Walking with Jesus on the road to Emmaus - Luke 24:35-53

As I've uh just mentioned in my prayer,

um hopefully the response of this

morning's uh message will be that we

worship. I've left a little bit longer

at our time at the end of the service, a

number of songs to help us worship

rather than just our regular one or two.

That's just to warn you. Um we've been

going through this uh series, as I've

said, um since before I came to this

church. So today feels like a bit of a

historic event to me. Anyway, the final

sermon in Luke to celebrate. We are

going to have a little quiz.

So um it's a very simple one. You if you

think it's true, you put your hand up

when I say. If you think it's false, you

put your hand up when I say. So I'm

going to give to you a few questions

here. Octopuses have blue blood. Put

your hands up if you think that's true.

Put your hands up if you think it's

false.

Okay, it is in fact uh true. They do

have blue, very dark blue blood. Uh,

next one. The human brain generates

enough electricity to power a small

light bulb. True. Put your hands up.

True. Put your hands up if you think

it's false. Some of you aren't voting. I

can see you're cheating. The answer is

true. Your brain generates electricity.

Okay, here's one for the Scottish people

amongst us. Scotland has 401 different

words for snow. Do you think that's

true? Hands up if you think that's true.

Hands up. Hands up if you think that's

false.

Okay, it is in fact false. There's 421

words. And examples are I can't

pronounce these. I apologize. Snore,

feeful, fender, and splitters. So, I

don't I don't know what I've said that

awfully, haven't I? I'm sorry. But there

we go. So yeah, 421 words for snow is

true. Bananas are slightly radioactive.

Do you think that's true or do you think

that's false?

Okay, no one thinks that's false. Okay,

they they are slightly radioactive. They

contain potassium 40. A tablespoon of

honey represents the lifetime work of

about 12 bees. Tablespoon full of honey.

You think that's 12 work? Some of you

think that's true. Okay, put your hands

up if you think that's false.

Okay, it is indeed false. They can only

produce a teaspoon, not a tablespoon.

Okay, last one. There are more trees on

Earth than stars in the Milky Way. Put

your hands up if you think that's true.

There's more trees on Earth than there

are stars in the Milky Way. Anyone think

that's true? One or two. Do you think

that's false? Most of you think that's

false force. It's actually true.

Apparently, the estimate is we have 3

trillion trees on the Earth versus only

100 to 400 billion stars. So, anyway,

none of you got that all right, did you?

Put your hands up if you think you got

that all right.

One, Josh got it all right. Well done,

Josh. Yay. Fantastic. But sometimes true

things can seem hard to believe. And

when we come to the physical

resurrection and ascension of Jesus into

heaven, it can seem hard to believe. It

certainly was for these first disciples

because uh just because something is

out of the ordinary, it doesn't mean

it's not true. It was hard for them to

believe, but just because it was

unusual, just because it's hard to

believe, it doesn't mean it's not true.

So this was on the same day that Jesus

rose to life. And then Jesus shows up to

prove beyond a doubt this is no illusion

he really did fully and physically rise

to life. And we're going to look at that

in our first point. We've only got two

points this morning. So physical proof

is our first point.

There's no PowerPoint. Did I forget to

put it up there? Oh, that's a shame.

That's my bad. Okay. Anyway, n in 1984,

the highly successful film called

Ghostbusters was released and had a

catchy theme song that went something

like this. If there's something strange

in your neighborhood, who you going to

call?

>> Ghostbusters.

>> I didn't know if you're going to do

that, but well done. And then it goes

something like, I ain't afraid of no

ghost. Whatever you think about the

film, it does tap into humanity's fears

that reach back into the most ancient of

times. So, the ancient Mesopotamians,

so around 3,000 to 2,000 BC, they

believed in ghosts and they believe that

they were the um spirits of of dead

people.

Many other cultures throughout history

have had similar ideas. And our modern

stories still work on the idea that a

ghost is the um the spirit or the soul

of someone that's died and has become

separated uh from their body, detached

from their body. Even the Bible hints at

strange things a little bit like that.

So there's the account in 1 Samuel where

King Saul speaks to the spirit of Samuel

after Samuel's death. So there's

something going on there, isn't there?

Now lest we develop an unhealthy

interest in these things, we need to

remember the Old Testament as strictly

forbids in Deuteronomy chapter 18, it

Deuteronomy 18 · chapter mention

forbids mediums,

spiritists, and attempting to contact

the dead. Uh it says there, "Anyone who

does these things is detestable

to the Lord."

So, I'm not trying to

get you interested in these kinds of

things. We we must hear the warning. It

is detestable to the Lord. It's not my

intention to explore theology of ghosts

this morning. Um, but to clarify, the

Bible doesn't teach uh about that. It

doesn't teach that the spirits of the

dead people roam the earth haunting

people. That that's not what the Bible

teaches at all. But it does teach that

at death our soul or our spirit

separates from our bodies at that point

of death. To illustrate that very

quickly, Genesis 35:16 says um when

Genesis 35:16

Jacob's wife Rachel was dying, her soul

was departing.

So the body was dying and the soul was

departing. Or as Jesus said to the dying

thief, "Today you will be with me in

paradise." Clearly not physically

because his body was going to hang there

dead on the cross. Today you will be

with me in paradise. So his spirit would

be with Jesus in paradise.

Steven the first Christian martyr as he

died he prayed Lord Jesus receive my

spirit. So although his body would be

broken and dead his spirit would go to

be with the Lord. And Paul had the same

desire. He his desire was to part to

depart and be with the Lord be with

Christ. Philippians chapter 1 23. So the

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

clearly the Bible speaks about a

separation of body and spirit and that

is what humanity has been innately aware

of for thousands of years. Even if that

truth is mixed in and muddled and

confused and distorted by all the

fiction we attach to that at the heart

of it is a truth, a biblical truth. And

so it's against that backdrop that when

the disciples see this dead man walking

they jump to the assumption it's a

ghost.

They are according to John 20 24 they

they they're behind locked doors. They

are in fear for their lives from the

Jews. They are feeling jumpy on edge.

What is going to happen? And then

suddenly

Jesus is there. They had only discovered

about the empty tomb that morning. A bit

earlier in the day, Peter had seen the

risen Christ. We've already seen um last

week how the two disciples have returned

from Emmas to share the good news. They

had seen the risen Christ.

But it's all a bit bewildering and and

baffling. And as a group, they haven't

come to any firm conclusion. They they

don't know what to believe. Some have

seen him, some haven't. It's very

confusing. And suddenly Jesus is

standing there right in front of them

like a ghost, like a spirit. The Bible

says,

"Were they all chill about it? Oh,

Jesus, we were just talking about you.

Come in, have a seat." No, that's not

how they responded. Verse 37, but they

were startled and frightened and thought

they saw a ghost. The Greek word for

startled there means terrified.

The Bible repeats itself. They were

terrified. They were terrified. That's

how they felt about seeing Jesus. They

were genuinely frightened at his

appearance. And so Jesus's first words

are highly appropriate. Verse 36, "Peace

to you."

Now, that was a common greeting of the

day. Peace to you. But on the mouth of

Jesus is much more than just a hi guys,

you know, I'm here. For Jesus is the

bringer of peace. He is the bringer of

peace between man and God.

And for Jesus, his for the disciples,

his appearance means there can be a new

peace in their troubled hearts. They

were full of grief and sorrow and loss.

And Jesus appears and says, "Peace."

He brings them real peace at a time of

turmoil.

And those disciples, how did they feel?

They had fled. They had deserted. Some

of them had disowned Jesus. What does he

do? Does he accuse them?

He brings them peace.

This is what the risen savior brings.

Peace. Peace into the most inner parts

of our our our souls.

They certainly needed that because they

think he's a ghost. And they can't sing

along. I ain't afraid of no ghost.

because they are very much afraid. So

Jesus gently rebukes in verse 38, why

are you troubled and why do doubts arise

in your hearts? He's already appeared to

some of them, but there's still a lot of

fear and doubt and confusion. And so he

offers them some physical proof. First

off, the fact that he's there among

them. If Jesus had just appeared to an

individual here, an individual there,

and just a load of individuals so that

they never saw him together, well, you

know what we're like, don't you? You

start to doubt yourself. Did that really

happen? Was I dream? Did I Did I imagine

that I saw Jesus?

But as Jesus appears to the group all

together, this is clearly not a mass

dream or mass hallucination.

So they see him together. It's proof

one. A and they don't just see him. They

they can hear him speaking. So the

physical voice box of Jesus is still

working and recognizable. This isn't

some ghost without a physical voice box.

He's speaking to them. Proof, too.

But more than that, verse 39, see my

hands and my feet that it is I myself.

Touch me and see. For a spirit does not

have flesh and bones as you see that I

have. He shows them the stigmata. So the

marks, the nails, scars in his hands and

feet. This is no impersonator.

It's really Jesus. You can see, look,

look. He's saying, "Look at my hands.

Look at my feet. Look at the marks."

He's inviting them to reach out to touch

him. And Greek means to to grab hold of

there. They could feel his arms, his

muscles, his bones, the temperature of

his skin, the roughness of the scars.

Interestingly, Jesus doesn't deny that

spirits exist. Rather, he proves he's

not a mere spirit. He is physical.

But they're still reeling from the

events of recent days. Remember, it's

only been 3 days since they had seen

Jesus crucified.

They can vividly recall. It's etched.

It's burnt into their their minds

what happened. How the crowds crying out

for Jesus's crucifixion.

They can still remember the the great

fear that just

crippled them. The shouts, the

heartbreak. They can still see the blood

and his lifeless corpse.

That's so fresh for them.

But now he stands before them and they

know this is totally unbelievable.

That's why we get this strange phrase

that reads a bit oddly in verse 41. And

why are they still disbelief for joy and

we're marveling?

They're in this state of believing but

disbelieving.

He's there. They can see him. They take

they can touch him. They can hear him.

Their hearts are bursting with joy

because he's actually there. They're

happy. And yet, how can this be? It's

impossible. How can he be there? But he

is.

So Jesus shares another piece of proof.

He's asking for some food to eat and he

eats in front of them.

Spirits or cadaavvers don't eat, but

physical living beings do.

So this wasn't easy to believe

and yet Jesus proves it to be true

and that is good news for us. 1 John 3:2

1 John 3:2

tells us we will be like him. So when we

die, yes, our spirits depart from our

body. We go to be with the Lord. But

Romans chapter 8 11 says, "If the spirit

Romans 8 · chapter mention

of him who raised Jesus from the dead

dwells in you, he who raised Christ

Jesus from the dead will also here it is

give life to your mortal bodies through

his spirit who dwells in you." So just

as Jesus physically rose from the dead

and had a physical body, so will all of

those who are in Christ, we will rise

from the dead in that sense and be given

a a physical body. When Jesus returns,

all will be made new. You will be given

a real new body that is recognizable,

that is truly truly you. It's not just a

shadow of you, not just a a part of you.

You will be truly you. You will not

spend eternity floating on clouds or

haunting people. You will be fully human

but perfected and glorified.

Some people

deny that Jesus rose physically from the

dead, but you can't get around this

passage. Jesus appeared.

He spoke. He heard. He could be touched.

He was recognizable. He ate.

And as bonkers as it sounded even back

then, Jesus went out of his way to prove

he was really physically raised from the

dead. And that is the promise of God to

all who are in Christ, too. That is your

future if you're in Christ.

So Jesus gives them physical proof. And

as important as that is, that's not all

he gives them. He's going to give them

scriptural proof, too. And that's our

final point this morning. scriptural

proof.

The Bible is comprised of 66 books

written by around 40 different authors

over a period of around 1,600

years. It's written in three different

languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic.

Composed on three different continents,

Africa, Asia, and Europe. And many of

the authors didn't know each other. They

never met each other. And yet the Bible

is marked by a striking unity.

But the Bible is essentially a story

about Jesus.

And Jesus reminds them of what he had

been saying to them when he'd been with

them. So halfway through verse 44, that

everything written about me in the law

of Moses and the prophets and the psalms

must be fulfilled. Those three different

categories are essentially a way of

summing up everything that is in the Old

Testament. is Jewish shorthand for

referring to the whole of the

scriptures, the Old Testament

scriptures. Everything written in the

Old Testament about him had to be

fulfilled. Jesus's mission wasn't an

afterthought. It wasn't a plan B. It was

carefully predicted and woven through

the entire revelation of the Old

Testament.

Now notice in verse 45, then he opened

their minds to understand the

scriptures.

You see, despite having been with Jesus

for these three years, having been

taught by the best teacher, and having

seen all these things that they saw, in

some way, they still needed their minds

opening to understand the scriptures.

It's similar to what Jesus had to do to

the two disciples on the way to Emmas.

They needed their spiritual eyes

opening. They they hadn't got it. The

penny hadn't dropped.

And you know, it's possible to read the

Bible as a merely academic text. It's

possible to read it as just one of many

religious uh manuscripts.

You can be fully versed in the words and

the language, but you can miss the

meaning. We need our eyes opening.

Most of you know that I like science

fictiony things like Star Trek and

Doctor Who and all that sort of stuff.

At sometimes the um the actors have to

say some impressive sounding lines like

um we need to reverse the polarity of

the neutron flow. That sounds really

impressive, doesn't it? Or um there's a

multifphasic temporal convergence in the

space-time continuum. Woo, that sounds

exciting. But what do those words mean?

Not a lot, actually. They just sound

sort of sciency, but they don't actually

have much meaning at all. And without

God opening our minds, the words of the

Bible are just words and their meaning

can be lost on us. So Jesus has to open

our minds. He has to open their minds.

And and when when we read scripture, we

are to come uh to scripture with

humility and with prayer. So when we

come to scripture, we say, "Lord, open

my mind to what you are saying. Help me

to understand. help me to take it in.

Because the gospel and what God says in

his word is not grasped by merely

intellectual application.

It needs to be grasped through spiritual

discernment. So 1 Corinthians chapter

2:14,

the person without the spirit does not

accept the things that come from the

spirit of God, but considers them

foolishness and cannot understand them

because they are discerned only through

the spirit. Do you see that? Cannot

understand them because they are

discerned only through the spirit. And

this should inform our witnessing. It's

great to be at the the men's uh games

evening and to see some visitors amongst

us, but as we think about like the

future events, who we're going to invite

and everything, what what would we

really need to be doing? Praying that

the Lord would open people's minds to

his revelation, to his word, that the

spirit would give them understanding.

This is why clever people, they can read

the scriptures, but they can't accept it

because it's spiritually discerned. Do

we need God to open our eyes to the

truth?

So, having opened their minds, Jesus

gives them a summary of the Old

Testament teaching concerning himself.

And we're going to observe this under

five um subheadings. I apologize the

PowerPoint's not there. They were going

to be nicely laid out for you, but

you're just going to have to work that a

little bit harder. So, we have five

subheadings we're thinking about this

morning. First is the work. So, you can

write that down if you're taking notes.

Number one is the work. How was our

salvation achieved? Uh halfway through

verse 46, Jesus says that the Christ

should suffer and on the third day rise

from the dead. That is the basis. That

is the heart of the gospel that Jesus

died on the cross and he he took our

sins on himself. He paid the price fully

for our sin. And since death is the

wages of sin, so sin's there, it

deserves death. Since death is the wages

of sin

and since that was totally paid by

Jesus, it would be unjust for Jesus to

stay dead because he paid the price

fully. So he didn't need to stay dead.

So on the third day, he was raised to

life. That was an action that vindicated

Jesus. It was his justification. It was

God saying, "Jesus has paid it all. He

before me, he is right. He stands right

before me. The sin has been dealt with.

And so it goes now that all those who

are now in Christ, Christ has been

justified. He's been vi vindicated. All

those who are now in Christ, his right

standing before God becomes our right

standing before God. So that's why you

get this verse in Romans chapter 4:2. It

says, "He was delivered over to death

for our sins and he was raised to life

for our justification.

He was declared to be right before God.

And because we're in him, we are

declared to be right before God. In

other words, God says of his son, he is

right before me. And therefore, anyone

found in Christ, they are right before

me, too.

So, how do we know? How do we know that

we're right before God? Because Jesus

was raised to life for our

justification. And the scriptures

pointed to this. So Psalm 22, I'm not

going to read that, but you can look at

that. It's full of u pointers towards

Jesus suffering. Isaiah 53 of course as

well, they speak about his death and

suffering. And the Old Testament

predicts the Jesus's resurrection as

well. So Psalm 16:10, for you will not

Psalms 16:10

abandon my soul to sh or let your holy

one see corruption. And of course in

Isaiah chapter 53, it shows how the

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

suffering servant is going to be

punished. He's going to die. And yet it

speaks about how he he's off he will

have offspring and enjoy prolonged days.

So even there there's a hint that that

will not be the end of the Messiah. And

there's many pictures and types in the

Old Testament that point to uh the

Jesus's death and resurrection to his

work that saves us. So that's subpoint

number one, the work that's what Jesus

brings out uh the teaching of the old

Old Testament there. Point number two,

following the work of Christ is the call

of Christ. That's subhead number two,

the call of Christ. So that we we find

that in in verse 47. Jesus says, "And

that repentance for the forgiveness of

sins should be proclaimed in his name."

They were to proclaim the need for

repentance.

Repentance is sincere confession and

turning away from our sin.

Jesus accepts us as we are in all our

sin, in all our mess, in all the the the

the stuff that we do, but he doesn't

leave us there. He calls us from it. He

says, "Turn away from that and turn

towards me and follow me instead." And

and the Old Testament is full. is

replete of calls for repentance. So

Isaiah 55:7

Isaiah 55:7

says this, "Let the wicked forsake his

way and the unrighteous man his

thoughts. Let him return to the Lord

that he may have compassion on him and

to our God, for he will abundantly

pardon."

So you see in that one verse, you've got

the two ideas there. Jesus is speaking

straight out of the Old Testament there.

Repentance has always been the call of

God to sinful people.

That is part of the call of Christ to

us. We need to turn our back on our sin

and turn towards the Savior. We need to

repent. And as I said that that verse

also speaks about the promise of

forgiveness too. He will abundantly

pardon. He will abundantly

pardon. That is the call of Christ.

Repent and you will be abundantly

pardoned, forgiven.

Third subtitle is the audience. So who

is this for?

Jesus says to all nations

beginning at Jerusalem. For Jerusalem.

And again, we find this in the Old

Testament. This was always God's plan.

Salvation. It came from the Jews, but it

wasn't just for the Jews.

is what God promised to Abraham. Genesis

Genesis 22:18

22:18, "And in your offspring shall all

the nations of the earth be blessed."

Isaiah 45:22, "Turn to me and be saved,

Isaiah 45:22

all the ends of the earth." Do you see

how wide the plan for salvation is? All

the ends of the earth. He carries on for

I am God and there is no other. There's

plenty other references throughout the

Old Testament, too, but you get the

point. Jesus isn't just making this up

on the spot. This has always been the

plan of God. This is the heart of God

that Malachi chapter 1 vers 11 that his

Malachi 1 · chapter mention

name will be great among the nations.

Who are the nations?

All peoples anywhere, everywhere,

whether they are in Jerusalem, India or

England, we all need to hear the call to

repentance and the promise of

forgiveness.

And that brings us to our fourth

subpoint, the witnesses.

Verse 48, you are witnesses of these

things. Now, of course, that was first

and foremost spoken to the apostles

right then and right there. But did

Jesus expect those 11 uh men to be able

to witness to all the nations by

themselves?

Seems a bit of a bit of an ask really,

right? 11 men go and evangelize the

entire world. Now the point is as they

proclaim the call of Christ and others

believe they join as witnesses to the

truth. I mean, yeah, the apostles were

the eyewitnesses

and they had a special and unique

ministry. But what we see in Acts is as

the believers, as the church grows and

spreads out, they all obey the court of

Christ to witness to the truth, witness

to Christ.

Not all of them were preachers, not all

of them were miracle workers, but they

could all talk to people around them

about Christ. And if you think about it,

there is a thread between every single

believer here and that early church that

early early disciples. There was a

thread between you and them in some way.

So um that th those apostles and early

disciples,

they spoke to others, they told others,

they told others. And throughout

history, that has trickled down

throughout the centuries. uh believers

who have faithfully and bravely and

sometimes at great costs shared the

gospel and that ends up where we are

today at North Bradley Baptist Church.

Now we have this call to witness for

Christ.

That call is upon you and me to continue

to reach out to all nations.

And those nations might be found in your

own home.

They they might be in your classroom or

your office or your gym. Or it might be

that God is calling some here to go

somewhere else to take the gospel.

We live in a very multicultural

um world now, don't we? So we can reach

the the the world kind of from our own

area. But actually uh maybe there are

some that need to go somewhere else.

Whoever you are, whatever your gifts,

you have a part to play. You have

something to do in this to witness to

the truth of Christ.

But it's scary, isn't it? And they were

scared, too. We get scared.

But we're not alone in this. And this is

our final subpoint here. They're not

alone because Jesus promised them the

power, the power to fulfill the command

he's just given them. Verse 49.

And behold, I am sending the promise of

my father upon you, but stay in the city

until you are clothed with power from on

high. It's a it's an interesting phrase,

clothed with power from on high.

And this was fulfilled on the 50th day

after Christ's resurrection. The Holy

Spirit fell upon the apostles and

transformed them from men who were

hiding and waiting to men who were

empowered and on a mission. And the Holy

Spirit is given to all who respond to

the call of Christ. At Pentecost, when

the Holy Spirit had come upon the

apostles, Peter stood up and he preached

a sermon. And the people were cut to the

heart and they said, "What must we do?"

And listen to to what Peter says. It's

very close to these exact words that

we've just been studying about Jesus

that the commission of Jesus. So if

you've got a Bible, have a flick over to

Acts chapter 2. I love to hear the

Acts 2 · chapter mention

rustle of pages or the tap of buttons as

you change your reference there. Acts

Acts 2:38

chapter 2, verse 38.

And Peter said to them, "Repent." There

we are. Repent and be baptized every one

of you in the name of Jesus Christ for

the forgiveness of your sins and you

will receive the gift of the Holy

Spirit. So there he calls for repentance

and baptism that pictures that spiritual

union that happens with Christ. So he

says in his name. So we everything he's

done it within what he's done for us is

in his name and then you are forgiven.

Forgiveness is given and the the gift of

the Holy Spirit is given too. This is

the spiritual reality for all who hear

and respond to the call of Christ. We

are forgiven and we are given the Holy

Spirit. But we might think well is is

that just for those back then at that

point who were hearing just just right

then. But but look at the next verse.

Verse 39. In Acts 2:39, Peter continues,

Acts 2:39

"For the promise is for you and for your

children and for all who are far off,

everyone whom the Lord calls the the

Lord God calls to himself."

So this is for us.

But even then, this giving of the Holy

Spirit is not something Jesus just

invented or thought about on the the

spur of the moment. As Peter himself

points out in that Pentecost sermon, he

quotes from Joel's prophecy and it's

there in Acts chapter 2:1 17 and in the

last days it shall be God declares that

I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.

In the Old Testament, we see that

certain people were clothed with the

spirit or given the spirit for for

certain times and instances, but it

looks forward to that that other the New

Testament time when God pours out um his

spirit on all who are in Christ. And

that is our reality even today. So Jesus

taught the apostles how the scriptures

point to him. He's looking back saying,

"Look, that had to happen. That's

fulfilled in me. And then this is the

application for the future." He was the

promised messiah who came to save to

deliver. That's the work of salvation.

Remember the work of salvation. And then

that that issues and the call of Christ

to repentance and forgiveness. Who is

this for? The audiences to all people,

all nations starting at in in Jerusalem,

then to all nations. Who's going to tell

him about it? Who's the witnesses? First

of all, the apostles. But then that

carries through to every believer,

everyone that's saved. And then we don't

rely on our own self on our own power or

our own clever words but on the

eyeopening lifechanging power of the

Holy Spirit. And all of that was

promised in the Old Testament.

So there's the the the the um proof the

scriptural proof of the mission of

Jesus.

As we begin to draw to a close

at this point, it's worth noting Luke in

these last bits is uh presenting a

highly abridged

account of what went on. Luke himself

writes in his second volume. So in Acts

uh in Acts chapter 1:3 he says Jesus

presented himself alive to them after

his suffering by many proofs. We've

thought about some of them appearing to

them during 40 days and speaking about

the kingdom of God. Now, if we were to

read our passage in isolation, we might

conclude that Jesus turned up on that

night, said those things, and then led

them out and ascended all on that same

day. But actually when you see the

greater or what what um Luke himself

writes in Acts, we see that what he has

been condensing in this Luke part is

actually spread out over 40 days. Jesus

appeared to them um over 40 days. And so

it seems fair to understand the end of

Luke is highly truncated summary of

events. Jesus appeared, he proved

himself, he taught them and then he

ascended. But those things, these events

we're reading, they took place over 40

days.

So verse 50

takes place at the end of those 40 days.

Jesus leads them out to the Mount of

Olives that's near Bethany. He blesses

them and as he blesses them, he's taken

up from them. And in his resurrected

state, we we would if we we looked at

all the the different gospels, we'd see

that Jesus seems to appear and disappear

at will. He just drops in as he wants to

and does his bit and then he goes. And

so the disciples were never really sure

when Jesus was going to appear next. But

at at his ascension,

that is more final. He's taken from them

in a way that they can see him going. It

doesn't just disappear. They can see

him. They watch him going. That this is

final. His final blessing. And his

stunning ascension is so that they knew

that was it. He has now returned to the

father for good. They shouldn't be

waiting around expecting him to pop up

again. No, now he has returned and this

is the beginning, the start of your

mission. What he told you about?

He will return. But when he does, that

will be to begin the final phase of this

age. So where is Jesus right now?

He's been welcomed into heaven as the

triumphant victor. His mission that was

planned from eternity that was sown

throughout the scriptural witness that

is accomplished. He's now restored to

his rightful place at the right hand of

the father where he sits and that part

of his work has now been done and now he

reigns and he is worshiped and he is

adored. And interesting that

interestingly that is the response of

the apostles. Verse 52 did you notice

they worship him.

That is a staggering statement. Maybe

not for us, but but back then that was a

staggering thing. They worshiped

Jesus.

That's huge.

Luke wrote um his gospel to Theophilus

1:4 that you may have certainty

concerning the things that you have been

taught. And throughout his gospel, Luke

has been confronting us with the

question, who is this Jesus? And we see

it's taken some time for the apostles to

actually get to it. But it seems they

they've got it now. Jesus is the savior.

It was prophesied about the one who had

to suffer. Jesus is the Messiah. He is

both the son of man and he is the son of

God. Jesus is Emmanuel. He is God with

us. For Jews to worship anyone else but

God would be idolatry. It's punishable

by death.

But now they understand, they've got it.

They understand who Jesus is. And so

they worship him.

They are filled with joy. They

continually meet to worship.

To worship Christ was the practice of

the apostles.

It was the practice of the early church.

It's the practice of heaven, too.

Revelation 5:13-14

Revelation 5:13–14

John writes, "And I heard every creature

in heaven and on earth and under the

earth and in the sea and all that is in

them saying to him who sits on the

throne and to the lamb

be blessing and honor and glory and

might forever and ever." And the four

living creatures said, "Amen." And the

elders fell down and worshiped.

When we understand who Jesus is and what

he's done, the only right response is to

fall down and to worship.

We don't follow a dead savior or a

ghost. We worship the risen Lord.

Well, let's just be quiet for a moment

and then when they're ready, the band

will lead us in a time of response, in a

time of worship.