to worship, obey, be holy, serve, and pray. But that’s never the goal, never the end. Your spiritual growth is not the end. It is not the goal, and it’s not the objective.

If you do all of those things but never proclaim the gospel, you have forfeited the purpose for which all the others exist.

God has called His people since this great commission to be the agents by whom He gathers His elect and by whom He collects the bride for His Son. John MacArthur

Jesus even came and said,

“The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost,” Luke 19:10, that’s why He came, to seek and save the lost.

Luke 19:10 (ESV)

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

And He has passed the baton to us and we do the seeking from the human viewpoint, He does the seeking and the saving from the divine side.[9]

The goal of human history is so that God can redeem men and women and take them to glory as a bride for His Son to serve, honor, and worship His Son forever and ever.

The church doesn’t have a mission department; the church is a mission. You’re not chosen or elected to be a mission committee member; you’re a missionary. It’s just a question of where and how effective or ineffective.

There is no escaping this. There is no gift of evangelism. There is no gift of missionary.

We are all responsible for this.

The church is composed of missionaries, the church is a mission in the world.

The world is an alien culture and we are here in a foreign land, we are citizens of heaven, we are left here.

Our citizenship is in heaven.

We are left here and God even endures our stumbling worship and our stumbling obedience and our stumbling prayer and our stumbling effort at holiness and all the rest to leave us here because

There’s one thing we can do here we’ll never do in heaven and that is evangelize the lost.

So we’re all missionaries. We need then to learn the implications that are laid upon us in this passage before us. [10]

Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever. John Piper

So, when the Apostles and the Disciples were dispatched, when they were sent out, what was their message? Social gospel? Fix the world? End poverty? Injustice? Crime?

No … no. Walter Judd, the old congressman from years back in the U.S. Congress who had been many, many years of his life a missionary in China said, “You either believe that you can change a society and it will change men, or you believe that you change men on the inside and they’ll change a society.” That’s the Christian view. We have only one message, the forgiveness of sins.[11]

And Behold

Luke 24:49 (ESV)

49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

What he says is a surprise; that’s why he is there; it’s a surprise.

There’s something you’re missing.

“I’m sending forth the promise of My Father upon you, but you’re to stay in the city until you’re clothed with power from on high.”

With all of that you have going for you, correct theology of the Messiah, correct historical understanding of the Messiah, eyewitnesses of the death and resurrection of Jesus, with all that you know about the responsibility you have, proclaim the forgiveness of sin in the name of Christ

“… don’t go anywhere until you’re powered from on high. Don’t go; even with all of this, you’re inadequate.” [12]

What is the promise? The promise of the Holy Spirit … promise of the Holy Spirit. that’s the promise.

The gospel mandate cannot be fulfilled without the power of the Holy Spirit.

I have good news for you, you don’t have to wait, you don’t have to wait ten days, you don’t have to wait at all.

If you’re a Christian, you’re the temple of the Holy Spirit. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ,” Romans 8:9, “he’s none of His.”

Reversing that, “If you belong to Christ, you have the Holy Spirit.” “You are the temple of the Holy Spirit which you have of God,” the Scripture says.[13]

If you’re a Christian, you have received the Holy Spirit and you have the power to be an effective witness.

You’re not waiting for anything, nothing, you have the power because you have the Spirit. I love what it says here, “Stay in the city of Jerusalem, until you are clothed.” [14]

you are completely clothed and completely covered as they were in ancient times, from the neck to the bottom of the feet with power from on high.

What does it mean to be clothed with power from on high? From God.

Power over all opposition, that’s the idea.

Power over all opposition. You go out and you take that message and you know you have power. [15]

S.D. Gordon in an old book on Quiet Talks on world winners, described a group preparing for an ascent on Mont Blanc in the Swiss Alps.

He writes on the evening before the climb, a French guide outlined the prerequisite for success, quote:

“You will only reach the top by setting aside all the unnecessary accessories and carrying only essentials.”

A young Englishman disagreed and proceeded along the path by himself. The following morning, not only carrying climbing equipment but a slightly colored blanket, large pieces of cheese, a bottle of wine, and bars of chocolate, and camera equipment.

Under the direction of the guide, he writes, the group set off behind the Englishman and found along the way his blanket, his cheese, his wine, his chocolate and his camera.

Finally, they discovered him at the top, minus all his accessories.”

S.D. Gordon then made the following application.

“So many people when they find they can’t reach the top with their stuff, let the top go and pitch their tents in the plain and the plain is so very full of tents.” Let the stuff go, do what we’ve been called to do, to take the gospel to the top.” 16]

[1]Ryken, P. G. (2009). Luke (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.; Vol. 2, p. 677). P&R Publishing. [2]Ryken, P. G. (2009). Luke (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.; Vol. 2, p. 678). P&R Publishing. 1 David Gooding, According to Luke: A New Exposition of the Third Gospel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 355. [3]Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. Redeemer Presbyterian Church. 2 R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, 2 vols., Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1998), 2:415. [4]Ryken, P. G. (2009). Luke (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.; Vol. 2, p. 679). P&R Publishing. [5]Hughes, R. K. (1998). Luke: that you may know the truth (p. 415). Crossway Books. [6]Ryken, P. G. (2009). Luke (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.; Vol. 2, p. 679). P&R Publishing. [7]Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. Redeemer Presbyterian Church. [8]Hughes, R. K. (1998). Luke: that you may know the truth (pp. 415–416). Crossway Books. [9]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You. [10]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You. [11]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You. [12]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You. [13]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You. [14]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You. [15]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You. [16]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You.