All the Direction, Provision, and Assurance We Need

Then even with clear direction and plentiful provision, the workers need frequent reassurance that they are aligned with the right objective. (frequent confirmation & communication to review the command of Christ in Scripture)

As Jesus departs from his disciples, he offers them all the confirmation they need. That same assurance and clear direction and provision are available to us as well.

Luke 24:44–53 ESV

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.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. 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.” And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.

Last time in these same verses (beginning at v. 36) we emphasized reassurance. There is a clear focus in Luke’s account on the reality of the resurrection and how it fits in God’s plan. Here’s a quick summary of our previous study:

Review: All the Reassurance We Need

Proofs of Physical Resurrection (vv. 36-43)

In vv. 36-43, Jesus offers them proof that, although he has a glorified body, it is a physical one. They can touch him and see the scars. He also eats some fish to reinforce the point. Not only would you not be able to touch an apparition, but a spirit would not eat.

Jesus physically rose from the dead before ascending again to heaven.

Scripture Reveals God’s Perfect Plan - Christ’s Suffering & Vindication + Gospel Proclamation (vv. 44-47)

In vv. 44-47, Jesus opens their minds to understand clearly from the Scriptures that his crucifixion and resurrection was God’s plan and that this message now becomes their purpose. Important four our study today still too is that, from Scripture, Jesus says that their witness to the meaning of Christ’s work is also part of God’s plan.

We spent most of our time in vv. 36-46, but then briefly also noted how that confirmation (that reassurance) is still important as the passage continues. But now as our exposition shifts to vv. 47-53, the primary emphasis also shifts slightly from confirmation to commission.

As we continue today, this is what I think Luke wants you to know: Not only does the resurrected Lord give us all the assurance we need, he also gives us all the direction we need, and all the provision we need, so that we can trust that Christ is at work on our behalf and that we can worship him and obey him with joy and praise.

[transition]

All the Direction We Need: The Commission

As Jesus opens their minds and instructs them (vv. 44-47), he demonstrates from the Scriptures that this was God’s plan, highlighting three elements: His suffering (crucifixion) , his resurrection, and the proclamation to all the nations of repentance in his name for forgiveness of sins.

The transition comes in the latter part of this instruction, where he is both explaining (that God’s plan for their proclamation of the gospel is revealed in Scripture), and he is at the same time commissioning them to do it. (vv. 47-48)

Let’s look first at the statement in v. 48 and then go back to what they are intended to preach (to proclaim, to tell others).

You Are Witnesses

We can rightly call this simple statement a commission by connecting it to the early part of Acts, where the end of Luke and the beginning of Acts have clear overlap.

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The Luke-Acts commission also broadly parallels the succinct commission recorded by Matthew (quoting something Jesus had said to his disciples at a post-resurrection appearance in Galilee, sometime during this 40-day period after the resurrection):

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

That is probably one of the most well-known texts to NT Christians (people of faith in God through the Lord Jesus Christ), and for good reason. Those are our clear marching orders. ***

In our text in Luke 24, What is it that they are witnesses of? What are they proclaiming? (back to v. 47)

Gospel Proclamation

That Christ died for sin and rose again on the third day, and that his work (his atoning sacrifice and vindicating resurrection) provides forgiveness for those who repent AND reveals his true identity as supreme Lord. The Scriptures revealed that this was God’s plan, and Jesus says it is the way by which men can be restored to God. Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection is what makes possible “repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

Repentance means to have a change of heart and mind, abandoning former dispositions (sin which you now regret) and turning toward a new way (that does not depend on self and sin, but on God’s grace). That’s why repentance is such an integral part of faith in Jesus. One can’t genuinely have faith in God through Jesus Christ if they still love their sin or think that they can achieve rightness with God by their own self-worth or self-work. Forgiveness of sin comes to the one who by faith rejects sin and self and turns to Jesus.

Furthermore, salvation is also only possible “in his name”: the Lord Jesus Christ. The significance of his name is not like saying his name is magic. No, it means trusting in his person. And what person is that? The second person of the God-head, God the Son, who became a real man (Jesus of Nazareth), but not just any man: the promised Messiah (the Christ). This same one who was already fully God also completed the perfect work of God by his obedience in sacrificial love for the good of others to the glory of God, and therefore… Php 2:9-11

Philippians 2:9–11 ESV

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus Christ is… Lord (Paul declared that Jesus’ obedient sacrifice and vindication and glorification reveals his true identity).

Another important note about this commission then, back in Luke 24:

The Particular & the Universal

One part is narrow/particular, another part is broad/universal. Forgiveness by repentance can come only through Jesus (“in his name”), but that offer is to be proclaimed universally—“to all nations”. (Beginning right where you now are, in Jerusalem, where it took place. — like the ripple effect in water, propagating outward from the initial point of impact, the event itself)

As a servant leader among you, ***

So we have clear marching orders, all the direction we need about what our mission is. But do we have what we need to carry it out? Jesus promises them power by the presence of the Holy Spirit to accomplish the mission. (v. 49)

All the Provision We Need: The Holy Spirit

Since the Holy Spirit is not named in v. 49, how do you know the “promise of Father” Jesus refers to is the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell believers?

Again, Luke’s sequel in Acts explains:

Acts 1:4–5 ESV

And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

… which was something Luke recorded John saying back in Luke 3:16.

So we understand that this is indeed the…

Promise of the Holy Spirit

The Apostle John records Jesus giving them some preview information about the Spirit’s coming and work in his final discourse with the Twelve in the upper room (on the evening of his Passover meal with them).

John 14:25–26 ESV

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

John 15:26–27 ESV

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

And the coming of the Spirit will be further…

Proof of Christ’s Sufficiency

In fact it is Jesus, the text says, who has authority from the Father to send the Spirit. “And behold, I am sending the promise of the Father upon you.” This same Jesus in whom they now have their confidence fully confirmed, because he has proven his power and authority in his resurrection from the dead; he will send the Spirit. And the presence and work of the Spirit will further confirm that the Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient to make us right with God and to keep us until the his return.

Since the Holy Spirit will be the power they need to carry out the task of making disciples among all the peoples of the earth, Jesus tells them:

Don’t Try to Proclaim Without His Power

He commands them to await the Spirit’s arrival before proceeding with the mission. Don’t try to take on this task with your own meagre resources. What a good thing for us to remember!

Instead, you will be clothed with power. [Illust. - Picture being clothed with power. IronMan’s suit. Bruce Banner becoming the Hulk. Only much more powerful than that… and REAL.]

Let me add this note for the modern evangelist. The Holy Spirit is infused in every part of biblical evangelism. True evangelism (proclaiming good news—which means to spread the good news that God has offered a relationship with himself to sinful humanity through the Lord Jesus Christ)… true evangelism is from God, about God, and accomplished by God. You have nothing to say except what the Holy Spirit has revealed in God’s word, the Bible. Even your own testimony infused into gospel proclamation, which is right and good, is actually about God and not about you—God’s plan, Christ’s work, and the Holy Spirit’s regenerating you. Our task then is to faithfully (obediently) proclaim, but not as if we save people. We pray fervently for intervention from God and trust the Holy Spirit to transform people by grace through faith, according to his own will and for his own glory.

Now we come to the ascension (at v. 50), which serves as still more assurance.

Still More Assurance: The Ascension

What does it mean that he blessed them before he departed? I’m pretty sure it means he encouraged them by reiterating a great many things he had previously taught, to give them confidence and courage, such as, “behold, I am with you always…” Here are some further examples of things he likely reminded them of, worded in a way that explains how Christ’s ascension offers us assurance:

His blessing and departure means the completion of this phase of his saving work.

The climactic point of Christ’s saving work from our historical perspective, His perfect life and sacrificial death and bodily resurrection, is finished. He did everything that he came to do to secure forgiveness and restoration to God for repentant sinners who turn to him in faith.

We can be sure that we he accomplished is sufficient to save.

His blessing and departure means he continues interceding for his own during the church age.

What he began even as he prayed for his own (including us) while on earth, in the high priestly prayer of John 17, he continues to do even now. Other NT authors reinforce this teaching:

Hebrews 7:25 ESV

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Romans 8:33–34 ESV

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

We can be sure that he is alive and ensuring completion of the salvation of every single one whom God has predestined for salvation.

His blessing and departure means the coming of the Spirit.

Jesus had told them how important the Spirit’s coming would be for them:

John 14:16–17 ESV

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

Jesus knew that talk of his departure would make them feel sorrowful (especially as his sacrificial death would cause such disillusionment), but he adds this:

John 16:7 ESV

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

Ephesians 1:13–14 ESV

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

We can be sure that the Holy Spirit is sufficient to seal us and sufficient to empower us to accomplish the command Christ has given to proclaim him to every people group on the planet.

His blessing and bodily departure reminds us that he’s coming again the same way he left.

John 14:3 ESV

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Acts 1:10–11 ESV

And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

We can be so sure that Christ will return again in glory to visibly prove his sovereignty over all of creation.

What turns out to be the result for his followers of all this reassurance, this clear direction, this promise of provision of the presence and power of the Spirit?

Worship & Joyful Obedience: The Result

The result for his followers is to worship him and to proceed with joyful confidence & commitment to his command. (vv. 52-53)

I want to use this conclusion to Luke’s gospel as a bit of practical application for today:

What is worship and how do you ‘do’ it?

Worship means a reverential response to God, conceived of as physically bowing down before a deity. So now with greater clarity on the person and work of Christ, they formally worshipped him.

Worship in its broadest NT sense means living your whole life as a way to bow down to God in submission and dependence. Such worship will necessarily lead to a growing relationship with God, and it will require obedience.

What is obedience and how do you ‘do’ it?

To do what God says to do, when he says to do it, and the way that he commands.

What is mega-joy and how do we ‘get’ it?

Joy is closely related to gladness and happiness, but it is more a state of being than an emotion. Joy is a response to God that is a deep-seated foundation of gladness (a rooted happiness) that is not dependent on circumstances or mere emotion.

How do we have joy? Joy comes from confidence in God’s character and in your standing with him through Jesus Christ. Without faith in God through Jesus there can be no deep and lasting joy. And such joy has a critical element of divine work in our lives which we cannot produce on our own—the fruit of the Spirit. (See Gal 5:22-23) By growing in the knowledge of God through Christ you will increase joy (see Paul’s letter to the Philippians), and by submission to God in the Spirit you will maintain/guard joy.

Finally… [and I’m gonna ask the praise team to return now while we close the message this morning]

Will you be continually blessing God (praising and thanking him) in the meantime for all that he has done, is doing, and promises to complete?

Giving God all the credit is an important part of both who we are and what we are about.

Luke closes the book where it began: in the temple (Jesus 8 days old, Simeon & Anna’s confirmation that the consolation of Israel had come, ). … Only what began as hope is now fulfilled in Christ, and Jesus’ disciples patiently waiting in the temple foreshadows the work that God will continue to do through his people by the power of the Holy Spirit’s presence in them. Luke will continue that story of the church in Acts.

We will see that, with what Jesus accomplished and taught them, and with the Holy Spirit’s presence, they will be a people of confident assurance in of their own standing in Christ. They will be marked by clear understanding of the gospel and clear proclamation of it.

We too need to be clear about who we belong to and what we proclaim. We can obey him with courage, knowing that it is God at work in us and through us, “both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Php. 2:13).

Romans 11:36 ESV

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.