Scripture Requires Christ To Suffer

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern, Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrook.

The Emmaus Road and the Resurrected Christ

The Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke the 24th chapter. Now that very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.

While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him and he said to them, What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?

And they stood still looking sad. Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? And he said to them, What things?

And they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him.

But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all of this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who had said that he was alive.

Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see. And he said to them, O foolish ones, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent.

So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it, and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight.

They said to each other, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven, and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon.

Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus,.

Amen.

The Word of the Lord Remains Forever

All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. What a great contrast that is. Here in North Dakota and Minnesota, the color green has only begun to reemerge.

This is the craziest place I've ever lived in my life. Come October, all the grass becomes dead brown, and then there's only one color after that for six months, and that's the color white. White. Lots and lots of white.

Really, lots and lots of white. So we here in the northern plains, we recognize, we know what it's like to watch the grass wither, and see that this is a metaphor regarding all of us, that we're all but passing through.

We're all temporary. Seems like every seed of the earth, whether the seed of man or plant or animal, everything is perishable. Everything is perishable, even the earth itself, but you're gonna hear again these words, the word of the Lord remains forever.

The word of the Lord remains forever, and so we as Christians have this really bad habit that we engage in. We are quite inattentive, because of our sinful nature, to the Word of God. You know, it's a to-do list item to actually read the Word, to study the Word, to understand the Word, you know, to attend the church and to gladly hear the Word, and to read it, mark it, inwardly digest it, as a result of, well, our inattentiveness to it.

We have a tendency to miss a lot of things. But note here, as we look again, coming back to the Easter Sunday, the very first one, the morning events had taken place. Christ had risen from the grave. The angels had declared it to the women.

Jesus had appeared to Mary Magdalene, and now Peter and John, they had raced to the tomb. I always like to point out that John, in his gospel, man, what an ordinary thing he did here. You see, John was a younger man than Peter, and he puts in his gospel account that they raced to the tomb, and that the younger fellow, the one Jesus loved, beat Peter to the tomb.

What a jerk. Okay. Younger men taunt the older men like that, in their inability to keep up. I resemble that comment, but it all kind of points back to the fact that the grass withers and fades. And so here we've got, kind of mid-morning, maybe late mid-morning, and two fellows.

One of them we know is named Cleopas. The other one, we don't even know who he is. But they have left Jerusalem, kind of scratching their heads, not able to figure out what any of this means. And of course, we have a written scripture.

We have the Bible, which we can then point to and say, yeah, we can tell what's missing here. But the thing that's missing is listening to, considering, embracing, believing all that the scriptures say.

The scriptures cannot be broken. God's Word is theanoustos. It is breathed out by God. It is breathed out by the Holy Spirit. It's inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is infallible. And God does not make promises that he does not keep.

And the Word of God cannot.

Be.

Broken.

Or so many people, they are looking to God right now and saying, Lord, speak to us. Tell us what's going on. Hear us, Lord. Give us a sign. Give us a message. And God has already done that. God has spoken.

He is speaking through his Word right now, this day. And so we'll note that not paying attention to the Word of God can cause you to lose hope, can cause you to despair, and quite needlessly at that. So it's later in the morning.

These two guys are heading off to Emmaus. And while they were traveling to Emmaus, they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. And while they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.

Now, the Greek says this. It says that their eyes were held. So Jesus basically knows these guys need to have their catechism class finished at this point, because clearly, there's some major pieces missing in their understanding of Scripture.

And it's due to their lack of understanding and being slow of heart in believing. So Jesus, to make the point so that he can teach uninterrupted with the distraction of them sitting there going, that's Jesus.

He's right here. He holds their eyes. It says their eyes are held. And while their eyes are held, Jesus asked this question. What's this conversation that you're holding with each other as you walk? Next part of the text says, so they stood there.

They were looking sad. Sad? On Easter Sunday? Sad? This doesn't make any sense. Of course, the reason why it doesn't make any sense is because Christ is risen, just as he has said. He's risen indeed. Alleluia, they should be.

Well, you know, but rather than being happy and rejoicing over their Savior, their great God and Savior's victory over the grave, over sin, death, the devil, they're looking sad. They can't figure out what's going on.

So one of them named Cleopas answered Jesus, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? And so since Jesus is traveling from the same, you know, the same direction they are, they're just assuming he's been to Jerusalem, and indeed he has.

Quite literally, he's been in Jerusalem for a few days for sure. And so Jesus said to them, What things? And this isn't because he doesn't know what's going on. He wants to hear their theology. He wants to hear what's what's on their heart.

Why are they sad? Okay, because of course, he's their great God and Savior. He's redeemed them. He's forgiven them. He's bled and died and conquered death, been to hell and back, if you would. And his disciples should be just going nuts here, and they're sad.

And so, well, they said, well, concerning Jesus of Nazareth. Now listen to the details here. The details here are interesting, because so much of what they say, the historical facts are straight-up right.

But the theological facts,.

Woof,.

They need some tweaking here. So they said, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people. Check. Yep, Jesus is the prophet prophesied by Moses, and he is more than a prophet indeed.

And so they got that right. So they got this. This is in the correct column, okay? But, and then he notes here, but our chief priests and rulers, you know, the religious authorities, they delivered him up to be condemned to death, and then they crucified him.

And now they got a theological conundrum, because the Torah so clearly says, cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. And so the religious rulers, you know, the guys who are in charge of the denomination, the church, the elites, the guys who've been to seminary and all that kind of stuff, who are the bureaucrats running the organization, they're the ones who led the charge, and they had Jesus put to death, and they crucified him, man.

So we don't know what to make of this. He's, that means he's cursed from God. And then listen to the next part, because the next part is, it kind of shows they're not able to kind of put the sum together.

We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Of course, here in the 21st century, with our red-letter editions of the Lutheran Study Bible, we're screaming at them now. He did redeem Israel. He did it on the cross.

You guys have missed it, right? And that's kind of the point. They've kind of missed this. And then moreover, moreover, and remember, they're still sad. They're sad. Some women of our company, they amazed us.

They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. So some of those who were with us, they went to the tomb, and they found it just like the women had said, but him they did not see.

The Scriptures Cannot Be Broken

Okay,.

When you read the Gospels, over and again, Jesus sets his face like flint to go to Jerusalem. He tells Peter in Matthew 6, he tells all of his disciples, boys, we're going to Jerusalem. They're gonna betray me.

I'm gonna be crucified. They're gonna kill me. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna rise from the dead. I mean, they should have seen this coming like one of those Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains that come into town here, okay?

They, you know, the train arrived on time, just like Jesus said. You know, it was coming down the tracks, and those things rumble, and they make a lot of noise. They should be saying, and guess what? Jesus, he told us he was gonna die and rise again.

It's the third day, and this is what's going on. But are they happy? No, they're sad. So what's the problem here? What's the problem? Because there is a big disconnect, and the disconnect has to do with not believing all of Scripture.

All of it. Now, remember what Jesus said to Peter and the disciples on the night that he was betrayed, back on Passion Sunday, as we were working through that large swath of the Passion account of Christ's death, resurrection, his betrayal, and everything, that Jesus tells his disciples that the Scriptures say that the shepherd would be struck, and that the flock, the sheep, would be scattered, and he said, because of this, because the Scriptures cannot be broken, I'm going to be betrayed, and you all are going to disown me.

And what does Peter say? No, Lord, I will never. And you just sit there and go, are you knucklehead? Jesus just invoked the Bible itself, the Word of God, and it says, it is written that the shepherd will be struck, and the sheep will be scattered.

Do you think you can undo God's Word? Do you think you can undo it? When God says something is going to happen, it's going to happen. If Christ says you are forgiven, guess what? Whether you feel it or not, you are.

And so the idea here is the Word of God cannot be undone, and we might want to pay a little closer attention to what it says. So here's Jesus's verdict here, red letters now again. He says, oh foolish ones.

I don't want Jesus to call me foolish. That's just generally not good. And then he calls them dullards. The Greek word is more along the lines of dullards, but the ESV translates it politely. This is kind of a mild reprimand, and a little bit of a rebuke on Jesus's part.

Slow of heart to believe, and listen to the word, all.

All.

That the prophets have spoken. And we know this for a fact. From the writings of the theologians, and the scribes, and the Pharisees, even the the Essenes from the time of Christ, or immediately before then, in the Jewish synagogues, all the emphasis on the Messianic appearances focused in on his conquering, and in his glory.

And they were having a hard time embracing the suffering Jesus, and so the suffering Messiah. So it's that they were believing part of the scriptures, and the other parts they didn't understand. They just kind of tidily kept them off the table.

Yeah, think of it this way. Have you ever worked a jigsaw puzzle? My wife likes doing these things. I don't know why. But you know, jigsaw puzzles. And so what do you do with the puzzle pieces? You don't know how they fit into the puzzle?

They're off the margins. They're off around here, and you can slowly kind of take your time and work that out. But these guys, they've got a whole bunch of puzzle pieces that they're off in the margins, off on, in fact they're probably even missing altogether.

And they're satisfied with the picture that's in front of them, with what they've been able to put together. But the problem is, is that they had not applied themselves to all that the prophets had spoken.

And so Christ asked this question. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer, and suffer these things, and then enter his glory? Was it not necessary? Well, that's a great question. The answer to the question is, well, yes, absolutely, then, it was necessary.

So the question then would be, well, why is it necessary? Let me just give you one example as to why that is necessary. Famous text of Scripture,.

Isaiah.

53. And listen to what Isaiah 53 says, who has believed what he has heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground.

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hid their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities, and upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed. He was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, like a sheep that before its shearers is silenced.

So he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away, and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.

And they made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of Yahweh to crush him, and he has put him to grief.

When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days, and the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Isaiah wrote that centuries, centuries before Christ was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

Centuries before Pontius Pilate was even, well, a twinkle in the eyes of his parents or grandparents. So let me ask the question, the same question that Jesus asked. Was it not necessary, necessary, that Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?

Yeah, it's necessary. Because God never says something's gonna happen, and it don't happen. God does not lie. He cannot lie. So then it says, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, this is the entire Old Testament, the otherwise known as the Tanakh.

And note, Jesus now is opening up the scriptures, and he's doing this from memory. Jesus doesn't have a smart device other than his brain. And so he's doing this from memory, walking through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, on into Joshua and Judges, and on into 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, on into the Psalms and the Proverbs, on into Isaiah and Jeremiah and Malachi and Micah and Obadiah and Zechariah.

You get the idea, walking through all of the scriptures. And by the way, you know, seven miles, that's a pretty good journey. I mean, you know, if it's not too hot, and you're going at a good pace, you're looking at what, you know, one mile every 20 minutes, maybe 25.

So this is gonna take some time, and you can just see these fellows, you know, kind of taking this all in as they're being catechized. Now, a little bit of a note here. In order to establish a thing, you need two witnesses at minimum.

How many witnesses were there to this catechism lesson regarding all of Scripture? There were two. And I would note then that what these men were taught is the definitive explanation as how to understand the scriptures, and listen to what is written regarding what the witnesses experienced.

So, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Christ interpreted to them and all the scriptures the things concerning.

Himself.

So who does that tell you the Bible is about? It's about Jesus. And you see, so many people, they think the Bible is about them. It's not. It's not about you. You're the problem. I'm the problem, all right?

We were born dead in trespasses and sins under the dominion of darkness. We still have a sinful nature. We were unable to save ourselves, so Christ is our hero. He defeats the devil, not us. So, put away all that nonsense about David and Goliath as an allegory about how you need to pick up six smooth stones in order to defeat the giants in your life.

That's nonsense, okay? And it's contrary to what Christ teaches Cleopas and this other fellow, that the scriptures are about.

Him.

So if you see yourself in the scriptures, rub your eyes. It's a mirage. And look again. The Bible is about Christ. So, after giving them this, you know, basically opening up the scriptures to them, which for them was still kind of a locked book.

And this is the reason why they were having so much sadness, and it was because they were slow of heart to believe all that the scriptures had said. And the thing is, Isaiah wrote his prophecy centuries, centuries before all of these events took place.

So, Isaiah wrote his prophecy regarding the suffering Messiah centuries before this all took place. And if these men had been attentive to Isaiah's prophecy, they would have seen that what Jesus said regarding his death and his resurrection must take place.

See, the theology was, well, wonky, because of their inattentiveness to the scriptures. So, as they drew near to the village which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it is towards evening, and the day is now far spent.

So he went in to stay with them. And when he was at table with them, he took the bread, blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them. That, that sounds familiar. He took the bread, he blessed it, and, and, wait a second, that sounds like the Lord's Supper.

Right.

Right. And it is not a throwaway detail that we see here. So, at that moment, their eyes were opened, and they recognized Jesus, and he vanished from their sight. I always like to picture it this way.

There's Jesus. As soon as their eyes are open, he goes, Bye. This appears. Calvinists have a hard time explaining this one. So, anyway, so, he vanished from their sight. And so they said to each other, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?

And so, from their experience, let me kind of explain what was going on. They showed up. They had lost hope. They were sad. They couldn't figure out what, how to make sense of any of the things that were going on.

And kind of like Thomas, they were experiencing doubts at this point. And what does Jesus kindly do to, for his disciples? Yeah, he did rebuke them, you know, firmly, but politely. But what he did is he took the Word of God.

He took the Word of God, and on the embers of their faith, which were smoldering at this point, Jesus took the Word of God, and he went, he began to blow their faith back into flame. And brothers and sisters, he did that with the written Word of God.

Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of Christ. And so note, then, that our faith, we were given faith by the Word of God itself. We'll talk about that in just a second as we go back to our epistle text.

So there, Christ blew their faith back into flame using the scriptures, and so they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And that's the sentence where I sit there and go as a nearly 52 year old man, if this were me, I'd just walked seven miles, you know, in the middle of the day.

You know, I'd say, well, first thing in the morning, yeah, as soon as we crack a dime, we might head out. These guys decided that they were gonna hightail, so 14 miles in one day. I'm thinking, what are you guys thinking?

Anyway, they couldn't, their joy had overcome them. The distance didn't even matter anymore. And so that very hour, they returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and those who were with them to gather together, and they said, now listen to what they said, the Lord has risen indeed.

Oh, that sounds familiar, too. Yeah, that sounds familiar, too. They remember our Easter practice. He is risen, and you say, He is risen indeed. Alleluia, right? So they say, He is risen indeed. They are eyewitnesses now of the resurrection.

They knew that it was Jesus, and they say, and He's appeared to Simon. Now they're backing up Simon, because Simon came back saying that he had seen the Lord. And so they say, He's appeared to Simon, too.

No way, yeah. So now everybody's verifying everybody's accounts, and they understand that it was necessary that the Christ would suffer so that they could be redeemed, because Christ did redeem Israel on the cross.

And then, listen to this, and then they told what had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of the bread. Oh, that's not a throwaway detail. Where is Christ revealed for us on the days when we can have the Lord's Supper, and we're not separated like this?

In the bread, in the wine, in with under. Christ is present. This is my body. This is my blood, and this is where you need to be attentive to the scriptures. You need to be attentive to what they say, because if you're slow of heart to believe all that Christ has had revealed in the Word of God, then you too might miss some of the great blessings that are for you in especially the Lord's Supper.

But all of that being said, let's let Peter have the last word today, shall we? So note what Peter then says here. And Peter, who now has been taught this definitive understanding of the scriptures, he now sees Christ in all of the Old Testament texts.

So pay attention to what the Holy Spirit had Peter write for us today. He says, and if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, do you, I'm assuming you're here because you do, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.

Isn't that interesting? Peter now takes the imagery of the Old Testament, the exile of Judah from being kicked out of the promised land in exile in Babylon, and he says this now is a picture of us. Because who of you can say that you have been to our homeland, have seen the New Jerusalem, have worshipped in the temple of God?

None of us have. We're all exiles right now. So conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. You are an exile. I am an exile. Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers.

So note here, Peter now understands. He understands that what Christ was doing on the cross, well, it redeemed Israel and it ransomed you and I. Ransomed us from the futile ways, from sin, death, and the devil, and we were ransomed not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but we were ransomed with the very precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Isn't this interesting? Jesus taught Cleopas and that other fellow that the scriptures are about him, and now Peter points to the Old Testament sacrifices, those lambs without spot or blemish, and he recognizes that they were telling us about Jesus the whole time.

He learned the lesson. So Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but he was manifest in these last times, and you need to pay attention to this next bit. He was manifest in these last times.

For.

Your sake. I need to remind everybody that 1st Peter is part of that body of the New Testament known as the Catholic epistles, the universal epistles. Peter didn't say these things to the church at Rome or Ephesus or Thessalonica or Colossae.

He wrote this to the church at large, and so note then, Christ was manifest in these last times for your sake, for your sin, for your salvation, to give you a hope, so that today, even though you're in lockup, you have nothing to be sad about.

You have everything to rejoice over, because Christ's triumph, he is risen, and he has done this for your sin and for your justification, so that you now have peace with God. See, through him, through Jesus, now, you are believers in God, not because of a decision you've made, but because Jesus has made a decision for you.

For through him, we are believers in God, and he has raised him from the dead and has given him glory. Why? So that your faith and your hope are not in yourselves or in your government, but in your God.

So then, having purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, and what does it mean to obey the truth? Then to believe it, to believe the truth, that Christ has triumphed, and that he has pardoned you of all of your sins.

Now then, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, seed of man and a woman, not of animal seeds, or grass seeds, or seeds of plants, or trees, or anything like that.

All of that is perishable, but you have been born again through the living and abiding Word of God. God has raised you from the dead, given you life and salvation, regenerated you, and so all flesh is like grass.

Indeed it is, and its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls. But the Word of the Lord remains forever, and I would remind you that Jesus is the Word made flesh. Indeed, he does endure and remain forever, and so this is the Word, the good news that was preached to you.

So brothers and sisters, this third Sunday of the Easter season, note then that we are called to be attentive to the Word of God, to gladly hear and learn it, and embrace it in all of its majesty, in all of the messages given to us.

And the most important thing is, is that good news, that we have been forgiven, because Christ has redeemed you, redeemed me, redeemed Israel, ransomed us from sin, death, and the devil, and he is risen.

He is risen indeed. Alleluia.

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And again, thank you for listening.