Luke 24:44-46
Well, I’d like to invite you to open your Bibles to Luke 24, Luke 24. And at the end of that chapter, we are in verses 44 to 49. We find here Luke’s record of Jesus Great Commission, a Commission that he gave on several occasions and this is Luke citing one of those. Luke 24:44 to 49 form something of an epilogue to Luke’s Gospel, kind of sums up the message of the entire work and then also builds a bridge really, to Luke’s second volume, the Book of Acts.
The theme of this epilogue, the closing section of Luke’s Gospel, is Christian certainty. Or we could remove the adjective Christian and just find here the only source of all certainty, a certainty that comes only in Christ and his gospel. Begin, begin by reading that section. Luke 24:44 to 49.
Now, “He said to them, ‘These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me and the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, that you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.’”
As Jesus sends his disciples out into the world to be his witnesses, he sends them in the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. But he would have them launch from a platform or a foundation of conviction of certainty in the written word, certainty in himself, the living word, and certainty in the words saving power. What a contrast to this is with so much of what passes for gospel witness or evangelism today.
No doubt like many of you, I received junk e-mail. Anybody plagued with that virus or condition? As a pastor, I am particularly targeted with junk e-mail that worms its way into my inbox, stuff I did not sign up for. I don’t know if this is your experience too, but stuff I didn’t sign up for that comes from evangelical parachurch organizations, all of them promising to help me pastor this church. I used to try to unsubscribe from these helpful emails, but I think I figured out that unsubscribing that process spawns even more unsolicited emails from partner organizations that I never subscribed to either.
I think they wrote a script that punishes anybody who hits the unsubscribe button that just sends their emails out to other people. I think that’s what’s going on. Anyway, my interest, though, was piqued in a particular e-mail that arrived in my inbox this last week from what’s called Outreach Partner comes from a parachurch organization called Every Home for Christ, which sounds really good. Who wouldn’t want Every Home for Christ? This e-mail from Outreach Partner said things like this, What if there was a simple, effective way to mobilize your congregation to share their faith with greater authenticity and intentionality? The Love Your Neighbor initiative is doing just that. This completely free kit and online pastor resources are inspiring real community outreach.
The e-mail tells me that I can download a pastoral road map and a Sunday launch package that includes two sermons, videos, social graphics and presentation slides. This free Love Your Neighbor kit, which is also, I don’t need to pay any postage or anything for it, just kits come to me if I just click. It includes the following: one Love your neighbor journal, discover your calling and share it with the world. One love your neighbor map unfolds. It shows a guide to becoming a great neighbor. There’s one Love Your Neighbor Bible study. The simplest way to enjoy the Bible because it is all about enjoying the Bible, but simply; let’s not complicate it. And then 12 Engagers.
I wonder if my hour long sermons would qualify as a simple way to enjoy the Bible. 12 Engagers, Oh engager. And that’s a made-up word. But they’re brief encouragements and invitations to seek God. So being intrigued, knowing I’m preaching this message, I sought more information via a link to the website, and I found several helpful, attractive infographics, video tutorials, FAQs, and pastoral resources, as promised. Which, by the way, the sermon today is not going to be one of those two free sermons that I could preach to you.
The first video called, What it Means to Love Your Neighbor. It had lots to say about purpose, about living your unique calling, about using your God-given passions to reach out to others and they tell you that they will empower you to live out your journey, strengthen your community, pursue meaningful relationships. These are their terms, not mine. Their terms.
Nothing about sin, nothing about the work of Christ, nothing about the cross, nothing about repentance, resurrection, but a lot about purpose. You, your passions, your journey. Another video, something of a testimonial, told the story of Sarah, a former methamphetamine user for 14 years. She met Caleb in a park in Redding, CA. He caught her attention because he was telling her you’re awesome. God thinks you’re awesome. Several months later, Sarah reached out to Caleb via the phone number that he gave to her, and he reached out to Caleb. She reached out to Caleb because she was homeless and in need.
He said call if you ever have a need. So she did. She did. She was ready to kill herself. In dire straits. He took her to breakfast. This is his words and her words. He kept telling her she was incredible and amazing, which she described as empowering. She said, quote. “It made me feel better, made me want to do something.” So Sarah attended church with Caleb, a church called Bethel Reading, which is a false church known for its charismatic chaos. They claim to do miracles like walking on water and raising the dead. I’ve been there personally to hear that claim.
The church has more in common in its charismatic expressions with the Hindu Kundalini cults in India. There are video comparisons you can find online of the two being remarkably similar, but also necromancy. They practice something called grave sucking. Very strange. They’re mobilizing lots of young people. That’s where Jesus culture music comes from. Caleb said Sarah at that church was on the ground. My wife and I witnessed people in that church on the ground rolling around, writhing. I can only imagine what she was doing.
Caleb said she was using foul language. He expressed some of it and she was wondering what was going on. And so Caleb helped her to interpret her experience. He said Sarah was experiencing the love of God by which she discovered God and that led her to getting off drugs, finding jobs, a job, a job as a drug counsellor. Caleb summed it up. He said when I found out the heart of God, I found out that God really likes people. And God doesn’t see junk, he sees treasure in the midst of dirt telling people, hey, you are amazing, hey, you are capable. And not just to say it because that’s actually the truth.
We can be thankful, we really can, that Sarah is now clean and sober, that Sarah has a job, that Sarah can raise her kids without her kids growing up with a meth addict for a mom. But there is nothing in that testimonial, really, nothing on the website about her sin and her need for forgiveness before God. Nothing about repentance, nothing about Christ and the cross. Just lots of emotion, lots of talk about love, but no true salvation evident anywhere. That is liberalism, folks. That’s liberalism. And I wonder how many pastor’s inboxes that e-mail hit and then how many of those pastors make use of these resources, if not for themselves, to spread it around other people. This is a good idea. This is a kit you can use.
It was more than 50 years ago that H Richard Nieber described that kind of Christless religion in his famous sentence where he said, “a God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgement through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” That is the same thing. It’s all over that website that comes into my inbox with regularity. Don’t be fooled, folks. Don’t be led astray by the attractive packaging and the clever evangelical marketing, therapeutic language, personal empowerment, social welfare. That is not Christianity.
That is a false religion that is eternally damning. It promises people freedom. It manufacturers religious experience. It gets people off drugs, gets them jobs. But ultimately people clean up their life only to go to hell because they’re enslaved to their sins and they’ve never really known Christ or reconciled with God at all. Liberalism never goes away, ever. It just keeps on being rebranded and repackaged for a new unsuspecting evangelical market, which you can get for free just by clicking the button.
Unregenerate and yet religious people, they don’t understand the Bibles that they read every day in their daily devotions and so they import meanings into the Bible that they read that come from Caleb and Sarah, that come from Bethel reading or just are generated out of their own intuition and feelings. Even good evangelical parents are sending their kids to places like this because places like this are mobilizing kids and professing to do outreach and proclaim the gospel. Is this gospel? You know where you’re sending your kids?
There is no certainty in a religion that is not revealed by God in Scripture. There’s no certainty in a religion that is not rooted in Christ, in the Christ of Scripture. There’s no certainty in a religion that doesn’t deal with sin, that doesn’t call it out for what it is, that doesn’t judge it justly, that doesn’t deal with death by overcoming it with life. There’s no certainty in a religion that doesn’t preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
And so as we come to the end of Luke’s gospel, we find him reminding us of what he himself set out to do to give us certainty. He say that very clearly if you want to go to the beginning of his Gospel. Luke chapter 1, 1 through 4, he set out his aim very clearly from the very beginning and he’s telling us at the end of his Gospel. I accomplished this. He wrote that we would have certainty and deep conviction.
He says, Luke 1:1, “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile in account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as those, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, handed them down to us, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in an orderly sequence, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty about the things you have been taught.”
Luce has provided a written record based on irrefutable accounts of original eyewitnesses and faithful servants of the word. And he’s put all of that research and data down in an orderly sequence for Theophilus so that Theophilus, who is his benefactor, his first reader, along with every other reader since, including us, so that we can have certainty about the things that we have been taught as well.
And so as we come to the end of Lukes Gospel, he wants us to see very clearly and to know with absolute certainty the message and the ministry of Jesus Christ, the message in the ministry of his apostles and the disciples of his church, that none of this is novel, none of this is innovative, none of it is recently created. This gospel of Jesus Christ is grounded in the eternal will of God, the one who has revealed his mind and his will clearly in the Holy Scripture and in the whole of Scripture from beginning to end and now that the Lord Jesus has entered into his exalted, glorified ministry, ever since he has ascended into heaven, the mission of the disciples of Jesus, the mission of Christ’ Church, this too, also our mission, what we do as a church, grounded also in God’s eternal will, revealed in his Word, and empowered by his Spirit.
Our focus for today, we’re going to narrow down, we’re not going to cover the whole section, we’re going to narrow down on verses 44 to 47 and I want you to think about where we find certainty. In fact, what is the only source of certainty? Because certainty about the things that we have been taught is what we need. Certainty so that we can live our lives pursuing holiness, so that we can set our priorities rightly, so that we can love God and love one another, so we can even know what love is, so we can define terms, set boundaries, pursue right ambitions. Certainty is required. We have to have deep conviction and certainty so that we are on a sure footing and a sure foundation so that we can launch into obedience, cheerful obedience to the will of God.
So we’re going to have three points for this morning. Certainty in the written word, certainty in the living word, and certainty in the saving word. Written word, living word, saving word. All about certainty.
Starting with the first point, certainty from the written word. I have to let you know that Luke, here in this verse, in this section, he hasn’t really made it explicit, but he has jumped ahead in time. There is a time gap between verse 43 and verse 44, and it’s a time gap perhaps as much as 40 days. We’ve seen everything from Luke 24 onward up through Luke 24:43, which is where we ended last time. All of that happened on the first day of the week. We’re kind of stretching the time because it went late into the night, as we saw last time, but then Luke is right into his record of Christ’s Commission, followed directly by the ascension. We know that didn’t happen on the first day of the week, so somewhere in here he shifted on us.
From Paul’s ordering of the post resurrection appearances of the risen Christ in 1 Corinthians 15:5 through 7, we know Luke didn’t record quite a bit that had happened during the intervening 40 days, the time period between the resurrection and the ascension of Christ. There was a lot that went on. There were a lot of appearances. Paul tells us that Jesus appeared to Cephas first. We actually don’t see that written in the Gospel except just alluded to and mentioned by Luke only in Luke 24:34.
Paul tells us then that after Cephas, he appeared to the Twelve. Paul doesn’t make mention in 1 Corinthians 15 of the women to whom he appeared and Mary Magdalene first, being the first of them, but he appeared to the Twelve, by which Paul means the Eleven, the Twelve minus Judas Iscariot. He’s using the Twelve in a technical sense to refer to the apostles as a group. But then it says, Paul says that Jesus appeared to 500 brothers at one time. Where’s the record of that? Where do we see that written? Well, it’s in 1 Corinthians 15, so we know it’s truth. We just don’t see the actual narrative of that event.
After that, Jesus appeared to James, then to all the apostles, finally to Paul on the Damascus Road. So appearing to Paul, that’s not just post resurrection, it’s also a post ascension appearance. We read in the Gospel of John. In fact, if you’d like to turn over there, you can turn over to John chapter 20. We’ll be back to Luke in a moment, but John records a parallel account to what we covered last time in the 20th chapter of his Gospel, John chapter 20. Find your way to verse 19.
As I said, this text is parallel to what we covered last time in Luke 24:36 to 43. John says this in John 20, verse 19. “While it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, while the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. And so Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you’”.
Why didn’t you just say it again? Well, they were pretty troubled the first time he said it. Now he wants to reiterate, I really mean it, peace be with you. So, “’As the Father has sent me, I also send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them, and if you retain the sins of any, then they have been retained.’ But Thomas,” John tells us, “one of the Twelve called Didymus,” meaning twin, he, “was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’, But he said to them, ‘Unless I see his in his hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.’”
You can sense as you read the Gospel of John in chapter 20, in chapter 21, the purpose that he’s driving at when he records these things. John is strong here on pastoral assurance. He’s strong on the restorative aim of Christ in reclaiming his men, bringing them back to himself, putting them back into his service. It’s a precious, precious account, isn’t it; John 20 and John 21, here in this upper room experience. It was just parallel to what we read in Luke. He’s, he breathes on them. What’s that about? May seem strange to us, but what he was doing was something figurative and foreshadowing.
There is no certainty in a religion that is not revealed by God in Scripture. Travis Allen
He’s pointing ahead to the Holy Spirit. Who though who will proceed from him? The Holy Spirit who would fall upon them at Pentecost? And then Jesus reminds them of this binding and losing authority that he had given them as apostles, by which he means the forgiving of sins and the withholding of forgiveness or allowing or denying entrance into the church. So he’s reminding of them of their Apostolic role. Authoritative. You have the keys. Yeah, because Thomas was not with the 11 on this occasion. He was off sulking in his unbelief and nursing his disappointment. The Lord graciously, kindly came back to them again with Thomas present with them just eight days later.
Look at verse 26. “After eight days his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and he stood in their midst.” So he’s repeating that he stood in their midst and said, “’Peace be with you.’ And then he said to Thomas, ‘Bring your finger here, and see my hands; and bring your hand here and put it into my side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.’ So Thomas answered and said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ and Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are those who did not see, and yet believed.’”
It’s an important feature of John’s Gospel which kind of puts together the whole picture for us in Scripture to show the eventual restoration of all the apostles whom Jesus had chosen as the foundation stones of his church to be the witnessing entity on earth. After recording Jesus’ restoration of Thomas, Jonathan finished. He’s got one more restoration story to record. It’s very important. Jesus went to a beach on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. So now John skips from Jerusalem to a setting in Galilee, gonna have a bit of breakfast with seven of his men, including Peter.
Says in John 21, “After these things, Jesus manifested himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberius,” same Sea of Galilee, it’s called Tiberius now by the time John writes, “and he manifested himself in this way. Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together and Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going fishing.’ They said to him, ‘We will also come with you.’ They went out, got into the boat; that night they caught nothing.”
We know exactly where that’s headed, don’t we? We know that story, the recapitulation of the fishing story that really led to Simon Peters first humbling and his call to full time discipleship in Luke chapter 5. Jesus performed a very similar miracle to remind Simon Peter where he had come from, who he really was as he follows the Lord, where his identity is now. Peter, you’re not a fisherman anymore, you’re a fisher of men; I’ve made you that. I’m reminding you again, the kindness of the Lord. We could spend a lot of time in John 20 and 21 and I’m so tempted to, but we don’t have time to do it now.
Next, in the order of appearances, if you go back to Matthew chapter 28, Matthew chapter 28, we’re still in Galilee. That’s the setting. Matthew 28:16, we’ve pointed out that Luke started and ended and ended his Gospel in Jerusalem. Matthew starts and ends his Gospel in Galilee. Jesus was crucified, buried, resurrected in Jerusalem. He ascended into heaven near Jerusalem, which is across the Kidron Valley. He ascended into heaven from Mount Olivet near Bethany. That’s where he will return again in his second coming.
But in between his resurrection and his ascension, Jesus spent probably most of that 40 days in and around Galilee. John and Matthew are content to use Jesus’ time in Galilee as the setting that they want to use to end their Gospels. So John puts the setting around the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Tiberius seems very appropriate for a former fisherman. Matthew puts the setting on this unnamed mountain as if to highlight the Great Commission, to lift it up.
Verse 16 in Matthew 28. “But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated and when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”
Prominent in Matthew, as he draws his Gospel to a close, is this authoritative commission of Christ to Matthew himself as one of Christ’s apostles. And the church then as the testifying entity, this body of witnesses to the gospel’s truthfulness, its biblical nature, and its transforming power. And for Matthew and for John as well, Mark too, the reassurance that Jesus gives his disciples, the authoritative commission that he charges these men to obey, these things are all predicated on authoritative truth, on historical reality, things that actually happened, which were the prophetic fulfillment, the realization of the Messiah and his ministry. All the things that they witnessed, they saw, they could point to chapter and verse in Scripture.
Even Luke’s prior account, in fact, you can go back to Luke’s Gospel, Luke 24, again. In his prior account, that we just went through last week, Luke 24:36 to 43. Jesus is reassuring his disciples there too. And Luke’s focus is on Jesus restoring the fellowship to continue pursuing the ministry partnership.’ that’s what fellowship means, Koinonia, partnership in a joint endeavor, a spiritual endeavor. He’s calling them, restoring that fellowship so they can continue that ministry partnership he’s called them to.
He’s called them, Jesus has called these men with a very specific purpose in mind, a purpose by the way, that is yet to be from their standpoint, yet to be fulfilled, that they would be his witnesses, Luke 24:48. Witnesses, what do witnesses do? They tell the truth in a court of law of, of the things that they have seen and heard and experienced. Just tell the truth about that. Don’t flower it up. Don’t gild the Lily. Just tell us what happened. Tell us what you heard. Tell us what you saw. Tell us what you experienced, on that day, on that event, at that time.
That’s what they’re to do as witnesses. They’re to take that witness, a testimony; they’re to go out and proclaim that testimony to the nations. They’re to proclaim it authoritatively, calling for repentance in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins, meaning saving people from an eternity in hell, it’s grave consequences to the message that they carry; great hope of eternal life on offer to all who believe.
With all of that in mind, appearances in Jerusalem 8 days after Easter Sunday, appearances in Galilee by the sea, appearances in Galilee on the mountain, in other places. As we go back to Luke 24:44, let’s consider first the biblical basis of certainty. Now He said to them, “these are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets in the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Several things we want to see here as we reinforce this point about the certainty we find from the written Word of God.
First, biblical expositions were the normal pattern of the Lord’s ministry, Biblical expositions, normal pattern of his ministry. In context here, Jesus is reminding them of his ministry among them and so there’s this plural expression, “these are the words of me,” is how it’s translated from the original, but it could be better translated because of its use of plural and the context better translated as, this is my teaching, this is my typical teaching, this is how I taught you.
He’s talking about his teaching ministry. It’s a normal pattern that he’s pointing to, that they were witnesses of. It was not only the normal pattern, it was also a comprehensive pattern. He uses an aorist tense verb here, which looks back at the entirety of his ministry. He takes all of it, all that he’s taught them in his repeated teaching, biblical exposition ministry. And he kind of puts it, sums it up in one thing, my words, my teaching, which I spoke to you.
So it’s a spoken ministry. It’s verbal communication, my words, my teaching, which I spoke to you; aorist tense, summing all of it up while I was still with you, that is, over the entire time we were together. Men, you know me. You know what I did. You know how I taught. You know how I ministered to you. You know what I said. I did Biblical exposition. I explained the Scripture. I interpreted its meaning to you. I drew forth its implications. This is exactly why we do what we do here every single Sunday. It’s all pattern on what Christ did.
This is what the Lord did as a pattern all the time. And so for those people who complain about teaching like this, expositional preaching, calling it boring, not to their liking, well, they would have tired of following Jesus, wouldn’t they? That’s what he did. So first, biblical expositions, normal pattern of the ministry of Christ.
Second, notice that there, Christological implications were the chief focus of the Lord’s ministry. He did biblical exposition, but chief in his focus, thematic all the time. Coming out of his biblical exposition are the Christological implications. He pointed to himself in the Scripture. Now whenever a preacher, his sermons are all about himself, I’ve heard those sermons, I know you have too. Whenever a preacher makes himself the hero of all his stories, he finds subtle ways to be self-referential, to parade his own humility, his generosity, his magnanimity, we rightly find that distasteful. Often it’s a good sign it’s time to leave that place and find a, a good church. But in Christ, when Jesus made it a habit to show his disciples all the things concerning himself in Scripture couldn’t be anything more fitting, more appropriate, and wonderful in the world than that.
It’s one thing for a mere creature, man like me or any of you, to get up and point to himself, herself. A lot of people doing that. When the God man, Christ Jesus, truly God, truly man, the one we confessed the truth of him this morning, sang about in that song we were just introduced to. When he does it, it’s the most fitting thing for him to glorify himself as a benefit and a blessing to us. The more we focus on him, the more he is glorified, the more he is magnified, the better it is for all of us. Knowing who Jesus is and what he’s like.
They came to exegete the Father to us, John 1:18. That he came to make visible the invisible God to us, Colossians 1:15. That he is the very radiance of God’s glory, the exact representation of his nature, Hebrews 1:3. In whom the entire fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, Colossians 2:9. And thus in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, Colossians 2:3.
Why would we not preach him? Why would he not preach him? Realize there are a lot of pronouns there, getting lost in them. If he did not draw out the Christological implications of the whole of Scripture, if he withheld that teaching about himself to his apostles and to his disciples to kind of cater to some cultural faux expectation of humility, he would have robbed us. He would have severely robbed us of what best ministers to us, which is to know him, to know him as he really is.
If he failed to give us everything he could about himself, he would have failed his mission. He would have failed to do the will of God, because God sent him to preach Christ crucified. We do notice all during his earthly ministry, whenever Jesus did speak about himself, he did so obliquely, kind of indirectly. He referred to himself in the third person. You can see examples of this in this chapter back in Luke 24:7, where he is the Son of Man. He often used that term about himself, speaking of himself in the third person or in Luke 24:26, he refers to himself as the Christ.
It’s a biblical exposition with a Christological focus with its messianic implications. Third thing we see here is to find biblical certainty, comprehensive Biblical exposition is what reinforced the Lord’s teaching, comprehensive exposition proved his claims. Comprehensive, I mean the whole of Scripture, the whole council of God, illustrated the full teaching of Scripture about himself. Our Lord did not cherry pick a series of proof texts that favored his argument. He didn’t say, you know, I’m kind of like an Isaiah guy. I’m just going to stick with Isaiah. You can kind of fill in the rest wherever you want to. He didn’t cherry pick proof texts to support and bolster his arguments, ignoring evidence to the contrary because there was no evidence to the contrary. So he went through everything he taught from Genesis to Malachi or in the Hebrew ordering, it’s Genesis to Chronicles.
Luke’s language, Luke 24:27, beginning with Moses, with all the prophets he explained to them the things concerning himself and all the scriptures, whereas Jesus put it in verse 44 “All the scriptures are the law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms” and that corresponds, that ordering corresponds to the threefold division of the Hebrew Bible, the Torah, the Nebi’im, and the Ketubim, that is the law, the prophets, and the writings. Torah means law, refers to the law of Moses, the law books that he authored, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. That starts the Hebrew Bible.
On that foundation come the prophets, the Nebi’im, plural form of the prophet. The word for prophet Navi refers to in the Hebrew Bible, the former prophets and the latter prophets. The former prophets they, they follow the Torah. In the Hebrew wording of the Bible, the former prophets are Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings and the latter prophets begin with those that we call major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and then the minor prophets, Hosea through Malachi.
There’s a third division in the Hebrew Bible, the Ketubim, which is means writings, starts with the chief book of the writings, the entry point into the writings, which is the Psalms. So often the Psalms stood for all of that, followed by Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, together and then Chronicles, which ends the Hebrew Bible. Biblical expositions with Christological implications, he taught his disciples the things concerning himself from every part of the Bible, comprehensive exposition.
Now we take all three of these points, Biblical expositions, Christological implications, comprehensive expositions, let me show you how this leads to an absolute, incontrovertible, unassailable certainty for your life, for your heart, for your mind. You see the final three words of verse 44 in my translation anyway, they’re the final three words, the LSB. But I found it’s the same in the CSB, the ESV, the NAS, the NET. But the three final words in my text, “must be fulfilled.” Must be fulfilled, be fulfilled, it’s actually in infinitive in the original, so it’s, to be fulfilled, but it’s put in the passive voice and it points to then a divine subject who brings all things to fulfillment.
Our certainty then is grounded in the divine subject of fulfillment, the power of God, the one who is able by his omnipotent power to bring to pass all that he has revealed, all that he has written in Scripture. But then he doubles in that little three word phrase, must be fulfilled; he doubles the strength of the foundation for our certainty. When we see that little word, must, we’re familiar with that word. Remember the word dei delta, epsilon, iota, DEI? It’s translated, “It is necessary.”
Remember what we said, that’s referring to a divine necessity this must happen. It’s grounded in the eternal immutable will of God. It’s issued out in his eternal decree. Now, if you diagram this sentence, I’m going to kind of oversimplify this to make a point, but in diagramming this, but imagine you take all these words, all the words that are in this verse, and with the weight of each meaning of the word, with the weight of the grammar, with the weight of the syntax and you take all of that weight and you place it into a really big bucket; now put that big, heavy, heavy bucket, if you’re going to rest it on any one word in the sentence, which would it be?
The only word in this sentence that has the strength, the power to bear up all that weight, it’s that three letter word, dei; necessary, for its fulfillment is the eternal, immutable will of God. So not only does our certainty rest on the ability of God, he’s the one fulfilling it. The strength of our certainty is doubled here because our certainty rests on the will of God too. For what if God was able but unwilling to bring his word to pass? No, not true. He’s both able and willing.
More than that, he has bound himself to do all of his will because he put his will in print. He put himself on record. He revealed it in Scripture. He put himself on record and makes himself, as it were, accountable to himself, such that his integrity and his faithfulness is at stake if one letter, one iota drops from one word of his law. This is how God himself puts in Isaiah 46:11, he says, truly I have spoken, and truly I will bring it to pass. I’ve planned it, referring to his eternal immutable decree, and then surely, I will do it. Psalm 138:2, “For thou hast magnified thy word according to all thy name.”
His essence, his word are one. So woe and be gone to all of those who would accuse us of that stupid charge of bibliolatry of being so doctrinally severe. Our God elevates his word, his doctrine, his teaching, what he revealed on the same level of his essence. If he counts that important, oughtn’t we to, if we’re worshippers of God? So much more to say about that. We got to keep moving on to a second point.
Number two, certainty from the living Word, certainty not only from the written word, but certainty from the living Word. Verses 45 to 46, “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day,” and that sentence continues into verse 47. There’s a third verb. All three of these verbs are put into the infinitive form, and that third infinitive is there in verse 47. But we’re going to stop here and we’re going to stop here rather unnaturally, I’ll admit, but it’s because we need to draw out the life giving ministry of Christ, who is the living and the Incarnate Word.
I’m going to come back to all three infinitives in our third point, so rest assured. But for now, we want to notice a few things. Let me start by having you turn to John’s prologue, which is by this time in Luke, it’s only one page away, so just turn over to John’s prologue in John 1:1 through 5, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it,” or overcome it.
The word of God is called living because. “he has life in himself,” John 5:26. Life to bring into being all created things. So all that is not God, Christ as God, brought into being. Though a living Word brought it into being, in him is life itself, that life is the light of men, light, energy, illumination, power to give them life giving truth. And so just a few points here. First, the living Word has power to open what is closed. The living Word has power to open what is closed. Remember, Jesus opened the eyes of the disciples who’d been prevented from seeing him, verse 31, so that they were now able to recognize him. They continued recognizing him. Here he opens their minds.
In addition to their eyes, he opens their minds as well, with the result that they were able to understand the Scriptures that he’d been teaching them all throughout his ministry. Here it all comes into sharp focus. Here all of a sudden, they get it. They’re like, oh, that’s what you were saying all those years. I feel so stupid, I’m so dull. What’s wrong with me? You need to have your eyes open. You need to see all things fulfilled. You need to see the things I was talking about and pointing to in Scripture; predicted, actually realized, historic reality, crucifixion, burial, resurrection happened.
There’s no certainty in a religion that doesn’t preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Travis Allen
Continuing in John’s prologue, he writes in verse 9 that the Living Word was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens everyone. He opens what is shut. Our sense of certainty can abide and even strengthen by fixing our eyes on Christ, by putting all our hope in Christ and trusting that whatever is closed for the moment, he has the power of life in himself to open, to illuminate, to teach, to reveal. We don’t need to be worried that we’re not getting it. Keep on pursuing, keep on praying, he’ll reveal it, even if the way seemed closed to us at first. If the future seems dim and lost, if the path seems dark and hopeless, beloved, put all your trust in Christ, because he’s the living Word who opens what is closed.
Second, the living Word has power to fulfil what is written, namely that the Christ would suffer and rise. Did Christ suffer? Did he rise from the dead the third day? Yes, to both, as promised in Scripture. He didn’t come to abolish the law and the prophets, Matthew 5:17, as he said, “I didn’t come to abolish but to fulfill.” Not one jot, not one tittel will drop from the law until all is fulfilled. So by the life that’s in him, the living Word has the power to fulfill all that is written about him. God willed it, and then he revealed it through his prophets, he wrote it down, the canonical scripture and Jesus fulfilled, in time, in historical reality, all it is written.
Third, the living Word has power to raise what is dead, to give life to the dead by the power of an indestructible life, according to the author of Hebrews, Hebrews 7:16. By the power of an indestructible life, Jesus was able to conquer death and rise from the grave. In John 1:5, “The darkness did not overtake him,” didn’t overcome him. Psalm 16:10, quoted by Peter in Acts 2:27, says that Jesus was not overpowered by Hades. His body did not see decay or corruption. Rather, he rose from the dead on the third day, just as he said in Luke 9:22, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed,” but then this, “and be raised up on the third day.”
He was no victim. He offered himself willingly as a sacrifice, an atoning sacrifice for sin. He offered himself as a substitute for sinners. He proved then to all what he had claimed in John 10:18, “I lay down my own life, that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me. I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority,” to raise it back up again, “to take it back up.” And take it up he did, physically, bodily, visibly, but also spiritually.
Consider those three points. The living Word has power to open what’s closed. The living Word has power power to fulfil what is written. The living Word has power to raise up what is dead and buried. He proved these three points repeatedly, which accrues to our certainty. No sins so blinding that he cannot release us from that sin, set us free, allow us to breathe fresh air and see the sunlight again. No pride so stubborn as to blind us permanently that he cannot overcome it and grant us humility and teach ability that we can learn from him. No mystery is so deep that he cannot draw it forth, and show it to us, and reveal it to us, to show its, its wonders, to teach us its uses for holiness, and for wisdom in our lives.
The Living Word, who opens what is closed did so by opening the Scriptures and then also fulfilling them, giving us assurance that whatever remains to be fulfilled will most certainly and assuredly be fulfilled in God’s perfect time and in God’s perfect way. The living word who fulfilled the written Word proved everything that he ever said when he rose up from the dead. So having been raised from the dead, he’s never to die again, Roman 6:9. Death no longer has mastery over him. He is the last Adam, 1 Corinthians 15:45, who became a life giving spirit and he has given us his Spirit to dwell within us, so that in the same way, Romans 8:11, he will give life to our mortal bodies through his Spirit who indwells us.
That is good news. That is gospel truth and it’s certain. It’s certain for anybody who believes. Certainty in the written word, certainty in the living word. We have time for just one more and just briefly. What we can’t finish today, we’ll pick it up next time. But number three, certainty from the from the saving word. Certainty comes from the saving word as well. He said to them in verse 46, thus it is written. He didn’t leave them wondering what he meant in verse 44 when he spoke of all things which are written about me. He goes on to tell them plainly. He said to them, thus it is written. This is all things written about me, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem.
Three infinitives in that summary of the things written about Christ in the Scripture, first to suffer, then second to rise, and finally third to be preached. Three infinitives and believing in all three is necessary if these disciples and we too, if we’re to find certainty in the saving word. Just very quickly go over these three things, first, the saving word is about substitutionary death, because Christ didn’t suffer for his own sins, but for the sins of all who believe in him for redemption. 1 Peter 3:18 says for Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the just for the unjust in order that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit and segues right into the next second truth.
Second, the saving word has, is about resurrection life. The saving word about resurrection life, or even though Christ Jesus was delivered up because of our transgressions, Romans 4:25, he was raised up because of our justification in Christ’s death. Death itself died so that in Christ’s resurrection all who are in Christ will be made alive. Delivered up because of transgressions means that sin is justly paid for, being forgiven of all the sins that you have ever committed. Imagine it. That’s what the Gospel is saying. You will be set free from the guilt and the penalty of that sin, and one day from the very, in this life now from the power of sin, and one day from the very presence of sin.
All the sins that you’ve ever committed or ever will commit in your little lifetime being wiped away. Every sin of omission and commission, every thought, word, and deed, but especially the thoughts, the motivations, the imaginations, the temptations that you’ve gone too far in, you’ve, you’ve stepped into and entered into, all that wiped away. That’s why he died. That’s why he was delivered up as for our transgressions, but not only that, he didn’t just wipe everything away and leave us the same. No, he was raised because of our justification. Forgiven in Christ, but justified in Christ. What is it to be justified, is to be declared righteous, to be declared by God, the eternal judge, just, righteous, positively righteous, that is good news.
All of that is predicated on his resurrection life. None of that would be true if he did not raise from the dead. Ah, but he did, Jesus told Martha in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection of the life; he who believes in me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” So what’s he talking about? Even though he dies but we’ll never die, we’ll die physically, even if you die physically, you will like Jesus did, you will rise spiritually, you’ll rise glorified in Christ. So he turns and asks her then that fundamental question. Martha, do you believe this? It’s really the issue. If you have faith, even as small as a mustard seed, it has power to say to this mountain be removed, uprooted, and planted in the middle of the sea. If you have faith, it could be strengthened into full certainty, power of conviction, that’s what we need.
Third, the saving word is about preaching repentance. Preaching repentance, which as I illustrated from the beginning of this message, repentance is not the kind of preaching most religious people, including evangelical, prep, people are used to receiving. From many pulpits, people here coaching, not preaching. They seek therapy, not forgiveness. They hear about becoming a better you, about self-empowerment, about life journeys, about discovering strengths and passions, and then sharing that with the world.
Listen, there is nothing in Travis Allen needs to be shared with anybody. In fact, if you take away Christ from me, I want nobody to know anything coming from me, ’cause I know, as Paul said, in me dwelleth no good thing. The only thing good about me is Christ in me, the hope of glory, that’s what I want to share with the world. Even in pulpits that feature biblical teaching these days, large swaths of biblical texts is covered in more of an overview fashion. It’s called expository preaching because they move consecutively from chapter to chapter, but they cover so much ground nobody knows what they’re talking about. Offensive parts are muted with nothing is covered in detail. The Bible is defamed, domesticated for the use of those who prefer, prefer to nurture sinners rather than confront sinners. The resultant religion is a gentrified, civilized, safe religion. It’s nothing new really.
Paul had to make a case repeatedly for preaching. He does so if you’d like to turn there in Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10, Paul made a case for preaching because that culture too was gun shy about preaching hard truths. They were all about philosophizing and about polite sophistication. So Paul does what all preachers do. He took them back to scripture in Romans 10 Chapter 11 which alludes to Isaiah for the scripture says Romans 10:11, The scripture says “’Whoever believes upon him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on him, for ‘Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”
Pretty important words in that text, don’t you think? What do we mean by believe? We talking about Disneyland belief? What does it mean to call on the name of the Lord? What Lord? Who’s the Lord? What’s he like? What characterizes him? What’s his essence? What’s his way? All of that needs to be developed in preaching. From those texts, Paul develops a doctrine about the universal need for preaching, no matter what the culture. He says it’s not just a Jewish thing, it’s an everybody thing. Everybody needs preaching. Romans 10:14, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?” Right. “How will they believe in him who they’ve not heard?” Okay, “And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they’re sent? Just as is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim good news of good things!’”
And what shall we preach? Starts right there in Luke 24:46-47. We start right there with the commission of Christ himself. He says we are to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins in his name and his name alone to all the nations, not just the Jews, but everybody, which began in Jerusalem. We’re going to come to this next time. But do you get any hint from the Lord Jesus or from Peter or from Paul or anywhere else in Scripture there we’re to be telling people you’re awesome? We’d to be saying that. Is that helpful? Or worse, dragging God’s good name into it. God thinks you’re awesome.
Does God look down to harden rebels, lawbreakers, transgressors, vile sinners, and exuberantly exclaim to them, you’re awesome? Is that what he’s saying up there? As he looks down in our world, it’s tearing itself apart with sin and wickedness and murder and pornography and filth. Does he give assurance to sinners who are as yet, as yet unrepentant and unbelieving? Is it God’s concern to make all these sinners feel better, power them to be the best self that they can be? Or would he have guilty sinners deal honestly with their sins, confessing and forsaking them, repenting that they may be absolved of their guilt by the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross?
Would God have sinners instead of becoming a better you, would he have them die to self, live to Christ, that they might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings be conformed to his death, that they might know life eternal? Listen, this saving word is predicated on the living word who is promised in the written word. And beloved, that’s why we preach as we do. We preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins, not because we’re baddies and we’re hard. Not because we want to exert power over people, not because we’re narcissistic and we want everybody to pay attention to us.
If we want everybody to pay attention to us, we would speak the world’s language and we’d say what they say. We wouldn’t risk offense. We preach as we do because we love the God who spoke like this to us, who saved us from eternity in hell and covered us with the righteousness of Christ and bids us to come to him because we’re weary and heavy laden with our sins. He says, come to me, draw near to me, call me father, call Jesus Christ, Lord, Savior, brother, friend.
That’s why we preach as we do. We want you to know the Savior. We want you to know the Lord. We want you to know the God who created you and gave you gift of eternal life in him. We want you to have certainty in your salvation, certainty in your proclamation, because there is nothing else worth living for. I’m preaching this gospel, Amen. Let’s pray.
Father, thank you. You’ve been so kind to reveal your mind to us and to give us the hope of eternal life in Christ. Thank you that you have fulfilled all things in him and there are things yet to be fulfilled that we’re waiting for. We say everyday, Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus, we long for your coming. We long for this world to be filled with righteousness and justice that you would call all accounts and yet we trust your timing because your delay is not whimsical, it’s intentional. Any delay is so that any, the sinner whom you have chosen for salvation, have time to repent.
We thank you for not drawing the line before our own salvation. We thank you for waiting for us. We trust you as you gather into your fold all whom you have chosen. We pray that you would help us to be faithful witnesses, that your chosen people can recognize the gospel that you’ve actually written about, that you accomplished in Christ, that our proclamation will be faithful. You help us to abandon worldly terms, abandon any fear of man who would fear you and you alone. We love you and thank you for the salvation you’ve granted to us in Christ. We thank you for such a great, majestic Savior. It’s in his name we pray. Amen.