An Appearance of the Risen Christ 04/17/2022

First Baptist Church Leominster

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New Testament, please, to John 20, and Pastor Jason will come and read of the resurrection of our

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Lord Jesus, and then pray for us. John chapter 20,

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Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

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So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them,

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They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb.

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Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

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And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.

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Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself.

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Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed.

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For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.

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But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.

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They said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, They have taken away my

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Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw

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Jesus standing, but she did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her,

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Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him,

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Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her,

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Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher.

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Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and say to them,

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I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,

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I have seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her. Let's pray.

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Our Heavenly Father, we rejoice in the resurrection of Christ. We rejoice in his life, in his death, in his resurrection, and his ascension.

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We're thankful, Lord, what this means for us, for those who are found in him, for those who belong to Christ Jesus and are in union with him.

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And we pray, Lord, that we would live out our lives in light of this truth, that Jesus Christ accomplished what we could not, and so we must strive to live righteous lives in the power of the

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Spirit and in the strength of his might. And so, Lord, we ask that you would help us as we continue our worship through the sermon.

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Help us, Lord, to hear the words that are being proclaimed. We pray that the

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Spirit would take those words from our ear and to our heart. Help us, Lord, to live in light of all of these tremendous truths.

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Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let's turn in our

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Bibles to Luke 24, please. Recently, our church was blessed with a new copy machine, and so it was just installed and set up last week.

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Unfortunately, there was just a limited and temporary toner cartridge, and we haven't yet received the new cartridges, and so we are short on notes,

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I believe, this morning. I think we are, anyway. Mary was telling me that she normally prints out about 120 a week, and I know that we had at least 20 this morning, so I don't know.

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Were you able to get them done? Oh, really?

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Okay. We're set then, so you've got notes. Good. Amen. Well, this

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Resurrection Sunday, I'd like us to consider the appearance of the Lord Jesus to his disciples as recorded for us in Luke 24, verses 36 and following.

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All four Gospels, of course, give accounts of appearances of the Lord Jesus to his disciples after his resurrection.

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And John's Gospel records the most detail, expressing what happened in all of John chapter 20 and 21.

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Luke's Gospel stands in second place with respect to the length and detail provided of our

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Lord's post -resurrection appearances. Of course, the Gospel of Luke is just volume one.

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Volume two is the book of Acts, and Luke continued to give further information in Acts chapter one of our

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Lord Jesus' ministry, post -resurrection ministry, and then his ascension into heaven.

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Well, after Luke had recounted the women first discovering the empty tomb and informing the disciples that Jesus had risen,

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Luke then recorded the very devotional account of our Lord meeting up with two of his disciples that afternoon of that first Easter Sunday.

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And as they traveled to the, from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus, perhaps about seven miles away, and of course the

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Lord engaged them with conversation. They didn't recognize who he was at first until they sat down and he blessed the bread, then they recognized him, and then he disappeared.

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But after this event, we read that our Lord appeared to his gathered disciples in the early evening of that first Easter Sunday, and that's what we have recorded for us in verses 36 through 52.

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And it's to this we want to give our attention this morning. I was tempted to continue in Malachi, we've just got two more

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Sundays, and I thought that we could afford to bystep that and give an emphasis to this resurrection narrative.

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And so here is Luke 24, 36 through 52. Now as they said these things,

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Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, Peace to you. But they were terrified and frightened and supposed they had seen a spirit.

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And he said to them, Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold, my hands and my feet, this is, it is

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I myself, handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see

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I have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

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But while they still not believed for joy and marveled, he said to them, Have you any food here?

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So they gave him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And he took it and ate in their presence.

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And then he said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the

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Psalms concerning me. And he opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures.

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And then he said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the

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Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.

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And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.

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A reference to Pentecost, of course, and the giving of the Holy Spirit. And he led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them.

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And now it came to pass while he blessed them that he was parted from them and carried up into heaven.

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And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing

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God, amen. As we look over these last verses of this last section of Luke's gospel, it appears that we have, just at a first reading, a single meeting between our

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Lord and all of his gathered disciples, at least the 11, Judas having committed suicide already, his gathered disciples just before his ascension to the throne in heaven.

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It would seem, again, at a casual reading, everything described here transpired over the course of just a few hours.

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But actually, the verses we just read is a compacted account of what occurred over 40 days in which the

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Lord would meet with his disciples, instructing them and guiding them, and eventually ascending into heaven 10 days before the day of Pentecost.

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And we know this by Luke's description of the ascension of our Lord into heaven recorded in verse 51.

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But when we turn to volume 2, the book of Acts, we read in chapter 1 that this ascension into heaven, when he was caught up into the shekinah glory of cloud,

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God, occurred actually 40 days after his resurrection. The point is this, is that the writers of scripture are not always concerned about giving us a full, detailed account, and they're not necessarily concerned about relating events in a particular historical chronology.

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Details of time and historical sequence are not necessarily their primary concern.

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Rather, they related the details so as to instruct their readers on matters that the

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Holy Spirit deemed essential and helpful for the disciples of the

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Lord Jesus. And this explains the different details and sometimes different order of events that you find between the four

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Gospels. And so what we have before us here in Luke 24 is a concise, compacted record of the principal teaching that our

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Lord imparted or communicated to his apostles between the day of his resurrection and the occasion when he ascended into heaven to be seated on his father's throne.

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We have a summary of some very important matters here in these verses we just read. And so it would do us well to consider them carefully.

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We can understand this passage by dividing it up into three sections. First, Jesus proves to his gathered witnesses or disciples that he arose from the dead.

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Secondly, Jesus prepares his witnesses to bear his message to the world.

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And then thirdly, Jesus departs from his witnesses promising to send the

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Holy Spirit to them. Let's work through this passage. First, Jesus proves to his gathered witnesses, his disciples, that he has arose from the dead.

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We read in verse 36, our Lord appeared suddenly to his apostles. Now as they said these things,

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Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, Peace to you. They were in a locked room and suddenly

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Jesus is standing in their midst. The disciples had been recounting to one another their various experiences of the day.

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The women had told them they found the tomb of Jesus empty and that they had conversed with an angel and that they had received and that they had testified the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead.

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But the disciples did not believe their witness. Jesus actually rebuked his disciples for not believing the women.

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Verse 11 tells us of their response to the women's testimony and their words seemed to them like idle tales and they did not believe them.

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The two disciples who had walked and talked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus had hurriedly returned to Jerusalem and they had just rehearsed their encounter to the disciples of meeting

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Jesus and that it was Jesus himself then who stood in their midst and he said to them,

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Peace to you. You can imagine how startled they must have all been. They were still not convinced of his resurrection.

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They themselves were fearful of perhaps the danger they themselves were in as being his disciples and the

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Romans no doubt were seeking them or they certainly could have thought that they were.

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And so here Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, Peace to you. You can be sure this room was secure.

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It was locked. They were fearful for their lives but all of a sudden Jesus appears and the first words he spoke to them recorded,

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Peace be to you. An expression common among the Jewish people when they would greet one another but with the greeting given by the risen

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Lord the expression is infused with new significance. Peace between God and his disciples is pronounced.

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Peace be unto you. Through the death, burial, resurrection of the Lord Jesus made peace between God and his followers.

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Peace be unto you. Clearly the Lord Jesus regarded this meeting to have been a wonderful reuniting with his disciples after they had witnessed his crucifixion and burial and his gracious greeting reveals the gracious heart of our

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Lord Jesus toward these ones who had not shown themselves to have been loyal to him. They all fled.

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Peter himself had denied him. Matthew Henry wrote of this meeting,

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This intimates in general that it was a kind visit which Christ now paid them, a visit of love and friendship.

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Though they had been very unkindly deserted him and his sufferings, yet he takes the first opportunity of seeing them together for he deals not with us as we deserve.

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Thank the Lord for that. They did not credit those who had seen him, therefore he comes himself.

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That they might not continue in their disconsolate incredulity. They didn't believe the women.

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He had promised that after his resurrection he would see them in Galilee but so desirous was he to see them and satisfy them that he anticipated the appointment and sees them at Jerusalem.

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Note, Christ is often better than his word but never worse. Amen. And now his first word to them was,

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Peace be to you. Not in a way of compliment but of consolation or comfort.

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This was a common form of salutation among the Jews and Christ would thus express his usual familiarity with them though he had now entered into a state of exaltation.

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Many when they are advanced forget their old friends and take state upon them but we see

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Christ as free with them as ever. And thus Christ would at the first word intimate to them that he did not come to quarrel with Peter for denying him and the rest for running away from him, no he came peaceably to signify to them that he had forgiven them and was reconciled to them.

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The Lord is merciful and gracious to his people. The peace of God is one of the greatest gifts that the

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Lord gives to his people. Actually the peace of God spoken of in scripture comes in two forms.

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First of all, disciples of Jesus Christ enjoy an objective peace with God. This is outside of us, it's objective.

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This is a state of peace that exists between God and all of his people, all believers, true believers in Jesus Christ.

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Paul wrote of Christ, he is our peace. Prior to coming to Christ God was not at peace with us but rather a state of war existed.

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We were against him in our thoughts, attitudes, and actions. Scriptures say we were at enmity with him and he with us.

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He was against us. His righteous and holy wrath was upon us.

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The wrath of God abides on unbelievers the scriptures say Jesus said. We were his enemies and were objects of his indignation but through the death of Christ on behalf of believers

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God was appeased. The word commonly used was propitiated. God's justice having been satisfied he established a state of peace with us through the blood of his son that satisfied all of his holy concerns.

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And so all true Christians are in this state of peace although not every true

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Christian may be aware of his or her blessed condition. But each of us and all of us who are in Christ are in a state of peace with God equally.

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We have an equal standing. God is at peace with us because of Jesus Christ who he is and what he did on our behalf.

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That is an objective peace and it never changes. But there's a peace of another kind other than this objective state of peace.

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All disciples of Jesus Christ may enjoy a subjective peace with God. This is a feeling of peace.

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The first object of peace is not a feeling it's a reality it's a fact it's a state.

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But there is a subjective peace with God a feeling of peace that God bestows upon his people.

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Now not all Christians experience this and not all do so to the same degree.

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Philippians 4, 6, and 7 describe this subjective peace. In nothing be anxious but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto

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God and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall guard your hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus.

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See that's a feeling a sense of calmness and assurance that the

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Lord gives and it's not conditioned on what's happening in your life. You can be going through great distress, great difficulty, great turmoil, great suffering and the

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Lord can impart this peace to his people. And that's why sometimes it's described as a peace that passes understanding.

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I'm at peace and it doesn't make sense. The Lord grants that kind of peace to his people.

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And so whereas objective peace is in the realm of fact God is at peace with his people due to Christ and nothing can change this reality, subjective peace is in the realm of feeling.

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And any number of factors may cause one's sense of peace to increase or diminish. Whether or not one is prayerful or prayerless, obedient or disobedient to the

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Lord, believing or unbelieving, knowledgeable or ignorant will affect our awareness and sense of peace from God.

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Our peace with God cannot change but our feeling of being at peace with God can change quite easily and quite readily.

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The Lord Jesus on this occasion seemed to use the expression peace be with you not only to greet his disciples but also perhaps to soften the surprise and the fear that his sudden appearance would cause.

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What was the reaction of the disciples? Well they were startled and frightened by what they thought was a fearful apparition.

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Verse 37 tells of their reaction but they were terrified and frightened and supposed they had seen a spirit.

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Their first reaction was great fear. They thought they saw a ghost. There's no

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New Testament reinforcement of the idea of ghosts of dead people appearing to live people but these disciples were influenced by contemporary superstitions of the time and the

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Lord Jesus dispelled their error and their fear by permitting them to examine his physical body and so he said to them, why are you troubled?

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Why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet. That it is

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I myself, handle me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see

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I have. It was a bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Same body went into the grave, the tomb came out of the tomb only with new glorified properties.

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It's a common experience of the people of the Lord to be afraid needlessly. When times of uncertainty come, when thoughts of loss or trouble arise, fear is often the result but for the

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Christian who's thinking rightly he need but trust the Lord's promises and the Lord's ability to fulfill his promises by which that needless fear may dissipate.

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Our Lord would say in another place, peace I leave with you. That's subjective peace, isn't it?

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My peace I give to you, not as the world gives which is conditioned on circumstances.

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Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Jesus does not want his disciples to be afraid.

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The Lord promises to be with his people in their trials. As real was the presence of the risen

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Lord Jesus among his disciples on this occasion is no less than the real presence of Christ with his people in their time of trial.

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The people throughout these last 2 ,000 years. He's promised those who have committed themselves to him in faith that not only is he with them but that he will never depart from them.

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Peter wrote, peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. He concludes his epistle.

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The writer of Hebrews recorded for he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

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And yet his disciples were terrified and frightened. But the Lord would have them to be at peace.

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He does not want you to be frightened and terrified. Jesus showed them his hands and feet, apparently to show them the places where he had been pierced with the nails of his crucifixion.

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But it would seem that this wasn't enough to convince his disciples that he was who he really was.

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And so he gave further proof. Verses 41 through 43 record what Jesus did next.

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While they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, he said to them, have you any food here?

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So they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb, and he took it and ate in their presence.

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And this seemed to satisfy them. Apparently they must have believed that ghosts don't eat fish and eat honey,

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I suspect. This was indeed he. Their master had risen from the dead.

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He was in a real physical body. However, there was a difference. For apparently his resurrection made possible activities that are not experienced by humans this side of the resurrection.

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He appears suddenly, disappears suddenly, can transport himself to different places, it would seem, instantly.

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And later, of course, they saw him taken into heaven. Well, with the fact of his resurrection established, we see that, secondly,

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Jesus prepared his witnesses to bear his message to the world. Verses 44 through 49.

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Our Lord would soon leave his disciples, but before doing so, he would equip them to be his witnesses to the world.

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There were certain key truths of which they needed to be grounded. They were, if they were to be effective and faithful witnesses of their

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Lord throughout the world. And so first, and very importantly, Jesus affirmed the identity of the

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Old Testament scriptures. Critically important.

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The Lord identified for his disciples God's inspired books of the Old Testament scriptures.

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In other words, the canon of our Old Testament was asserted by the

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Lord Jesus himself. The Lord had given his disciples proof that he was alive.

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They were eyewitnesses to the fact that God raised him from the dead. But although their eyewitness testimony was important, scripture testimony was also important.

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If they were to be faithful witnesses of him, they must know the scriptures. And to know the scriptures, they must know what books they were to regard and treat as holy scriptures.

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Because the matter was kind of fluid actually among the Jews of that day. And so we read in verse 44, our

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Lord's words. Then he said to them, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in one, the law of Moses, two, the prophets, and three, the

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Psalms concerning me. Verse 44 is one of the most significant verses in Luke's gospel.

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Even in the entire New Testament, respecting the identification of which books comprise the

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Holy Bible, at least the Old Testament of the Holy Bible. And so verse 44 defines for us what

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Jesus regarded as the canon of the Old Testament scripture. The word canon is derived from a

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Latin word which means rule or standard. Not like an artillery piece, that's with two ends, canon, a rule or a read, like a tape measure or a ruler.

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The scriptures are our canon or rule by which all beliefs and practices are to be measured. And so when one speaks of the canon of scripture, he's speaking of what books were inspired by God and are to be regarded as authoritative scripture.

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And so why do we hold to our 39 books of the Old Testament and only 39 books? Why do we reject the teaching of some denominations that add the books like the

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Apocrypha to the Old Testament? Well, it's because the Lord Jesus himself asserted what books constitute the

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Old Testament, the law, the prophets, and the Psalms or the writings. Even in the first century, the

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Jews were not united or unified in their understanding of the canon. The Sadducees, who were mostly the priests of Israel at that time, who controlled the temple in the

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Sanhedrin, they only accepted the five books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy.

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They said that alone is scripture. The Pharisees, however, who lived wherever there were synagogues throughout the

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Roman world, they accepted a three -fold division of the

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Hebrew scriptures. And so the Hebrew Bible contained three divisions.

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You first had the law, that's the Torah, the first five books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy.

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And then you had the prophets, which for them began with Joshua. They were former prophets and latter prophets.

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But the prophets in the Hebrew canon included, well, the books I've listed for you in your notes,

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Joshua, Judges, Samuel. We have two books of Samuel, there's one, two books of Kings, one book in Hebrew, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and then the twelve, that's the minor prophets, only in one book.

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And then thirdly, you had the writings, all the rest of the books, which included

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Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, or Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Chronicles, and Ezra, Nehemiah.

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Those were the writings. And here the Lord Jesus identifies the scriptures as containing this three -fold division.

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The law, the prophets, and he uses the word Psalms, which is another term for writings.

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And so our Lord Jesus defined for us as Christians what constitutes our Old Testament. This is why

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Protestants insist that the Old Testament should only include those books that were in the full

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Jewish canon, for this is what the Lord Jesus himself affirmed to be the case here in Luke 24.

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Now, technically, if you opened up a Hebrew Bible today, you'd find that there are only twenty -four books in the

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Hebrew scriptures, but they're divided according to these three divisions, the law, the prophets, and the writings.

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Our English Old Testament contains thirty -nine books, and they're set forth in a different order than the

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Hebrew scriptures. Nevertheless, they're the same content. Our thirty -nine books in our

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English Old Testament are the same content as the twenty -four books in the Hebrew canon.

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Different order, combining certain books, dividing the minor prophets into twelve separate books, and this describes the difference in numbers.

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And the reason that we hold this is that a couple hundred years before the coming of Christ, there were certain

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Hebrew scholars in Alexandria, we think, Egypt, who translated the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, because the

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Hebrew language had fallen really into disuse and everybody spoke Greek. And so the

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Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, and really it became the scriptures of the people.

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And most of the New Testament writers commonly will quote from the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew Bible.

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And it was the Septuagint that divided up the books into thirty -nine rather than the twenty -four.

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And so Protestants have recognized this organization of the Hebrew Old Testament based upon that Greek translation of the

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Hebrew text. But the point is, the Lord affirmed the three -fold division.

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This is what constitutes the holy scriptures of the Old Testament, the law, the prophets, and the writings, here he calls them the

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Psalms. However, after having identified the canon of scripture, the

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Lord Jesus, we read in verse 45, did something further. He opened their understanding that they could understand the scriptures.

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This is a whole different matter. After our Lord identified the content, he did something more for these disciples.

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Jesus gave his disciples understanding of those scriptures, verse 45, he opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures.

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That's significant. And so we see that not only must we know what constitutes scripture, but we are in need of a right understanding of those scriptures, which is only possible through what is commonly called the grace of God in illumination.

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It's good to know what constitutes the holy Bible. But knowing that the Bible is

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God's word is not enough. We must be instructed in the truth of the scriptures.

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Or having them will bring us no benefit at all. There are many people who carry their

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Bible around and they're in churches all over the world today, but may be clueless as to what it teaches. Because not only do we need an inspired

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Bible, we need to have our minds illuminated by the Holy Spirit as to what the Bible teaches.

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And when true understanding is attained of the word of God, it's due to work of the grace of God. Jesus opened their minds so they could understand the

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Bible. And that's what we do every week. That's why when we call

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Jason up here, I've got it listed in the bulletin, prayer for illumination. If the

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Lord doesn't turn on the lights, we're not going to see and understand, at least to where it's going to impact our lives.

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And so when we speak of God having enabled human writers to pen the books of the Bible, we speak of God's inspiration.

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But when we speak of God giving us understanding of the scripture, we speak of his illumination. God must open our minds or we'll remain in darkness and confusion.

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Many people carry the Bible about, even read the Bible regularly, but because our Lord has not illuminated their minds to the truth of his word, they remain in spiritual ignorance.

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There are cults who would argue all day long the Bible is the word of God, and yet they're clueless with regard to essential teachings, like who

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Jesus Christ is. And so it's very important that whenever we open the scriptures, we pray,

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God, be gracious to us and give us understanding, otherwise they're just words on a page.

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And yeah, you can acquire some understanding, but it is not going to impact your life to speak of.

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Our confession of faith, 1689 Baptist confession, sets forth this important matter.

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In the very first article, it's on the holy scriptures, and it speaks about this matter of illumination.

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Here's paragraph six. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith and life is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the holy scripture.

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That's the only source that God has given us. Onto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelation of the spirit or traditions of men.

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That was a veiled hit on Catholicism that says tradition is as inspired as scripture, and they repudiated that rightly.

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Nevertheless, notice this acknowledgement, nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the word, and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, government of the church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the word, which are always to be observed.

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In other words, you know, we may set up the bylaws of our church so things function well and orderly, that you may not be able to find chapter and verse, you know, that substantiates any single point, but that's okay.

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Spiritual illumination is more than a knowledge of biblical words and theological ideas.

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I can testify going through seminary, I sat under some brilliant, well -informed men who are without Christ.

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But first, though we affirm that we're in need of the Bible's illumination of the scriptures, we affirm that the essential message of the

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Bible is understandable, if people were honest. This is called the perspicuity of the scriptures.

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We're not as some that say you have to be a priest, come to me and I'll tell you what the scriptures mean, no, you have the

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Bible, you can understand if you're humble and prayerful and the Holy Spirit helps you. You don't need me, although there's value and intention, of course, to call teachers and preachers.

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The reason the Protestant reformers desired greatly the Bible be translated into the language of the common people, and the reason they were persecuted and hunted down for doing so by Rome, is that the

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Protestant reformers strongly believed the common people could understand the Bible. And when one translator, early

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English translator, was challenged about his work, he basically told a priest one day, the time will come when the guy standing behind a plow is going to know more of the

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Word of God than you. They believed that people could understand the Bible. People may obtain knowledge of biblical ideas and theological concepts of sin, salvation, the person, the work of Christ, apart from the work of the

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Holy Spirit. But unless the Holy Spirit energizes that, it is not transforming.

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And so something more is needed.

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There's the need for the work of the Spirit of God to reveal truth to a fallen man.

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And Paul wrote of this need. However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, and here, in this context, mature as a true

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Christian, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing, talking about the

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Greek scholars and sophists and whatnot, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which

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God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew, for had they known, they would have not crucified the

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Lord of glory. They were clueless. But as it is written, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which

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God has prepared for those who love him. See, natural man does not have the capability, the capacity, for seeing and understanding these things.

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He's not talking about heaven, he's talking about the way of salvation here. It doesn't even enter into your mind and understanding.

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You're incapable, because you're a fallen, sinful person, of understanding the ways of God of bringing salvation.

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But we see in verse 10, but God has revealed them to us through his Spirit. For the

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Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the

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Spirit of man which is in him? In other words, you know, we can be talking out in the narthex and I might be able to sense you're angry.

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How can I tell you're angry? Because I'm a man, I know what it is to be angry. But nobody knows God. Nobody can communicate and understand

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God except the Holy Spirit. And that's why the Holy Spirit must reveal him to you. Even so, no one knows the things of God except the

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Spirit of God. Now, we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God.

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Why? So that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. See, we need to be illuminated by the

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Holy Spirit to the truth that's in the Scriptures. These things we also speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the

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Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual words, probably.

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But then in verse 14, speaking about all people, natural people, who have not been illuminated by the

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Spirit, the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him.

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That's what the world thinks of us as we're sitting around here trying to study and understand the Word of God.

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They think we're fools, duped, ignorant, superstitious.

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They're foolishness to him, nor can he know them. Why? They have to be spiritually discerned.

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But he who is spiritual, and here spiritual is a true Christian, he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.

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For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? No one. But we have the mind of Christ.

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That's the work of the Holy Spirit, revealing the essential truths of the

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Scriptures to us. And so the unsaved man needs the Holy Spirit to give him spiritual understanding.

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The reality and relevance of the truth of the Holy Scripture is made known to individual through the work of the

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Holy Spirit. And so unless the Holy Spirit works, the Word of God will seem irrelevant, uninspiring, unintelligible.

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A person who is void of this spiritual illumination is ignorant and unconcerned about the

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Word. Oh, he may think he understands. He may give you some answers that seem to suggest he may know some things quite well, but it has no real impact on his thinking or living.

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In reality, he knows little or nothing of what he speaks. One rightly said, illumination is the application of God's revealed truth,

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Scripture, to our hearts so that we may grasp as reality for ourselves what the sacred text says.

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Spiritual illumination is an act of sovereign grace performed by the triune God. And so the Bible speaks about the illumination of God the

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Father. It also speaks about the illumination provided by God the

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Son. That's what we have here in Luke 24. Jesus opened their understanding of the

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Scriptures, see, the Son of God. That through the instrument of his Word being taught and preached, all of a sudden understanding comes and it is relevant to the soul.

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Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, since I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,

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I cease not to pray for you, that God would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him.

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And so Paul was praying that God would illuminate the Christians in that church to truth about themselves, that there's a hope in God having called them.

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They called on Jesus. In reality, God called them. And there's hope in that. Some people run around looking for the power of God here or there.

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Paul said, the power's already been at work at you. You were a sinner and he gave you a new life in Christ when you were dead in sins and trespasses.

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And he also wanted them to understand the glory that is conferred upon them as the children of God through the grace of Christ.

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He wanted God to open their eyes to this, so he prayed for a spirit of wisdom and a spirit of revelation and the knowledge of him.

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A spirit of wisdom is that acquired knowledge, maybe over time as you're reading the scriptures and hearing it taught, you grow in your understanding of things over time.

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But a spirit of revelation speaks of a sudden awareness. It's like you've been reading that passage for years and then bam, the

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Lord turns on the light and you see it in its truth and relevance and it impacts your soul like you never experienced before.

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That's a spirit of revelation and the knowledge of him. And that's why we need to pray that the

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Lord would illuminate our hearts, yes, with a spirit of wisdom and a spirit of revelation.

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So we not only understand what's being said, but we understand the importance and relevance of it and the glory of it that he confers to our minds and our souls.

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And this is what is transforming. But it's all the scriptures is the source of this information.

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If we had time, we could go through and talk about how we can best acquire this understanding, this illumination.

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We must first have a humble, teachable spirit. We should sit under expository preaching and teaching of primary importance.

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We should be doing self -directed study of individual Bible books, understanding, outlining them maybe on your own.

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We need to read perhaps substantial books to help us, you know, by noted people.

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There have been, you know, those who are far more knowledgeable than you and I that have set things down in books that open up the scriptures to us in wonderful ways.

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And we need to read works of proven writers of the day. There are some that the

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Lord has really blessed with insight and the ability to apply the word of God.

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We need to ask questions of clarification as we sort through matters to understand things spiritual.

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We need to be involved and committed to a solid local church that preaches the word of God. You know, it's easy to open up the

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Bible and find a little phrase here or there that excites people in general out there, but to, again, open the word to be able to express it like the

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Lord Jesus did for these disciples, it's not all that common, frankly, in today's world.

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And we ought to desire it. And we ought to, of course, seek God's glory in all that we are thinking and doing.

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God reveal yourself to us. Reveal your son to us. Well, after the

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Lord made the identity of the Lord of the Holy Scriptures, verse 44, and then addressed the problem of understanding the scriptures in verse 45, the

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Lord Jesus next gave the central message of the scriptures in verses 46 and 47.

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To what truth did Jesus open their understanding? Verse 44, Jesus declared his disciples were to proclaim everything in the

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Old Testament books, Jesus said, concerning me. Jesus Christ is at the heart of the

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Bible, both in the Old Testament and New Testament. The Bible is a chief witness of Jesus Christ.

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The Old Testament is Christian scripture, as we have affirmed so strongly. But then in verses 46 through 49, we read more specifically that Jesus taught his disciples that the sum of scripture concerns his own sufferings and death, and his rising from the dead, and that the way of salvation secured by him would be proclaimed to all the nations.

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Notice that in verse 46, thus it is written. Where is it written?

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The scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the writings. Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the

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Christ to suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name to all nations,

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Gentiles, beginning at Jerusalem. And you're witnesses of these things. And then, behold,

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I'm going to send the promise of the Holy Spirit to enable you, empower you to do this. And so we affirm, first and foremost, the

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Old Testament scriptures speak chiefly about Jesus Christ, and particularly about his sufferings, his death, and his resurrection.

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Thus it is written, the Lord has given us a book, the Bible, in which he's conveyed to all people everywhere that through Jesus Christ alone there is salvation.

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The Bible is not chiefly a book in which history is recorded, although history is recorded. The Bible is not a book that's chiefly designed to help people know themselves and teach them how to live better lives.

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The Bible is a book about God and about his son. It reveals God to us.

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The Bible reveals condemnation of all sin and sinners, but the Bible also reveals there's a way of escape from sin and death, and it's only through Jesus Christ the

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Lord. Only through the life, suffering, death, resurrection of the Son of God is salvation possible.

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And so we read, it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.

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The Bible is about God's gracious bringing of salvation through Jesus Christ, who otherwise hopelessly lost and condemned sinners.

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And then secondly, he declares that the Old Testament scriptures speak of the gospel of Jesus Christ being taken to the world, to the

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Gentiles. See that in verse 47? There are some who say the

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Old Testament never once speaks about this church age. The Jews rejected the messianic kingdom, and therefore the offer of the kingdom was pulled back by God, and we're now in this great 2 ,000 year plus parenthesis.

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And the Old Testament does not say anything at all about this church age.

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Jesus said all the Old Testament speaks about the suffering and death of Jesus, and to take that gospel to the

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Gentile world. The entire Old Testament is about this kingdom age in which

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Jesus Christ is Lord. And so the Lord Jesus clearly taught that his crucifixion and resurrection, the age of salvation had been foretold by the prophets, had commenced.

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It is written, repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name to all nations.

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And Luke recorded later in the book of Acts that all the prophets who have ever spoken, who have ever written, foretold these days.

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And then it was declared, in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed, as Gentiles, and the

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Old Testament teaches this. What is the content of the gospel that Jesus said you got to preach to all the world?

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First repentance needs to be preached. Repentance and remission of sin should be preached.

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What is repentance? It's not penance. That's what the people down the street say. You got to do something to pay for your sins.

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You know, say so many Hail Marys or go on this pilgrimage or whatnot. Bibles does not teach penance.

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Bible teaches repentance. You turn from sin onto God through Jesus Christ.

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Repentance is a response of faith in which one turns from living for self and sin to order one's life according to the will of God in Christ.

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The gospel proclaims that Jesus Christ died on the cross for sinners, but that because he himself was sinless, the death penalty had been unjustly administered to him.

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And so on the third day, God the Father raised him from the dead, vindicating him, and then enthroned him in heaven.

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Jesus Christ is Lord. You're not. I'm not. Jesus is

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Lord. This is God's world, God's universe, and there's only room for one Lord, and it's not you or me.

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Jesus is Lord. And true Christians have come to understand that and willingly believe that and willingly submit to that, and they just get frustrated because they don't do so more fully and consistently as we struggle with sin.

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The Son of God is the supreme ruler of the created order, and that's what it means when we say

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Jesus is Lord. Jesus is now enthroned. He's ruling as king over all, and repentance is a response of believing this gospel truth whereby we see sin for what it is, a self -directed life just like Adam and Eve.

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I want to be God. I want to determine for myself what's true, what's false, what's right, what's wrong, what's good, what's evil.

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And God says, no, you're not. I am the Lord, I am God, and I've made my son

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Lord, and he is the one. He is the king, and all those who acknowledge him and surrender to him are granted everlasting life in his eternal kingdom.

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And so the Christian turns from sin and submits to the rule of Jesus because he's become a part of the kingdom of God.

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The believer confesses his conversion and baptism. He's saying, I'm dead to my old way of life, independent, self -willed.

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Jesus Christ is my Lord, and as I come out of this barrel, this water, I purpose as God enables me to live for him among his people.

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Repentance needs to be proclaimed. And then forgiveness of sins. There's forgiveness of sins for everyone who repents as we've described it.

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The authority of the Lord Jesus assures that it is so. The true believer in Jesus Christ turns from his sin.

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He knows the act of turning doesn't save him. Jesus Christ alone saves him based on the fact that he lived, he died, and he rose again.

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And those who believe on Jesus as Lord are freely and fully forgiven. There's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.

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And then we read fourthly, we have to close, verse 48 and 49. Jesus Christ commissioned his disciples to declare this message to the world.

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You are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.

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He would empower them, giving them a boldness and giving them the ability to recall and clarify and speak forth the truth of these matters.

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They were, you know, they were fishermen, they were common people, they weren't highly educated.

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But having been instructed by Christ, being given the scriptures, and the

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Holy Spirit came upon them, the Bible said they turned that Roman world upside down within a generation.

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And then finally, we read the last words of Luke's gospel. He led them out as far as Bethany, a few miles outside of Jerusalem.

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He lifted up his hands, blessed them, and now came to pass. While he blessed them, he was parted from them, carried up into heaven.

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He went up there, and that's when the Father enthroned him. And you can read about that in Revelation 5.

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The Lamb who appeared to have been slain was standing there in heaven, worthy to take the scroll out of the right hand of the

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Father sitting on the throne. And when he did, the cosmos began to praise and give glory to Jesus Christ, for he earned, he warranted that authority that the

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Father had freely conferred upon him. He first blessed them, and then he ascended into heaven.

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And what a grand reception he received when he entered there, receiving power and authority from his

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Father, seated at his Father's right hand. And his first act as king, as kings in the ancient world did, he gave gifts to his people, and the gift he gave was the

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Holy Spirit. And so the day of Pentecost, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, according to Peter, was proof that Jesus Christ, the

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Son of David, was enthroned, because he's given the Holy Spirit here. They're not drunk.

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They might look like they're drunk. They're not. They're empowered with the Holy Spirit. And what happened, 3 ,000 people were converted on that day, because the

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Holy Spirit gave force to their witness, the witness of the Word. May the

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Lord help us in our day, in these various ways, to be empowered by the

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Holy Spirit, to be faithful witnesses of the gospel that's in the Word of God, in the

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Scriptures, in the Old Testament, and more clearly and fully than they do, of course, but may we be faithful to him and to the world in which the

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Lord has placed us. We have this high calling, responsibility, and privilege to give this message to people who are in great need.

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Amen? Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your Word. Thank you, our

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God, for this account of the risen Lord Jesus. And we pray, our

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God, that you would illuminate our minds and hearts to the truth of Jesus Christ from the Scriptures. And we pray, our

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God, that you would enable us to repent of sin and believe on the Lord Jesus and submit to him.

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And may you empower us, our God, with the blessed Holy Spirit, that our words, Lord, would have force.

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The words of Scripture would have force and impact upon souls, Lord, with whom we speak.

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And we'll thank you and praise you, Father, when you are glorified, when Jesus Christ is exalted as a result of our witness, for we do pray in Jesus' name, amen.