Making Jesus Known (from the whole Bible) - Luke 24:36-49

“That’s all he talks about”

Ever been around a child that just met his favorite sports star? One of the first encounters I had with a sports star, my brother and I got to go to a dinner where one of the original Bengals was speaking. We got to see Bob Johnson, the very first player drafted by the Bengals in 1968. That was a big deal. We got an autographed picture of Bob Johnson and got to shake his hand. That was so cool. In the days after that event, that’s all Brad and I could talk about. We got to meet Bob Johnson. Noelle had the same reaction when she got to meet and get her picture taken with Ariel at Disney World. That’s all she could talk about.

Ghosts, anxiety and doubt

That’s at the heart of our story today, only not in the way that we typically think about this story. Jesus and his best friends have a conversation in Jerusalem. In fact, more than likely, this is the same upper room they had occupied 3 days prior for the Last Supper. The way Luke tells us, this is the same day that Jesus rose from the dead and the same day that he had a conversation with two of them on the road to Emmaus. The two disciples who saw Jesus in Emmaus at their meal hurry back to Jerusalem… and as they are explaining their story Jesus shows up. Like out of nowhere.

They think they are seeing a ghost. They obviously are not. But that’s part of the conversation. Luke tells us that the disciples, Jesus’ best friends, are startled and terrified. The very same reaction as the women at the tomb earlier in the day. They were terrified at the prospect of not finding a body, but a couple of angels. And now, everybody else is terrified at the presence of the body… well, in fact, the person. Luke tells us that it’s Jesus. And Jesus asks two absolutely profound questions:

Luke 24:38 “Why are you troubled?” he asked them. “And why do doubts arise in your hearts?”

We could spend the next hour talking about those two questions. One habit of Jesus’ biographers in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is to entertain questions from Jesus aimed at their congregations. And these two questions are exactly this. These are universal questions, questions that we also have about the prospect of Jesus’ death and resurrection as it is revealed to us in the Bible. Jesus runs right past the ghost stuff and right to the heart… what is it that troubles you about everything you have witnessed over the last 3 days? Why does my presence cause you anxiety? And immediately another penetrating question: Why the doubts? Anxiety and doubt. If we’re all honest, the resurrection is exactly that for us. It challenges our assumptions about how the world works and more importantly, it challenges us about who is really in control.

Jesus invites them to “see”

Jesus’ response to the anxiety and doubt is in two parts. First, he invites them to see. Read this passage again at home and circle all of the times that the word “see” or “look” occurs here.

Look at my hands and feet. Touch me and see. Bones you see I have. Jesus showed them...

Look. See. See. Showed. These are all connecting points to what transpired just a few hours prior at the table at Emmaus, when the two disciples’ “eyes were opened”. This emphasis on “see” is important. Jesus is bringing all the senses to bear on challenging the worldview. We live in an evangelicalism that is constantly telling us to believe without seeing. There are all sorts of problems with that. But here, Jesus wants both. Sight, for the disciples, and even for us, is involved in the belief.

Jesus invites them to “hear”

That leads us to the next part. It’s not simply about seeing. But belief also involves hearing. In fact, this is the biggest point of all. The seeing answers the “what”. Yes, Jesus is alive. The hearing answers the “why?” In fact, it’s the hearing that gives a full answer to the anxiety and doubt. What’s fascinating about what Jesus says after he shows that he is alive, is that what He is saying is the exact same thing He said to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Luke 24:44 Jesus told 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, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

What is it that will calm their anxiety and fear? What is it that will answer their doubt? It’s not just seeing Jesus. At one point in Jesus ministry, in another conversation, Jesus pointed out that people would not believe in him even if Moses rose from the dead. Make no mistake, seeing is important. And I was raised to think that it wasn’t. Seeing Jesus grounds the resurrection in the stuff of earth. Time and space. Here and now. Hearing, though, is aimed at the heart.

Jesus in all of the Bible

And what is it that they need to hear? Jesus has now said it twice. What they need to hear is the story of Jesus from all of the Bible. For the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and now for the entire group, Jesus is saying “My story has been in front of you the entire time, and you missed it”. Look at his two statements here in Luke 24

Luke 24:27 Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in ALL the Scriptures.

Luke 24:44 “EVERYTHING written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

Again, “Moses and all the Prophets” and “the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms” is their way of talking about the Old Testament. We use the words “Old Testament” to describe the part of the Bible that comes before Jesus. They used “Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms” to describe the same thing. Jesus is saying all of the Old Testament is about me.

The A-Ha moment (again)

When Jesus sat down for a meal with the two disciples at Emmaus, he broke the bread and gave it to them and Luke says this:

Luke 24:31 Then their eyes were opened.

They see and recognize Jesus for who he is. Now, in the upper room with the rest of the disciples, it happens again. Luke tells us this:

Luke 24:45 Then Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

This is their A-ha moment. It’s not just seeing Jesus, but hearing Jesus from the entire Bible that brings them to faith and belief.

The entire Bible talks about Jesus

It’s not just their A-Ha moment. Once you see this, you cannot unsee it. I remember as a young adult sitting in a Bible class and some topic was being discussed… this happened two different weeks in that class… I think the first week was a discussion about fasting in the Bible and the next week it was about wine in the Bible… and I remember thinking “why are we even bothering with the Old Testament? It doesn’t really have anything to do with my life. It’s just family records and songs and stories that are a lot of history, but David and Goliath.. that just another story about history like Zach Taylor forcing Santa Ana back across the river. It doesn’t really have anything to do with me. The Old Testament is a dead book, really… other than what it tells me about God.”

A few weeks later, I was having a conversation with a friend and I said something like this and he said, “Have you read Luke 24?” I was like, well sure.. two guys don’t recognize Jesus, he tells them about how this stuff is in the Old Testament, and then they recognize him. And my friend said… “have you really read Luke 24? Circle the words ‘all’ and ‘everything’”. And so I did. And my life has not been the same since. Completely changed the way I read my Bible. Completely changed my worldview. And it put me on a trajectory to be standing here right now.

Previously, when I read Luke 24 and I saw what Jesus was telling these disciples, my assumption, based on my reading of the Old Testament was that Jesus went to the obvious places where prophecy talks about his death.. Isaiah 53. Psalm 22. And that’s it. He used the obvious to show them. And even this last week, I read a Bible theologian who basically said the same thing. But that’s not what Luke is saying here.

ALL and EVERYTHING mean ALL and EVERYTHING

The whole thing is Jesus’ story. The whole Bible is talking about Jesus. It’s all the Bible can talk about. And we miss it because we have certain ways of reading the Bible and certain expectations of reading the Bible that are challenged by the idea that Jesus is to be found everywhere and anywhere in the Old Testament. Noah’s ark? It’s about Jesus. The burning bush and the Exodus? It’s about Jesus. David and Goliath? It’s about Jesus. Daniel in the lion’s den? It’s about Jesus. It’s all about Jesus.

And it’s not just that we go back and super impose Jesus onto the stories. It’s not like we tack on a Jesus lesson onto a story that originally had nothing to do with Jesus. It’s not like that at all. We are not reading stuff back into the Old Testament. No. What Jesus and Luke are saying is that from the very beginning, the sole purpose of all of these stories, and family records, and songs is to tell the story of the coming Messiah, Jesus. Otherwise they wouldn’t be in our Bibles. The Old Testament writers had a Messianic understanding of history. The writers of the Old Testament saw in the events and stories a picture of the Messiah that was coming. That was their lens. It’s why they wrote.

And it’s not just how the Jewish writers are writing. It’s how God revealed himself in the Old Testament. It’s how he orchestrated the events. He orchestrates Noah’s ark and the flood to reveal to us what our salvation will look like in baptism. He orchestrates the Passover Night and the Exodus from Egypt to look like how he saves us from our sins. He divinely orchestrates David and Goliath to show us what kind of champion we have in Jesus.

The entire Bible is Jesus FOR YOU

I could talk about this all day. You’ve heard me say this before. There’s a verse in John’s biography that shows up as a purpose statement for his biography. But as we look at it closer, John was also saying something else, something that is part of his experience in the upper room that day:

John 20:31 These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

It’s very easy to say, yeah, that’s talking about John’s biography. And it is. But it is so much more. This is also what John is saying:

John 20:31 The entire Bible has been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

The purpose statement of every story, every paragraph of the entire Bible is this:

The Bible was written to reveal the Person of Jesus and His work of redemption FOR YOU.

It’s always FOR YOU.

Jesus finishes that conversation in the Upper Room with this statement:

Luke 24:46–47 Jesus also said to them, “This is what is written..repentance for forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in his name to all the nations.

That’s you. That’s me. This is why we spend time every week talking about Jesus. Just like a kid who met his sports hero for the first time, it’s all the Bible can do. That’s all the Bible wants to talk about. Jesus. But it’s not just an academic exercise. Just like the disciples, we walk in here with our anxiety and our doubt and Jesus meets us here and He asks: Why are you all spun up? Why do you doubt? Hear me from My Word. This is WHO I AM FOR YOU. Once again, from anywhere in the Bible, Jesus is going to tell you that you are absolutely loved. That you are forgiven. That He is always with you and FOR YOU. That is Jesus, from the whole Bible.

Let’s pray.

The Table

This Table is Jesus FOR YOU. From all of the Bible. This is lightbulb moment stuff. The Lord’s Supper didn’t just drop out of the sky. This is present at the table at Emmaus. And before that, this Table was present at the Last Supper on the night that Jesus was betrayed. And before that, this Table was the Passover meal for hundreds and thousands of years. And before that, this Table was the fruit and communion of the original Garden of Eden. And it’s not just backwards. This Table is also a foretaste, an experience in real time and space that will be finally realized at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Revelation 19. They are all connected. Why? Because Jesus is for us, not just throughout the entire Bible, but throughout all of history. When we eat and drink here, we eat and drink with those who ate and drank that first Passover night, that Last Supper… and with those who will gather around the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. This meal is all Jesus from all of history FOR YOU. Because He loves you. He’s here, just like he always was… to give you life, salvation, and forgiveness.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26

May the Lord bless you and protect you;

may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.