Christ is All

| Week 6: Luke 24 | The Whole Story Leads to Jesus

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Luke 24:25–27 NLT

25 Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. 26 Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” 27 Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

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Opening:

INTERNET WELCOME

Object lesson option: Hold up a puzzle piece, Let the room see the idea before explaining it: Say:

Have you ever worked on a U.S. map puzzle for a long time, only to realize that the whole map still looks incomplete because one key state in the middle is missing? You can place the coastlines, fit the borders, and build out the regions. You can see the outlines of the country forming. But without that central piece, the map simply isn’t whole. There’s an empty space right where everything should connect. Then that middle piece finally drops into place, and the map becomes complete. What once looked unfinished now stands as a full, unified picture because every state is finally where it belongs. The pieces need a center.

Luke 24 feels like that moment for our “The Gospel In” study.

For five weeks in this series, we have been tracing the Gospel through the Old Testament. We have talked about the promise in Genesis, the covering in Exodus... the substitution in Leviticus... the looking in faith in Numbers… and covenant response in Deuteronomy. And all along, the question has been hanging in the air: So, where does all of this meet? What is the center that makes all the parts fit?

Luke 24 gives the answer. And it doesn’t come in a classroom. It comes on a road, after grief, in the middle of confusion, while two disciples are trying to process a story they thought they understood and now cannot hold together anymore. That matters, because some of the most important revelations in Scripture happen when people are honest enough to admit they don’t see clearly yet.

And Jesus meets them there.

Not with a vague inspirational thought. Not with a quick emotional boost. He opens the Scriptures and shows them that the story they had been reading all along was always about Him.

Read slowly: Read Luke 24:27 with weight. Pause after “all the Scriptures” and again after “concerning himself.”

Luke 24:27 says, Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures Pause the things concerning himself. Pause

That is the final movement of this whole series. The Gospel is not just in isolated moments, symbols, and themes. The Gospel has a center. And that center is Christ.

Main Teaching:

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Point 1: The Bible Is One Story, Not a Pile of Fragments

One of the great dangers in reading Scripture is learning to handle it as disconnected pieces. We know some stories. We know some characters. We know some memory verses. We know where to find certain moments in a crisis. But if we’re not careful, we can end up treating the Bible like a drawer full of spiritual tools instead of one unified revelation.

Luke 24 won’t let us do that. Jesus doesn’t merely point the disciples to a few isolated predictions. He begins with Moses and all the Prophets and shows them the things concerning Himself. In other words, He is saying that the Scriptures aren’t a stack of unrelated episodes that just happen to include Jesus here and there. The Scriptures are one story moving toward one center.

Object lesson: Show the map again pointing to the missing-center image. Say, “Fragments can be true and still feel confusing or incomplete until the center is seen.”

That matters because many believers know biblical details without seeing biblical direction. They know David and Goliath, but they aren’t sure how David points beyond himself. They know Passover, but they don’t immediately connect it to the Lamb of God. They know the wilderness... the sacrifices… the kings… the prophets… and the promises... but those things can remain like unconnected puzzle pieces unless the center is revealed.

Jesus is teaching these disciples to read the Bible as one unfolding story of redemption. Promise, failure, sacrifice, exile, longing, hope, covenant, kingdom — none of those themes are self-contained. They all move somewhere. They all lean somewhere. They are all preparing the heart to recognize Christ when He appears.

That is why Jesus can say in John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” The Scriptures are not only information. They are witness. Pause They are not merely a shelf of facts. They are testimony. They are standing on the witness stand, pointing to Christ.

Imagine walking through a museum filled with sketches, notes, and unfinished works from a great artist. At first, the sketches seem unrelated. Different lines. Different shapes. Different stages of work. But then, at the end of the exhibit, you see the completed masterpiece. Suddenly every sketch takes on new meaning. The fragments were never random. They were all pointing to the finished picture.

It’s sort of like the Burman Shave signs, except here in Luke 24 they point to Christ:

Object lesson: Show one sign at a time. Say, Sign 1 Blind to truth Sign 2 Story unclear Sign 3 Opened eyes Sign 4 Picture complete Sign 5 Believe Him Jesus Christ!

That is what Jesus does on the Emmaus road. He shows the masterpiece, and all the sketches start to make sense.

A lot of us have read the Bible the way some people shop at thrift stores: there is definitely treasure in here somewhere, but I’m not entirely sure how all these things ended up in the same room. Luke 24 says the room is not random. The pieces aren’t accidental. Christ is the center that makes the story coherent.

That means the Bible is not random history with occasional spiritual lessons attached. It is God’s coherent story, and Christ isn’t a sidebar to that story. He is the center that holds it together.

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Point 2: Christ Does Not Improve the Story; Christ Fulfills It

When Jesus opens the Scriptures, He isn’t adding Himself awkwardly to a story that already had a different point. He is revealing that He was the point all along. That is an enormously important distinction. Christ isn’t the final chapter of a book that could have stood on its own without Him. Christ is the fulfillment of everything that came before Him.

The promise to the woman in Genesis points to Him. The blood of the Passover lamb points to Him. The sacrifices of Leviticus point to Him. The serpent lifted in the wilderness points to Him. The covenant call to choose life finds its answer in Him, because He is life. The kings create longing for Him. The prophets announce Him. The temple anticipates His presence. The exile deepens the ache that only He can answer.

That is why Luke 24 doesn’t merely say Jesus referenced Himself in the Scriptures. It says He explained from all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. He is not decorating the Bible with a few Christ-centered thoughts. He is uncovering the heartbeat of the whole revelation.

Illustration: Use the key ring illustration here, inside the fulfillment argument.

When I was at Taylor University, I carried a set of keys to networking and telephony closets all over campus. One key opened the comms room in the library. Another belonged to the telecom closet in Wengatz Hall. A different one unlocked the networking hub in the admin building.

Each door led to a different part of the campus infrastructure. Every key had its own narrow purpose. Each one gave me access to only a single closet, a single rack, a single slice of the network.

But even with a whole ring of keys, some of the campus systems were still out of reach. Entire sections of the network stayed behind locked doors. I always knew there were places I couldn’t get to.

Then one day I held the master key. Suddenly every networking closet opened. Every telephony room was accessible. Every part of the campus infrastructure connected into one unified system.

What once felt limited and incomplete became fully open because the one key that unlocked every door was finally in my hand.

And standing there with that master key in my hand, able to open every closet and every system on campus, I realized something: having a handful of keys may give you access to a few places, but it will never give you the whole picture. Only the master key can do that.

This matters because if Christ only improves the story, then Christianity becomes one more religious enhancement to a life that could theoretically stand on other foundations. But if Christ fulfills the story, then everything changes. Jesus is not an accessory added to an already complete life. Jesus is the One all the promises were waiting for.

Paul says in Colossians 1 that Christ is “before all things, and in him all things hold together.” That is not just a creation statement. It is also a redemption statement. In Him, the pieces hold together. In Him, the themes meet. In Him, the promises are yes and amen.

That is why 2 Corinthians 1:20 says, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.” Not some promises. Not the obvious promises. All the promises. Pause The promise in Eden. The blood in Egypt. The burden moved in Leviticus. The lifted serpent in Numbers. The life set before Israel in Deuteronomy. All of them find their yes in Him.

Some of us treat Jesus like the bonus feature after the main movie, when in reality He is the plot, the soundtrack, and the ending all at once. He is not extra. He is everything the story has been moving toward.

And this is where the Gospel becomes deeply personal. Because if Christ fulfills the story, then faith is not primarily about collecting biblical facts. Faith is about coming to the One those facts were always meant to reveal.

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Point 3: Seeing Christ Changes How We Read and How We Live

Now, here is the final turn. When Christ becomes the center of the story, He also becomes the center of our reading, our worship, and our living. You can’t really see Him in the Scriptures and keep approaching the Christian life as if it revolves around your performance, your preferences, or your private little system of self-improvement.

Delivery cue: Read Luke 24:32 with warmth. This is the emotional hinge of the sermon.

The disciples on the road to Emmaus do not simply receive information that day. Their hearts are set on fire. Later they say in Luke 24:32,

“Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

That is what happens when Christ moves from being a doctrine you affirm to being the center you actually see.

The Bible stops feeling flat. Worship stops feeling casual. Obedience stops feeling like mere duty. Everything is warmed by the presence of the One the story is about.

And that changes practical life too. If Christ is the center, then the Christian life isn’t about finding a way to make yourself the most important character in God’s story. It is about living with joyful awareness that the story is His, and your life finally makes sense only in relationship to Him.

That means when you open Genesis, you aren’t merely reading about beginnings. You are reading about the One through whom all things were made. When you read Exodus, you aren’t merely reading about deliverance from Pharaoh. You are reading toward the Lamb. When you read Leviticus, you aren’t merely reading ancient ritual. You are seeing substitution that finds its fullness at the cross. When you read Numbers, you aren’t only reading about wilderness complaints and bronze serpents. You are learning to look in faith to the One lifted up for sinners. When you read Deuteronomy, you aren’t merely hearing Israel told to choose life. You are hearing the call that finds its answer in Christ, who is life.

Illustration: Use the wheel hub illustration here to explain how Christ centers both Scripture and life.

Imagine a bicycle wheel missing its hub. You can have spokes. You can have a rim. You can even admire the shape of it. But without the center, the hub, it cannot carry weight the way it was meant to. Christ is not one spoke among many in the Christian life. He is the hub. if you remove Him from the center, then the whole thing wobbles and becomes unstable.

This is why a Jesus-lite version of Christianity always feels unstable. It is basically trying to ride a bicycle while insisting the front wheel is optional. You might get movement for a moment, but you shouldn’t be surprised when the whole thing starts wobbling, and falls over.

This also means you do not have to live like disconnected pieces anymore. A lot of people feel spiritually fragmented. They have some theology, some guilt, some habits, some hopes, some wounds, some obedience, some confusion. They feel like a life of fragments. Christ does not merely add one more piece. Christ gives the center. And when the center is right, the rest begins to find its place.

Seeing Christ changes how we read the Bible, it also changes how we live. Our stories are no longer piles of unrelated moments. Our suffering, obedience, questions, repentance, hope, and worship all begin to find their place in relation to Him. He is not only the center of the Bible. He is the center of the life that the Bible is forming in us.

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Closing: Read It Again, But Read It With Him at the Center

So where does that leave us? It leaves us with an invitation.

Read the story again — but read it with Christ at the center.

Read Genesis again and see promise becoming Person. Read Exodus again and see covering becoming Lamb. Read Leviticus again and see substitution becoming cross. Read Numbers again and see looking becoming faith. Read Deuteronomy again and see life itself standing before you in Christ.

Object lesson Place the missing puzzle piece into the puzzle Say, “Once the center is seen, the fragments are never the same again.”

And then do more than read. Worship Him. Trust Him. Follow Him. Because the goal is not merely to say, “I know the Bible points to Jesus.” The goal is to say, “Now that I see Him there, I cannot put anything else in the center again.”

That is the end of "The Gospel In” series, but it is also the beginning of a deeper way of reading, a steadier way of walking, and a fuller way of seeing. Christ is not hidden in the Scriptures because God wanted to make the story difficult. Christ is woven through the Scriptures because God wanted to make the story beautiful.

So don’t settle for disconnected pieces. See the center. And once you see Him, read everything, including your own life, in the light of who He is.

One story. One center. One Christ. And once the center is found, the whole story becomes clear.

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Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus: Thank You that You are not a side note in the story of Scripture but the center of it. Thank You that all the promises, pictures, sacrifices, songs, and hopes find their fulfillment in You. Open our eyes to see You more clearly, our hearts to love You more deeply, and our minds to read Your Word more faithfully. Keep us from treating the Bible like fragments and our lives like disconnected pieces. Teach us to live with You at the center.

In Your name, Amen.